Monday, September 14, 2009

Happy Brazilian Independence Day! Brigadeiro & pão de queijo recipes.


Last Monday, 7 de Setembro, was Brazilian Independence Day. So two nights ago, my friends and I celebrated it with a Brazilian dinner (it was their first), complete with cachaça & caipirinhas, pão de queijo (little cheese balls with the most delectable gummy texture), feijoada (Brazilian national dish), palmito (heart of palm - my very last precious jar I hand-carried back from Brazil, I absolutely love this), and of course...some brigadeiros!

Hand-painted bottle of artesanal cachaça we hand-carried from Parati
Caipirinha de limão
Pão de Queijo - these are seriously 2D4! I could live on these!
Salada de palmito & vinagrete (to accompany the churrasco/barbeque over charcoal)
Xin xim de galinha (we also had moqueca)
Dora the explorer helped us out in rolling out the brigadeiros (typically they are rolled all around in chocolate sprinkles)

Ok, we did not eat these! Earlier in the day, as hubby was trimming the overgrown jasmin bush/hedge in our front garden, he stopped in time to see this gorgeous bird's nest in the vines/hedge, look at the gorgeous little eggs (they look like Easter eggs)! Thankfully he was able to trim around it so that it remained hidden...

Feliz dia da Independência!


Brigadeiros (the easy/microwave method)

Ingredients

1 can of condensed milk
1tbsp of butter
4tbsp of chocolate powder
1 packet of chocolate sprinkles
Little paper cups

Method
  1. Place all ingredients in a deep bowl and mix with a spoon.
  2. Place in microwave on 'high' for 2 minutes, stir, repeat for further 2 min, stir, repeat once more, until it is homogeneous.
  3. Remove the mixture from the microwave, and wait for it to cool, roll them into small balls (you may need to 'butter' your hands), roll it in the chocolate sprinkles (preferably the long kind not little dots, if you know what I mean), place in little paper cup, and enjoy! I'm not sure how many one batch makes, I usually double or triple, and then don't count them, as I end up eating them as I roll them, haha!

34 comments:

  1. Happy independence day! It looks like such a scrumptious feast :)

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  2. Happy Independence day... I so love the food you featured. I haven't tasted any of those yet but they look so yummy from the photos you took.

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  3. oh, i'd love a recipe for the pao de queijo! I remember having it at a brazilian restaurant and when I made a batch at home from recipes found online and they were really really tough and rubbery.

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  4. Are you Brasilian? Happy Independence day!.
    I love Caipirinhas :D
    Nice day!!!

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  5. Happy Independance Day! I love your photos! Yummy!

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  6. That bottle is AMAZING!

    Happy independence day to you!

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  7. Woohoo, happy independence day! There's no better way to celebrate than with fooood!

    <3 Christine
    What Was I Thinking?

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  8. wooooooow. I'm so jelous, i adore latin food.
    what are brigadeiros made out of? they look interesting1

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  9. Que dia lindo!!!
    Só há das coisas mais gostosas daqui!
    Amo comida brasileira, claro, e tbm caipirinhas! No entanto, ultimamente, a bebida se tornou um pouco forte para mim! Por isso, estou amando tomar licor de Amarula de vez em quando! Um verdadeiro néctar sul africano! hehehe

    Mil beijos e tenha uma semana linda!

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  10. Wow, the food looks absolutely delicious...happy Independence Day indeed! This has made me keen to visit Brazil and taste all their culinary delights authentically! Otherwise any suggestions for Brazilian cuisine in Australia (and in particular Perth...I know I'm pushing my luck here!).

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  11. Feliz dia da Independência or Happy Independence Day!

    Giiiiirl, you have an eye to take BEAUTIFUL
    pictures of food!!!!
    Or I should say: you and your family are know for sure how to cook the most delicous creations ( i call it couture food ;)!!!
    mmmh...the yummy brigadeiro´s with chocolate sprinkles make my heart beat faster!

    Have a beautiful day, Brigadeiro!!!!

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  12. Happy Independence day.Everything looks so yummy.

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  13. happy independence day!!! As usual, your food photos are making my mouth water :-)

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  14. Dora cupcakes, so cute

    ebbiemag.blogspot.com

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  15. For sure your pictures tell that you know how to celebrate life... so inspiring...

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  16. Thank you so much for your sweet comments everyone! :)

    WJ - I only know of Brazilian restaurants in Sydney/Melbourne, no where else :( Haven't been to one in years though, so am hesitant to even recommend those (they were Rio's & Copacabana). My cousin, who lives in Sydney, was going to take me to a Brazilian cafe, must go there next time, I hear they may sell Brazilian foods/groceries, and I cannot find 'heart of palm' or guarana (softdrink) anywhere.

