Rio de Janeiro: the cookbook, 208pp.
by Leticia Moreinos Schwartz
Kyle Books, London, 2013
Cooking on page 132
What a fun book. I’m sure I would have bought this if it had been on the bookshelves in Rio when I was there in late 2012 and again in mid-2013.
But I never saw this book anywhere in Brazil, so I was pleased to be able to check it out from the local library this week. The recipes look good and authentic, and the locality photos are fantastic and bring back lots of memories. I might have to own this book for myself. I promise not to steal it from the library.
Leticia Schwartz has divided it into 12 chapters that cover recipes and views of different regions of Rio and its surrounds. I love the cover, which reflects the colourful mosaics at the Lapa Steps that I wrote about in my travel blog.
Today I’m cooking on page 132 because page 32 is a tribute to farmers’ markets in general and, especially, the one in Ipanema.
This recipe is in the chapter on Barra da Tijuca. The Barra is a poor neighbourhood that is being transformed in the lead-up to the 2016 Olympics. Their food doesn’t need any transformation.
Red berry fruit juice (Suco de frutas vermelhas)
Ingredients
80g strawberries
60g raspberries
60g blueberries, cherries or blackberries
250ml water
3 tablespoons sugar
Method
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend for about 3 minutes until very smooth.
Pour into a tall glass and serve immediately.
How it played out
Made this with strawberries and raspberries that I bought, and blackberries that Poor John and I picked. Most of the blackberry bushes near us have been sprayed (poisoned) so I’m reluctant to tell you where we found these tasty specimens. If you drop by next blackberry season, we’ll take you there to help us pick more.
We don’t have huge sweet-tooths, so I cut the sugar back to 1 1/2 tablespoons (more than enough). Poured into three small glasses. I drank one straight and Poor John mixed the other two with soda water for his own long fruit drink.
Verdict
Delicious, easy-to-make and a great source of vitamin C. Don’t expect the processing to give you a completely smooth result unless you strain the puréed fruit. Personally, I like getting the extra fibre.
What's cooking on page 32 
I made a smoothie with strawberry and rolled oats before. Yours should be very declious and I cannot wait to try at home.
Thanks for dropping in. Your smoothie combo sounds great. Hope you enjoy this version. Stop back and let us know. 🙂
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Sounds divine and just what I like. Berries have to be my favourite dessert (or even frozen to snack on in Melbourne’s sizzling hot summer).
BTW I’ve made minted berry sauce to put over berries for a dessert which you might like to try. Since it was an experiment of mine with fresh mint, you’ll have to use your imagination to make it but there a photo of it in this post on my old blog https://victoriaaphotography.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/how-to-do-food-photography-before-you-eat-the-subject/ Just blend berries with sugar (you’ll know quantities being such a good cook) and stir over low heat with enough fresh mint leaves to flavour it to make the sauce and serve over fresh berries with a sprig on mint to decorate.
and did I ever share this recipe with you when I was playing around with food photography https://victoriaaphotography.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/caponata-siciliana-food-photography/
you might like to try both when you get home to Oz).
Oh wow, Vicki, thanks for these links. Love the topic of the first one. I really need to improve my food photograph skills.
P.S. I love berries too, especially raspberries. Yummo!
I spoilt a lot of food trying to learn how to do food photography, Peggy. I kept cooking it fully (for example) and it dried out, or collapsed. I learned to cook it only about 85% so that all the colours were fresh & bright. Next, try and get natural daylight on one side, not overhead artificial light. If the window is too bright, put a sheer curtain over it to soften and make the light even. Then there’s painting it slightly with either water or olive/vegetable oil a tiny bit. I’ve learnt lots of tips and now follow a really good food photographer. I used to follow a few, but got so hungry viewing the posts and couldn’t afford to buy the ingredients to make the recipes, so had to unfollow them. That’s why I can no longer do food photography. No spare money.
Thanks for the tips. I confess that I don’t over stress about the photos. For the travel blog, I capture what I can. For this blog, I’m often cooking on the fly and in non-ideal circumstances. It would help if I could get Poor John to eat his main meal at lunch time, but that’s not likely to happen, so I hobble on. 🙂