Maniçoba

Do you know maniçoba is?

Well, maniçoba is one of the most important dishes of Paraense cuisine. It is also called “feijoada Paraense”.
Maniçoba is an exotic food made with manioc leaves boiled with water during seven days to eliminate toxic substances.
This dish originates from an indigenous culture. In the past, the indigenous people made this food on special occasions. Similarly, today it is traditionally served during the religious festival, called “Círio de Nazaré”.
The procession of Círio de Nazaré is celebrated in almost every municipality in Pará, but the most famous one occurs in Belém on the second Sunday in October.
If you want to taste it, but you don’t want to wait until October to do that, how about learning how to cook this delicious typical Paraense food?

Recipe for Maniçoba

Preparation time: 7 days

Serving size: 25 portions

Ingredients

3 kg of ground manioc leaves

½ kg of bacon

½ kg of dried meat

½ kg of Portuguese sausage                               Some of the ingredients used to cook it

½ kg of Paio sausage

½ kg of roasted meat

½ kg of Pork loin

Minced garlic (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

How to prepare

On the first day, put the ground manioc leaves in a large pot with some water. Let it boil all day on low heat without drying out. Repeat that every day for seven days.

On the sixth day, boil all of the meat, and add it to the ground manioc leaves, stirring occasionally.

On the following day, add the garlic and pepper to the pot and let it boil for 6 more hours, stirring occasionally.

 

  

Serve with white rice

Don’t be scared by the first impression because despite its dark look it has a delicious taste!

Come visit Belém, where you’ll enjoy getting to know our touristic points and tasting our delicious food!

Monteiro Lopes

History

Monteiro Lopes is a delicate cookie made with chocolate and covered in sugar crystals. It is a typical cookie from this region. Its name is a tribute to the family that created the recipe.

Between 1850 and 1870, in Santa Maria de Belém do Grão Pará (Belem’s old name), there were two bakers: one on the oriental Ver-o-Peso side and the other on the occidental side. One was Manoel Monteiro, a mulatto, and the other, Antônio Lopes, a Portuguese. They were rivals, and, traditionally, each one produced cookies with different tastes and colors. Their kids, after their fathers died, married and stopped being rivals. They brought together the colors and the flavors into one cookie,which is called Monteiro Lopes.

You can taste these delicious cookies in any bakery. So, if you are coming to Belém or you plan to travel, you can enjoy Monteiro Lopes!

Ingredients

500g of wheat flour

250g of butter

Pinch of salt

3 tablespoons of sweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons of water

5 tablespoons of sugar

How you make it

1. Mix the flour, butter and a pinch of salt in a bowl until the mixture becomes a dough-like consistancy;
2. Next, start making small quarter-sized balls, then roll them into crescent-shaped strips
3. Place on an ungreased baking dish without covering in sugar;
4. Bake for approximately 25 minutes;
5. They will be ready when they become golden brown;
6. Remove from oven and let cool;
7. Meanwhile mix three scoops of chocolate and 2 tablespoons of water at room temperature in a cup;
8. After the cookies cool, take each one and dip it only halfway in chocolate;
9. After doing this cover each cookie in sugar.

Açaí: The Delicious Fruit From Pará

 

Açaí (Euterpe oleracea, Mart.) is a typical Amazonian fruit found mostly in Pará. The biggest production of açaí is in Abaetetuba, Cumbu island and Igarapé-Miri. Açaí has a long harvest, starting in August and finishing in December.

The açaí fruit is important because it contributes as a source of income to the “ribeirinhos” (the people who live by the rivers) by improving Pará’s economy.

Consuming the açaí fruit is more than just a nutritious habit, it is also a cultural habit in Pará. In the culinary world, this exotic fruit is consumed with salted shrimp and fried fish, and it is also made into ice cream.

This fruit has become known around the world for its bioactive compost, principally for its fenolic compost. The anthocyanins in açaí are natural antioxidants, and this fruit also contains many vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and omega 6 and 9. These properties of açaí help to prevent chronic degenerative diseases and cardiovascular diseases.

This small fruit, only about 1 centimeter with a purplish-black color, has many benefits. Anyone who tries açaí fruit also tries our culture and tradition. We invite you to come to know this wonderful fruit and experience its benefits!

Pato-no-tucupi

History

One Amazon legend called First Water tells us that Jacy (the moon) and Lassytatassu (Dalva star) decided to visit the earth center (Ibiapité) .

One night they left Ibacupuranga (the beautiful sky) and went down to the earth center. When they were about to arrive at the center, CaninanaTyba (snake) bit the white Jacy’s face.Jacy felt pain, and shed bitter tears on a big crop of manioc. Since then, Jacy’s face has never been the same.

The tucupi was created from Jacy’s tears. It is dangerous! It is poisonous! But the oldwomen discovered two ways to get rid of the poison in the tucupi. The first way is to expose the liquid for three days to sun light. The other way is to leave the mixture alone (for approximately one day) to allow the sediment to settle out, after which to boil the liquid for one or two hours.

What is it?

One of the most famous dishes from Belém do Pará, Brazil, Pato-no-tucupi is prepared and appreciated once a year, in an event called Círio de Nazaré, which is considered our Christmas.

Círio without pato-no-tucupi is not Círio. So, the importance of this dish is not only culinary, but also cultural.

Tucupi and jambú are key ingredients that are combined to create a taste incomparable to anything else. Tucupi is a yellow juice extracted from manioc. Since the tucupi is poisonous, it has to be boiled to get rid of the poison. Jambú is one vegetable commonly utilized in Para’s cuisine, known for its taste and for making your lips go numb and tingle.

So, what are you waiting for? Come to visit Belém do Pará to eat this fabulous dish!

Círio de Nazaré: It is a traditional and religious event that has been celebrated in Belém, Pará for over two centuries. It happens on the second Sunday of October. People from different regions of Brazil and even from other countries come here to participate in this event; a million people go out into the streets to follow the image of NossaSenhora de Nazaré, Jesus’s mother.

Ingredients

- One big duck

- Two liters of tucupi

- Six leaves of chicoria (Cichoriumendivia.)

- One spoon of salt

- Leaves of alfavaca (Ocimumamericanum)

- 3 cloves of garlic

Chicória: Vegetable with a strong smell and an incomparable taste, often utilized in certain dishes in Pará, like caldeirada.

Alfavaca: It’s commonly used in Paraensecuisine, but it is also used in the cosmetic industry and in folk medicine.

How you make it

In one little pot with water in the botton of it, cook the duck with one tomato and one chopped onion, colorau, some leaves of alfavaca, chicória and a pinch of salt. Cook until the meat is soft. After, put the duck in the oven to roast on high temperature. After it is finished roasting, quarter the duck.Put it aside. In another pot, boil the tucupi, add chicoria and alfavaca leaves, some cloves of garlic and salt. Put the duck and jambu together. Let this mixture boil for ten minutes. Serve with white rice and farinhad’água .

Colorau: It is a regional spice with a red color, and people from Belém usually use it to spice their foods.

Farinha d´água: It is made from manioc. The manioc is tritured and squeezed. After it is roasted in a big fournace, we can have farinha d´água.