    H - : Hubby & I were wondering the same thing (what kind of birds those eggs are from), guessing from the birds around our house, I was thinking just a little brown bird (whereas near my old house, there were gorgeous grey/pink birds or beautiful blue/green/red/yellow rosellas).

    Kira - Como morro de saudades da comida brasileira! Pena que nao tenho farinha de mandioca pra fazer farofa, meu marido adora farofa! Concordo que as vezes caipirinhas/cachacas sao muito fortes, entao peco por mais e mais gelo/agua pra adicionar na minha bebida :)

    Anonymous: I wrote my recipe (from the top of my head, so hope it's ok) for pao de queijo, if they were hard, do you think you cooked them for too long? Or maybe not enough oil/butter/liquid? I made the most humungous triple (or quadruple?) batch once for my engagement party, but didn't have enough tapioca starch, so couldn't roll them in balls, my mother-in-law ate it from the humungous bowl thinking it was DIP! Haha! Who has dip in such a humungous bowl?!? I salvaged it the following day (took me a while to figure out what was wrong with the dough), so sometimes it requires tweaking ;) Ah! Now when I get home after work, I'm baking a few more, I could eat these all day everyday! :)

    Ofelia: I wasn't born in Brazil, but grew up there since the age of 11 months, so consider myself Brazilian :) I'm the only one in my immediate family without a Brazilian passport, but I tell my sisters I'm more Brazilian than them, as I lived there longer (as I'm the eldest, haha).

    xx
    CC

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  17. Happy Independence Day to you and your fellow Brazilian. =D And that little Dora is so cute! =D

    Summer
    A Writers Den
    Brown Mestizo

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  18. looks delicious:) these pictures are making me really hungry!:( seriously now i want some too:(

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  19. happy brazilian independence day ! those food look yummy :)

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  20. That bottle is beautiful. Also, looking at those yummy spreads make me regret all the terrible junk food I'm eating! ;)

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  21. Another lovely post. Your kitchen looks beautiful - can't wait to see you do an interior design post. Happy Belated Brazilian Independance Day.

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  22. wowwww another fantastic food post, mhhhhh Happy independence day!!!!!!I would love to invite me to lunch one day pleaseeeeee, thanks for the comment a muaa

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  23. Hola! Espero pasaras buen día! Qué buena pinta tiene todo!! MMmmmmm...

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  24. Happy Independence Day!! Everything look delicious! Yum!! xoxoxo

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  25. I have a lot of Brazilian friends, one of them is a chef and taught me how to make Brigadeiro. I just would keep it in my fridge and eat spoonfulls of it out of the dish I made it in. DELICIOUS!!!

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  26. Looks so good. Your kitchen/apt (what little I glimpsed) looks cool . . .

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  27. Ah, sadly, The Photodiarist & Anonymous - that is not my kitchen! :( We tend to use my friends' house for these 'cookovers', as they have two young kids, so it works out easier - plus, as you have noted, the kitchen is gorgeous & spacious! No, mine is small, ugly and from the 80's...hence I recently wrote I would love a 'kitchen & bathroom renovation'... :) My friends' kitchen would be my dream kitchen (they only renovated/extended their house in the last few years too)...

    xx
    CC

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  28. ooooh ilove the food(L)(L) so lovely!
    x

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  29. Happy independance day !
    I love feijoada ! I have been to brazilian parties with my friend Victor. Home made feijoada was much better than at the restaurant !

    The little eggs in the nest look so sweet !

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  30. Clarice, este post me deixou com agua na boca!!! Adoro pao de queijo e brigadeiros:)

    re: De nada, fico feliz que as dicas tenham sido uteis;) O hotel que me hospedei era ao lado da fontana, as fotos foram tiradas de manha bem cedo:)

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  31. happy independence day!! those eggs are just too precious!

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  32. mmmm yummy...this all looks so delicious! just grabbed a bottle of leblon cachaca today--i think i'll get started now :)

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  33. Ahhhh que lindo seu blog e seus comentários sobre o Brasil! É tão bom ver coisas assim, como seu blog e ler esses comentários, pra nós brasileiros que moramos no Brasil e infelizmente nao damos tanto valor a pequenas coisas como essas... pao de queijo e brigadeiro! rsrsrs Tenho certeza que basta nao termos mais essas opções para darmos valor as delícias e inúmeros prazeres gastronômicos que temos por aqui.
    parabéns pelo blog! Foi a primeira vez q tive acesso e certamente nao será a única!
    bjs da nova "amiga brasileira"
    Dani

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