Brazilian chef, Eduardo Maya is the creator of Comida di Buteco – an annual month-long bar food festival celebrated in Brazil during April. Originally just in Belo Horizonte, he decided to create a contest that would revitalise the local snack bars, so characteristic to the city.
Today, 12 years later, the competition has spread across the whole country with 16 cities in Brazil participating.
Now Eduardo Maya is a partner of the Comida di Buteco competition and spends the entire year visiting numerous bars and pubs, selecting potential participants for future contests. The four recipes below are a selection of what the festival has to offer visitors.
Chicken with corn (by Eduardo Maya)
Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 whole legs of chicken (thighs and drumsticks)1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Olive oil
7 corn on the cobs
1L of chicken stock
Pinch of salt and black pepper
Handful of chopped parsley
Remove the corn from the cob, leave aside.
Season the chicken and leave for about 20 minutes.
Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil, add chicken and brown. Pour in the chicken stock and add the corn. Cook until chicken is tender. Add the cream at the end and serve.
Sprinkle with parsley for garnish.
Mushrooms stuffed with pig ears and prosciutto (by Eduardo Maya)
Serves 8
Ingredients:
16 medium mushrooms (remove stems and keep separate)3 pig ears cooked diced, ham (prosciutto) diced (1/3 of the amount of ears)
1/2 clove of garlic, crushed
1 onion, diced
Chilli pepper, chopped (optional)
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup of dry white wine
Cheddar cheese
Extract of quitoco
500ml broth
Butter
Pinch of salt and black pepper
Slices of prosciutto
Mushroom sauce
Brown mushrooms in butter and set aside.
Sauté the onion, garlic, black pepper, chilli pepper and the stems of the mushrooms in olive oil, add the ham and sauté some more. Add the pig ears, stir and glaze with wine. Simmer till reduced and add quitoco, check the seasoning and remove from heat.
Stuff the mushrooms, cover with cheese and brown on low heat with the chicken stock, butter, salt and black pepper.
Serve with slices of prosciutto and a mushroom sauce.
Stuffed cabbage (from Belo Horizonte)
Ingredients:
250g of pinto beans, cooked "al dente"
250g of semi-smoked sausage, diced
250g bacon, diced
250g of cassava flour
2 eggs
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp of crushed garlic
Crackling, diced
4 bunches of cabbage
3 bunches of green onions
Pinch of salt and black pepper
Brown the bacon in its own fat until crispy. Add the sausage, onion and garlic. Once everything is well browned, add the eggs, wait a few minutes and stir until very fluffy.
Add the beans, flour, turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper. Lay aside and keep warm.
Blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling water with 1 teaspoon of oil, a pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate. Do the same with the onions. Lay aside.
To assemble:
Remove stems from cabbage leaves and slice into quarters.
Put a tablespoon of beans mixture and a bit of crackling in the centre of the leaf.
Roll into a ball and tie with chives.
Trim the ends and secure with a toothpick.
Baked bean dumplings (from Rio de Janeiro)
Ingredients:
2L of water
1lb of black beans
100g of dried and salted beef, diced
100g diced smoked pork
100g of salted or smoked ribs
1 sausage, diced
3 bay leaves
2 tbsp of oil
3 cloves garlic
300g fine cassava flour untoasted
1 tbsp of starch
2 packs sliced cabbages
250g diced bacon
2 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Plain flour for coating
Preparation:
Add the beans, meat and bay leaves to 2L of water and cook in a pressure cooker. Cook for about an hour.
Add the cooked beans with the broth and meat to the blender and wizz into a paste.
Heat the olive oil, brown the garlic and cook the beans mixture in a large saucepan, season with salt. Gradually add the cassava flour stirring continuously until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool.
Once cooked, add flour and mix until smooth, lay aside.
Brown the bacon with the garlic in a skillet, add the cabbage and sauté for two minutes. Shape dough into small balls, add bacon and cabbage mixture in the middle and flatten. Coat in flour and fry in hot oil.
Place the dumplings on a platter with slices of orange rind and a dazzle of lemon.
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