Total Pageviews

Friday, April 8

"Pão de Queijo"

Literally, it means "Cheese Bread". Tough it was consumed very often in the Brazilian countryside, it was only in the late 40's/ early 50's that it became popular in the big cities. It is made of cassava powder - usually fermented, eggs, butter (sometimes vegetable oil or pork fat are used as to replace the butter), salt and obviously CHEESE! The most common choices are parmesan, mozzarella, and two chesses made in the province of Minas Gerais in Brazil; called "Minas Cheese" (white and soft) and "Regular Minas Cheese" (yellow and hard) the latter being a stronger tasting version of the former. 

Pão de queijo gutoso

The "pão de queijo" is usually baked in the oven and, when properly made, it has a very crunchy crust and a soft and gummy core. Many people cut them in half and add some kind of jam (strawberry being my favourite - it tastes really great!!) or some creamy cheese. There is a fried version as well, known as "cheese biscuit". Tough it tastes pretty good, you can hardly eat lots of them: you will quiqly feel stuffed with them. 

pão de queijo da vovo

Usually, it is eaten with a hot coffe or a cold tea (usually the Brazilian "mate") at lunchtime, in the morning or afternoon. Nowadays it is an extremely popular snack in Brazil. The country exports frozen "cheese bread" to the U.S., Latin America and Japan, among others. The quality is surprisingly good, considering it is a frozen product.. 

2 comments:

Kevin said...

Wow! Pao de queijo looks very yummy. Do you have some recipe by any chance? My family loves cheese.

Cheers pal,
Kevin

Dom Rafa said...

Hello Kevin! Really sorry for the delay. Here you will find a good recipe for this snack:

http://www.sonia-portuguese.com/recipes/pqueijo.htm

I don't know how easy it is to find Tapioca Powder outside of Brazil or if it can be replaced... Take care! =)