Tag Archives: Brazil

Endeavors: Dancing with the Chef’s Table (Samba)

For the Chef’s Table that occurred last night the theme chosen was Ballroom Dance styles… courtesy of moi. 🙂

So what were the dance styles that people were allowed to pick out of the hat? Well they include:
– Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Tango, Argentine Tango, Foxtrot, Quickstep
– Rumba, Cha Cha, Paso Doble, Samba, Jive, Swing (East Coast or West Coast), Mambo, Bolero
– Polka, Two Step

Why not Salsa? Too easy… that would have been waaaaaaay too easy. Besides the Salsa is sometimes known as the lazy man’s Mambo because the Salsa hits on the down beat (1 and 3) whileas the Mambo hits on the off beat (2 and 4). Yes, I am that kind of a geek… so sue me…

But not really sue me.

So I managed to pick the one dance that I claim to be weakest at: Samba.

And I also managed to pick the course that I would have a gloriously difficult time with: Soup!

Salad would have been soooo much easier.

Whenever someone in the dancing world shouts “Samba” the immediate connection is the Brazilian Carnivale… aka one big massive party. Which led me to having a party in your mouth… which lead me to fireworks… aka Pop Rocks!

Right, a recipe that uses Pop Rocks… I am so getting shot.

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Recipe: Artichoke Soup

Another attempt on the savory menu during the Bake-a-thon was Artichoke Soup (though technically ours would be better described as Spinach-Artichoke Soup but who is really paying attention here?

Anyway… from the website Examiner.com we have:

Ingredients:
6 cups chicken stock
12 articoke hearts, chopped
1 white onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
6 Tbs. yellow cornmeal
2 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs. cilantro

Directions:
1: In a medium saucepan over medium heat combine the chicken stock, artichoke hearts, onion and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook 30 minutes.

2: In a medium bowl whisk together the milk and yellow cornmeal. Whisk this mixture into the soup until it is smooth.

3: Add the remaining ingredients into the soup and cook 5 minutes before serving.

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Recipe: Cheese Bread (aka Pão de Queijo)

Another recipe my friend and I worked on during the Bake-a-Thon was Cheese Bread… or more precisely: Brazilian Cheese Bread (aka Pão de Queijo). So how is this any different from a popover? Well in general:
– Popover is a light, hollow roll made from an egg batter typically baked in muffin tins
– Bread is prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients, such as butter or salt to improve the taste.

After sifting through plenty of recipes I settled on one that I found via AllRecipes.com.

Since there was no tapioca flour on hand traditional flour was used instead… what happened in the end was that our version of the about (though tasted fantastic) didn’t look like the picture. Hmm… How did ours look? Well from my friend’s Facebook Wall…
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