Brazilian · Side
Farofa de Dendê
- Easy
- 15 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with aromatics blooming from the first bite, wood-smoke running underneath, lifted green at the very end.
Ingredients
- 200 g coarse farinha de mandioca torrada
- 60 ml dendê (unrefined red palm oil)
- 40 g unsalted butter
- 150 g onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 eggs
- 10 g parsley, chopped
- 5 g salt
The skills inside
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned
Allergen screen
Found: dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Melt the butter with the dendê over low heat until the fat is uniformly orange and just fluid; never let it smoke.
- Sweat the onion and garlic in it until translucent and sweet, with no colour on the garlic.
- Beat in the eggs and scramble them into small curds, then rain in the farinha from a height while stirring.
- Toast, stirring constantly, until every grain is orange and dry and the pan smells nutty; it should pour rather than clump.
- Season, fold in the parsley and take it off the heat while still loose, since it tightens as it cools.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes
- No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
- The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
- The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
- The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
- It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.
Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre)
- Also Right
- Grüner Veltliner
- From the Taps
- Berliner weisse
- Zero-Proof
- Cucumber-lime water
Green plates want green wines: vinaigrette’s acid meets its match, and the difficult vegetables surrender to Grüner.
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