Brazilian lunch on the second day of Semana Santa

As I have indicated it in my previous post, I was planning to spend the second day of Semana Santa with my Brazilian friend preparing some traditional Brazilian food.

I left home quite early so that I can help her with the cooking process and so that I can take notes about the recipe for the future. We were both very hungry by the time we started the preparation, which made us hurry up a little bit, but the outcome was fortunately not affected by that. As the main course, we prepared empadao, a delicious Brazlian chicken pot pie, which is one of the most typical dishes of Brazilians. It is made of from a homemade dough filled with a tasty chicken and vegetables – but most often olive – filling. I have also brought you the recipe so that you can all add it to your cooking list.

Empadao

Ingredients for the dough:

• 1 tablespoon of heavy cream,
• 2 tablespoons of milk,
• 400 g sifted flour,
• 200 g butter (unsalted, cold and cut into chunks),
• 1 egg,
• 1 egg yolk
• Salt.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil,
• 0, 5 kg chicken,
• 2 cloves garlic,
• 1 onion,
• 1-2 dl canned tomato,
• 1-2 Boullion cubes + a small amount of water/ chicken stock,
• Salt,
• Pepper.

Preparation:

1. We started the preparation by mixing all the ingredients necessary for our dough. When we obtained a homogenous dough, we put it aside and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour.

   

2. Meanwhile, we started to make the pie filling. Our first thing to do was to season the chicken with salt and pepper and then to cook it properly in abundant water as if we would have been preparing it for chicken soup. When it was ready, we poured the water off the chicken. We left the chicken in the pot and started to shake it hardly, so that it fell into small pieces. In case of some bigger pieces remained, we just used our own hands to tear them apart.

   

3. The next step was to take a sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat and start to cook the onion until softened. Then we added the garlic as well and cooked everything for another minute. After this, we poured about 1-2 dl canned and diced tomato into the pan with a little water and right away we added the chicken and the boullion cubes as well. The latter and the water can be substituted by the chicken stock. We were stirring the filling continuously – which is very important – and then seasoned everything again. While still stirring our filling, we took 4 tablespoons of flour in a small bowl and mixed it with a small amount of water. This also ended up in our pan. The last step was to cut some olives into small pieces and add them as well.

   

4. After another couple of minutes of stirring, we took the pan off the fire and we let the filling cool down. If you want to speed up the process a little bit, you can put it in the fridge – this is how we did too.

   

5. While the filling was getting cooled down, we started to roll the dough, which we took out of the fridge about 15 minutes before rolling. Then, we were working the dough for a while, always from the centre towards the edges. When this was done, we had to cut the dough into two and then started to unroll one of them in a pan up the sides.

   

6. Then, when the filling was finally cold enough, we spread it evenly.

   

7. At this point, we took the other half of the dough and covered everything with it. In order to achieve a nice gold colour, we greased some egg yolk on the top and then our chicken pot pie was ready to be baked in the oven.

   

8. We preheat the oven to about 200 degrees, and when it was hot enough, we put our pie inside. We left it there for a good 30 minutes. Within this period of time it should be ready but in case it is still not cooked enough, just put it back for another 5 minutes.

   

   

While the empadao was in the oven, we started to prepare a yummy-in-the-tummy Brazilian dessert, the petit gateau, of which main ingredients is dulce de leche. Also, find the recipe here:

Petit gateau

Ingredients:

• 200 g of dulce de leche,
• 100 g butter,
• 2 eggs,
• 2 egg yolks,
• 0, 5 cup (tea) sifted flour,
• 0, 5 cup (tea) sugar.

Preparation:

1. Our first thing to do was to cook the dulce de leche. The dulce de leche – or in Portuguese “doce de leite” – is a Latin-American culinary specialty that is basically a caramelized milk cream made of cane sugar.

   

2. So what we had to do was to take the whole dulce de leche can and place it in a pot, and pour some water on it until it reaches the top of the can. We used a special pot quite common in Spain and Brasil as well, and with that we let it to be cooked for 20-25 minutes, but I believe that using a normal pot, a little bit more time is necessary. Also, be very careful when taking the can out as it is really hot. My Brazilian friend burnt herself a couple of times while preparing this dessert.

   

3. As the outer part of the can always gets more cooked, it is advised to give it a stir before working with it. So we just poured everything in a bowl and used an egg-beater to mix the mass properly. Since the dulce de leche was still hot for us, we added the butter immediately, but in case you let it cool down more, just heat it up in the microwave. Then, we added the sugar and the eggs as well, and we left the flour to the end, which we were pouring gradually while stirring the mixture continuously. As the last step before baking, we put the mass in the fridge for 15 minutes.

   

4. Afterwards, there was nothing special left to be done: we distributed the mass into muffin paper cups and put it into preheated oven over 180 degrees. Actually, the taller the cup, the better, so that the middle of our cakes did not get baked that well and when we start to eat them, there will still be some liquid dulce de leche.

   

5. We left the cakes in the oven for 8 minutes, but unfortunately, it was a little bit overcooked, so in the next round, we left in only for 6 minutes. Anyhow, be there close so that you can supervise the process and make sure it reaches the ideal condition.

   

6. We served our 'petite gateau' with ice icreams and the result was absolutely delicious! However, I also have to tell you that it is a very sweet cake that might not be tolerated by everyone. Furthermore, we prepared an alternative dessert as well: we baked some crepes and filled it with the remaining dulce de leche, which we also served it with ice cream. So you have two different options.

   

Although we were aiming for a day that is centred around Brazilian culture, we decided to watch "Ocho apellidos vascos". So after filling our stomach with freshly made empadao, we grabbed the petit de gateau cups and a huge box of ice cream and settled down in the sofa in the company of a funny and entertaining Spanish movie.

I really had a lot of fun!

Of course, the second day of Semana Santa was not over yet, but what I have experienced during the evening is worth another post. To be continued …

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