Sign up to IndyEat’s free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releasesGet our food and drink newsletter for freeGet our food and drink newsletter for freeYou’re unlikely to see piranha in the seafood aisle of your local supermarket, but the toothy, carnivorous fish are an everyday staple in the Amazon.“It’s delicious,” says Brazilian-British chef Ixta Belfrage. “It has the fattiness of a mackerel, but not the strong flavour of mackerel – it kind of tastes like seabass. It’s quite thin so there’s not much flesh.”And with a lot of bones, there’s a specific way to slice piranha so you don’t end up with a mouthful of spines.Amazonian river fish “are some of the most bonkers fish you’ve ever seen”, says the 34-year-old. Another popular species is tambaqui, with its big, meaty, fatty ribs eaten in the same way pork ribs would be.“The fish from the Amazon often taste quite muddy, most of the time it’s quite mild, but sometimes it can be quite strong. It’s really interesting.”Belfrage rose to fame under the leadership of famed Israeli chef Yotam Ottelenghi, co-writing his bestseller, Flavour, after she worked in the test kitchen for his restaurants. But you won’t need to try and track down piranhas for recipes in her latest cookbook, Fusão, which marks the context and history of the cuisine of four key areas of Brazil, but offers fusion recipes that are accessible to make at home.For some impossible-to-source outside of Brazil ingredients – like tucupi, a bright yellow liquid extracted from a type of wild cassava (or manioc as it’s often known locally) – Belfrage has designed a way to recreate the flavour with everyday foods.open image in gallery‘Fusão’ reimagines Brazilian cooking with a fusion twist, from feijoada with chocolate and spice to duck in golden tomato broth (Ebury Press)“Tucupi is a very popular ingredient that’s been used by indigenous people for thousands of years. I have no idea how indigenous people discovered it but it’s toxic – when it’s raw it would kill a cow if they ate it. But once you grate it, extract the juice, ferment it and then boil it, it becomes safe to eat, and also completely delicious – like really sour, funky and salty.“It’s used in traditional dishes like pato no tucupi (“one of my favourite dishes,” she says), namely duck cooked in the yellow liquid with jambú, an Amazonian mouth-numbing plant. But thankfully, Belfrage has created her own version in a dish she calls “duck in golden tomato broth”, using a combination of yellow tomatoes, ginger, onion, lime and salt. Who says you can’t have a taste of the Amazon in your home kitchen?She’s determined to show the vast array of Brazilian food (“Most people think it’s either rice and beans or barbecue”), but even that is impossible in one cookbook.“I would describe it as tropical, lots of chillies, incredible fruits, coconut, seafood. But really, it depends on what part of Brazil you are in.“Brazil is such a vast, incredible, beautiful country, and the food changes throughout the country,” she notes. “There are 26 states in Brazil; some are mountainous, some are coastal, some are in the jungle, the desert, and the cuisine changes with the geography. It also has such a rich history – Brazilian cuisine in itself is a fusion of indigenous, African and Portuguese influences. And then there are also so many immigrant populations that have made Brazil their home.”open image in galleryThe Brazilian-British chef made her name with Ottolenghi’s ‘Flavour’ – now she’s carving her own path with bold, untraditional recipes (Pedro Pinho)Especially from the Middle East; the 19th century saw a massive influx of Lebanese people to Brazil, “and there’s also a huge diaspora of Syrians and Palestinians, and all of that has very much influenced Brazilian cuisine,” Belfrage says.The food, in and of itself, is an amalgamation of so many things. “Most classic recipes are a fusion of indigenous, African and Portuguese – and then all those other immigrant populations that have made such an incredible impression of Brazilian cuisine as well” – including Italian, Turkish and Japanese. Kilos (Brazilian buffet restaurants) often have large, elaborate sushi displays.“Everyone and everything in Brazil is a bit of a fusion – including myself, and including all of my family,” says the London-based chef and food writer. Indeed, the book’s Portuguese name translates to fusion in English and Belfrage made a name for herself with her own style of fusion food.“I love being creative with food and putting my own twist on things” – the book’s subtitle is “untraditional recipes inspired by Brazil”, rather than classics.You’ll find charutos with spicy tomato broth and garlic oil, with Lebanese origins and Calabrian-inspired guava, curry and chilli meatballs, alongside dishes you’d be more likely to expect of Brazil (of course, with a Belfrage twist), like feijão with chocolate and spice, stir-fried papaya with crispy basil and chilled avocado soup with spring onion butter.The daughter of a Brazilian mother who grew up in Cuba, and a British-American father who was raised in Mexico, Belfrage spent many years of her childhood in Italy (and now lives in London), but food has become a bridge to Brazil – a way she connects with that side of her heritage.And while Brazil has had an “incredibly traumatic history”, she notes, “food is incredibly important in its culture.”“The national dish feijoada is a black bean and pork stew and something people have every Saturday – kind of like the English tradition of a Sunday roast but much more sacred. It’s also much more soulful – it’s not just a meal, people come over, bring drinks, you’re going to sing together, there’ll be Samba – it’s not just a plate of food.”‘FUSÃO’ by Ixta Belfrage (Ebury Press, £28).
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‘Everything in Brazil is a fusion’: Ixta Belfrage on heritage, food and her new cookbook
