Cuscuz paulista

Passport & Plate - Cuscuz paulista

Brazil | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
1 cup of oil
1 little onion, chopped
3 crushed cloves of garlic
1 smoked sausage, chopped
2 peeled tomatoes, finely chopped
1 green sweet pepper, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 chili pepper, chopped
Black olives
Water
300g of corn flour
Salt
Parsley and scallion
200g of peas
200g of heart of palm, chopped
2 boiled eggs

To decorate
1 sliced boiled egg
4 slices of tomato
50g of peas
100g of sardine

 

How to prepare this recipe
In a pan, put the oil and fry the onion, the cloves of garlic and the sausage. Then add the tomatoes, the green sweet pepper, the bay leaf, the chili pepper and the black olives. Finally, add some water and once boiling, remove from heat and set aside until the mixture becomes warm.
In another bowl, put the corn flour, salt, parsley and scallion, the peas, the heart of palm, the boiled eggs and the sardines. Gradually, pour the sauce into this mixture, mixing with your hands until it turns into a moist couscous.
Decorate the “cuscuzeira” (the pan we used to this recipe) with sliced boiled eggs, slices of tomato, peas, the sardine and olives and then put the moist mixture inside. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes. Unmold and serve.

 

The story behind this recipe
In São Paulo, the state where I was born and where I still live, it’s not common to have grandpas “paulistas”, the adjective that indicates who belongs to this place. I can clearly remember that most of my childhood friends used to have Italian nonnas, Japanese old uncles, German ancestor… Of course, that was kind of a sequel to the surge of immigration that took over the country in the late 19th century. However, my mother’s family is genuinely “paulista” and somehow this always has meant “cuscuz” in our table. I’m not talking about the famous Moroccan couscous, usually made with semolina. I’m talking about the “cuscuz paulista”, the one that everybody who is from this land is proud of. Brought by the Portuguese colonizers, the recipe was adapted to our ingredients and started to be made with corn flour – we, paulistas, are a “corn civilization”, according to the renowned historian Sergio Buarque de Holand in his book Caminhos e Fronteiras. So my great-grandmother Carlota learned with her mother how to prepare it and, then, taught my grandma, Inocência, who passed the recipe to my mom, the second Carlota. I, who by the way was supposed to be named Inocência according to the family tradition, have been dreaming about this recipe since I realized that its smell is the one that send me directly to the days when the first Carlota and the unique Inocência were alive. More than that, that smell and the taste of crunch and seasoned flour with sardine and heart of palm take me to a ride into my best definition of happiness. Nevertheless, the second Carlota has never wanted to write me down the recipe. I suspect that's because passing me on this recipe and also the "cuscuzeira", the special pan she inherited as well, means for her that she is getting too old. Anyway, just because of this project, she finally relented. That’s it. I'm now able to prepare the recipe and it is safe again, until my not born daughter – maybe the third Carlota – is grown enough to be taught.