Brazil: Moqueca and Pão de queijo – Global Adventures in Food and Archaeology

Last year I learned how to make moqueca, a Brazilian seafood stew from the Bahia region. This May cold snap in Colorado made me crave something warm, so I decided to re-visit this recipe. I am also decided to make pão de queijo (cheese bread) because I love the unusual texture it has from the tapioca flour.

Brazil is an incredibly diverse country and, as a result, there is no universal cuisine or style of food preparation. This reflects regional differences in history, geography, climate, and ethnicity. However, both moqueca (pronounced mo‧que‧ca) and pão de queijo (pronounced pown-deh-KAY-zho) are well known in Brazil; and while vastly different in texture, flavor, and composition, their origins both stem from the complex interactions between Brazil’s indigenous, African, and Portuguese-Colonial populations.

States of Brazil. This post references Bahia, Espirito Santo, and Minas Gerais.

Moqueca Baiana originates from the coastal State of Bahia and another version, typically called moqueca capixaba, from the State of Espírito Santo. While both are seafood stews, the moqueca capixaba omits the coconut and dende and is usually served over a manioc porridge called pirão. I decided to make the Bahia version for this post.

The Bahia region is renowned for its vibrant Afro-Brazilian culture. Because of Bahia’s African qualities, the region and its cultural traditions have often been stigmatized in the context of poverty and racism. However, growing interest in the vibrant history and rich traditions of the region has resulted in an almost reversal of treatment. Now, many aspects of Bahia, which give the region a unique identity, are touted as rich components of Brazil’s cultural heritage.

One of the most important cultural elements of the Bahia state is its food. The cuisine of this region is a fusion of foods and cooking styles from Europe, the Americas, and Africa; but, the cuisine of Bahia is perhaps best known for its African qualities as these characteristics set it apart from other regional cuisines in Brazil. Because of this history, the food from Bahia can be framed as representing the African diaspora, slavery, and indigenous histories. The complex and often forced interactions have resulted in the development of many flavorful, unique, and important dishes, moqueca included.

Moqueca itself is a simple stew with a depth of flavor. In this version, it is usually made from a base of coconut milk, tomatoes, lime, onions, garlic, cilantro, pepper, and dendê oil (a palm oil), with various types of fresh seafood, first marinated in a ceviche like mix of lime, hot pepper, and cilantro in (think shrimp, crab, mussels, whitefish, and shark), mixed in. Traditionally, the stew is slowly cooked in a terracotta pot for many hours, giving it its characteristic bubbly appearance. The stew is then served over rice and a polenta made with cassava flour and dendê.

All these ingredients represent a veritable mix of cultures. Cassava, various types of peppers, and tomatoes were domesticated in South and Central America upwards of 10,000 years ago. The use of acids to marinate fish in place of heat, also known as ceviche, is thought to originate in Peru and is a staple of South American cuisine. The African flare to the dish comes in with the addition of both the coconut and the dendê. Coconuts were brought to Africa via the Indian Ocean and then to the Americas during the conquest, colonization, and the slave trade. Interestingly, coconuts appear to have been domesticated twice! Once along coasts of India as well as in Southeast Asia. Likewise, dende oil has a complicated history. It is a staple of many West African cuisines and is the most produced edible oil worldwide. It is a thick, dark, reddish-orange, strong-flavored oil extracted from the pulp of a fruit of a palm tree grown in Africa and in Brazil. Notably, the use of African palm in Brazil is an important example of landscape transformation during the Colonial era.

Even the terracotta pot the dish is cooked in, also known as a Brazilian Clay Pot or Panelas de Barro Capixaba, has an important history. This style of pot represents indigenous cultures and is synonymous with the dish. These black pots are traditionally made from a mixture of black clay and mangrove tree sap, then fired over an open flame. They have been made for centuries by the indigenous people that inhabit the coastal regions.

Today, moqueca is served at special occasions, holidays, parties, and as an everyday meal.

Next up, pão de queijo. Pão de queijo hails from the inland state of Minas Gerais. Here, the indigenous Guaraní peoples utilized the native cassava (also known as yuca and manioc) to make various foods, bread included. Cassava, a root crop, was domesticated in the Amazon region of South America as far back as 10,000 years ago. The root crop quickly spread north into Central and Mesoamerican, becoming a major food source of many prehistoric civilizations.

Dr. Sheets with cassava (manioc) root tuber in El Salvador

Easting cassava; however, is no easy measure. The root contains hydrogen cyanide (HCN), which is toxic. Therefore, it must be heavily processed, such as by fermentation or soaking in water, before consumption. Once processed, the root is transformed into an edible food source with a wide range of applications. Particularly popular is tapioca (the name for the starch extracted from the roots of the cassava plant), similar in a way to flour. The base of pão de queijo is this tapioca starch, which gives these cheese breads their chewy texture.

While cassava consumption predates the conquest, it quickly became a staple to the conquistadors upon their arrival. When the Portuguese moved inland into Minas Gerais, Brazil following the 17th-century gold rush they quickly discovered that most grains could not be grown because of the wet tropical rainforest conditions. Therefore, they adopted the cultivation of cassava.

The origins of bread-ball base of pão de queijo may stem from the 17th-century slave populations brought inland to provide labor during the gold rush. The gold rush in Brazil was no small measure; it is estimated that 500,000 African slaves were brought in during the rush. These communities, which were feed meager rations, likely supplemented their diet with tapioca flour, made into a dough, and then rolled into small balls and cooked.

“Negroes washing for diamonds, gold, etc” (1823). Image from “Gold Discovered“- and from of the John Carter Brown Library’s Archive of Early American Images.

Along with the gold rush, cattle farming took off in Minas Gerais shortly after the arrival of the Portuguese and has become increasingly common through the decades. With cows, and also chickens, came the introduction of eggs, milk, and cheese into Brazilian cuisine, including the salty, aged Minas cheese common in pão de queijo today. Together with tapioca the pão de queijo was born.

This tasty snack is now common across Brazil, sold everywhere from street vendors to supermarkets.

So, what did I learn? I am endlessly astounded at the ways food can tell us about cultures, places, and people. It transforms and is transformed continually from our interactions. In Brazil, foods like moqueca and pão de queijo weave together so many parts of the countries history, its culture, its diversity. And that is pretty amazing.