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Recipes with malagueta or bird's eye chilli

4 recipes that use malagueta or bird's eye chilli, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Moqueca de ovos, takes 35 minutes. It is most often cooked with garlic, onion and coriander.

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Xinxim de galinha

Cooked for Oxum's feast days in the terreiros of Salvador and on ordinary Sundays in Bahian homes, xinxim de galinha is chicken braised in a thick, golden sauce of ground dried shrimp, peanuts, cashews, ginger and dendê oil. It tastes nutty, a little smoky from the palm oil and quietly savoury from the shrimp, and the sauce clings to the meat rather than pooling. Serve it with white rice, farofa de dendê and a bowl of caruru alongside. One common slip is adding the nut paste too early, so it sticks and scorches before the chicken is cooked; it goes in for the last 15 minutes. Chef's tip: use bone-in thighs and drumsticks rather than breast; they stay juicy through the braise and their gelatine gives the sauce its silky body.

85 minBrazilianChickenGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Caruru

Every 27 September, homes across Salvador and the Recôncavo cook huge pots of caruru for the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian, and children are fed first; the rest of the year it turns up at acarajé stalls and on Bahian Sunday tables next to vatapá, rice and xinxim. Okra is chopped very small and cooked down with a paste of dried shrimp, toasted cashews and peanuts, ginger and onion, then finished with dendê oil until it is thick, glossy and gently sticky, nutty and faintly of the sea. Serve it with white rice, farofa de dendê and acarajé or abará. Most people make the mistake of slicing the okra into big rounds; cut tiny it melts into the sauce instead of sitting in slimy chunks. For a vegetarian caruru, skip the shrimp and use 40 g more of each nut. Chef's tip: toast the cashews and peanuts in a dry pan until they smell of popcorn before grinding them; it makes the stew taste deeper and less green.

65 minBrazilianCurriesGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Arroz de cuxá

Green-flecked, sharp and nutty, arroz de cuxá is the signature rice of São Luís, served in Maranhão homes and seafood restaurants with fried fish, torta de camarão or a simple fried egg. The sourness comes from vinagreira, the leaves of the roselle hibiscus, cooked down into a thick cuxá sauce with dried shrimp, toasted sesame and a little cassava flour, then stirred into fluffy white rice. Roselle leaves are sold as gongura in Indian grocers and as sorrel leaves in Caribbean shops; spinach with lime juice is a mild stand-in. The common error is under-cooking the leaves, which leaves them stringy; they should collapse into a dark, soft purée. For a vegetarian version, leave out the shrimp and add a spoonful more sesame. Chef's tip: toast the sesame until it just turns gold and starts to pop, then grind it while warm so it releases its oil into the sauce.

55 minBrazilianRice & Grains
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moqueca de ovos

When fish money runs short or it is a meatless Friday, Bahian kitchens make moqueca with eggs instead: the same orange sauce of coconut milk, tomato, peppers, coriander and dendê palm oil, with whole eggs poached right in it until the whites set and the yolks stay soft. It is everyday food in Salvador and the Recôncavo, cooked in a clay pan and carried straight to the table with white rice, farofa de dendê and a spoon of pimenta sauce for those who want heat. The sauce is mellow, slightly sweet from the peppers and rich from the coconut, and the runny yolks thicken it on the plate. The usual mistake is stirring after the eggs go in; they break and turn the sauce cloudy, so cover the pan and leave it alone. Chef's tip: add half the dendê at the start and the rest just before the eggs; heated too long it loses its nutty, floral perfume and only the colour remains.

35 minBrazilianVegetarianGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with malagueta or bird's eye chilli