AI-generated image
Paçoca de carne de sol
Paçoca de carne de sol: sun-cured beef fried, shredded and pounded with toasted cassava flour and onion
Not the peanut sweet of the same name: in Ceará, Piauí and Maranhão, paçoca is a savoury, fluffy tangle of fried carne de sol pounded with toasted cassava flour and onion in a big wooden pilão. Cowboys of the sertão carried it on long rides because it keeps for days, and today it is served at roadside restaurants and at home with baião de dois, boiled macaxeira, ripe banana and a cold glass of cajá juice. It should be dry, crumbly and full of crisp beef threads, salty and deeply savoury. The thing that goes wrong most often is adding the cassava flour to a wet pan, which turns it into paste; the beef must be fried really dry first. Without a pilão, a large mortar or short pulses in a food processor do the job. Chef's tip: let the pounded paçoca rest for ten minutes before serving; the farinha soaks up the beef fat and the texture turns soft and fluffy.
- Total time
- 65 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
Shop this recipe on Amazon
What you'll need
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (3)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Put 1 ⅓ lb carne de sol (sun-cured salted beef) and 1.5 litres water in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer on a medium heat for 30 minutes until the meat is tender and cooked through. Drain and cool slightly.
30 minStep 2: Cut the beef into 2 cm pieces and pat them very dry with kitchen paper.
Step 3: Heat 5 tbsp vegetable oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and fry the beef for 8–10 minutes, stirring, until deep brown and crisp at the edges. Lift out with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat.
10 minStep 4: Fry 2 onions and 4 cloves garlic in the same fat on a medium heat for 6–8 minutes until golden.
8 minStep 5: Lower the heat, add 10 ½ oz farinha de mandioca and stir for 3–4 minutes until it smells toasty and has absorbed the fat.
4 minStep 6: Pound the beef in a large mortar or pilão in batches, adding the onion farinha as you go, until the meat breaks into fine threads mixed through the crumbs. A food processor on short pulses works too; don't turn it to dust.
Step 7: Stir in 4 spring onions, taste and add ½ tsp salt if needed. Rest for 10 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 430 kcal
- Protein
- 30 g
- Carbs
- 42 g
- Fat
- 15 g
- Fibre
- 3 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does paçoca de carne de sol take?
- About 65 minutes in total: 20 minutes to prepare and 45 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of onions?
- 2 shallots per onion.
- What can I use instead of garlic?
- ½ tsp garlic paste or ⅛ tsp garlic powder per clove.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Pork souvlaki
This is a pork recipe. Walk through any Greek town after dark, from Athens to Thessaloniki, and the smell of souvlaki stands drifts down the street; cubes of pork shoulder grilled on thin skewers are the country's favourite cheap supper, eaten standing up or at a plastic-table taverna. At home you marinate the meat in lemon, olive oil, garlic and dried oregano, grill it hard and fast, and pile it on warm pitta with tzatziki, tomato and red onion. Chef's tip: cut the pork into even 2.5 cm cubes and leave a little fat on; lean loin dries out, shoulder stays juicy over high heat.
Greek
Tteokgalbi
Tteokgalbi is rib meat chopped finely, pressed back into neat slabs and grilled, so it's soft enough to eat without struggling with a bone. Two places in South Jeolla claim it: Damyang, the bamboo county, where all-beef patties come with rice steamed in bamboo tubes, and Gwangju's Songjeong district, whose restaurant street near the railway station mixes beef with pork. This home version uses minced beef and pork, seasoned with soy, garlic and pear, then brushed with a soy and honey glaze as it cooks. Serve with rice, lettuce and a few banchan; leftovers are good cold in a lunchbox. Chef's tip: slap the mince against the bowl for a few minutes; it turns sticky and the patties hold together on the grill without any breadcrumbs.
Korean
Char siu
Hanging in long glossy strips in the windows of Guangzhou's siu mei shops, char siu is the roast pork Cantonese families pick up on the way home to put on rice, noodles or into steamed buns. The outside is lacquered, sweet and a little charred at the edges; the inside stays juicy, savoury and faintly scented with five-spice. Shoulder (pork butt) is the cut to use, because its marbling keeps the strips moist through a hot oven. Marinate it overnight in the fridge, roast it the next day and eat it warm with steamed rice and blanched greens, or cold in fried rice and noodle soups. Chef's tip: save the honey for the last ten minutes; brushed on at the start it burns black long before the pork is cooked.
Chinese