Thursday, August 5, 2010

Tex Mex in Niterói


It’s not as easy as you might think. I went to three grocery stores and could not find jalapeño peppers. And no one had corn chips in bags bigger than lunch snack size.


We were determined. I bought a slightly less-than-ripe avocado. We fell back on pimenta oil, since jalapeños were not available. And like it or not our only corn chip option was snack bags of Doritos corn chips with fake cheese flavor.


But at the end of the day we had luscious nachos with guacamole. Can you say SATISFACTION?


I was hosting a friend of mine who had never eaten guacamole before. Mission accomplished. Smiles around.


UPDATE: all the recipes for this fabulous lunch are now posted at Danielle's "Cooking In Brazil" blog.

10 comments:

The Reader said...

@ Danielle - what is coalhada??? Where do I find this?

@ Jim - I'd love the bean recipe. Those look like good refried beans on top, and I would LOVE to know how you do that.

I can also usually find a kind of doritos that are like tostitos/tortilla chips. In a black bag.

I've got guacamole down, but the beans would be a huge hit if I knew how to do them. Also, where do I find this oil de pimentao? What is it called in Port.?

Jim said...

Reader - The hot sauce I referred to is just Molha de Pimenta or Conserva de Pimenta, but I have a bottle of some fierce hot sauce made in Thailand that a friend gave me. It's basically a bottle of vegetable oil filled with HOT little peppers.

Coalhada is a sort of curtled milk/yogurt. You can get it regular and fat free. It is sold in little yogurt-like cups. In the grocery store near us it is in the cheese section, not the yogurt section. (Looks like yogurt but has a stronger/sweeter flavor.)

I learned to make refried beans 30 years ago (wow, I'm getting old!) when I lived in a vegetarian housing co-op. I'll work up a post and maybe Danielle will put it on her cooking blog.

I'd be interested in seeing your guacamole recipe/procedure. Send it to Danielle, maybe we could post several versions.

Unknown said...

My question is how did you get your nachos to stay crispy? I made nachos and they went all soft! Also, we found the plain doritos but only in small bags. Better than cheese doritos in my opinion... :)

Rachel said...

That is my kind of meal! As always, inspiring me to push my limits in the kitchen. One of these days I'm going to actually do it!

Jim said...

Linds - none of the ingredients are particularly wet. The guac gets slopped on after everything comes out of the oven. Keep it out of a microwave. The oven should keep the chips crispy.

Rachel said...

I just made a Jim inspired meal. Tex Mex in Laranjeiras. Btw, I saw online that if you add a little bit of lemon (I added lime due to lack of options) to the the coalhada, it makes it even closer to sour cream. Totally works!

Jim said...

Good for you! Yeah!

sour cream fan said...

jim! one question, have you found sour cream here in brazil? i looooove sour cream, but haven't been able to find it anywhere! i recently went to a mexican restaurant and they had something that was very similar to it, but not quite the same. i miss sour cream!

Jim said...

fan - I WISH we had sour cream here. Give it up. You will not find it, unless - perhaps - you are in a Mexican neighborhood in São Paulo (if that even exists).

Try the juice of half a lime in qualhada trick - maybe add some salt. Or try the recipe posted on Danielle's 'Cooking in Brazil' blog.

Neither hit the mark -- but that is understandable. But both are better than nothing.

The real challenge is: where to get CORN TORTILLAS!!?!

sour cream fan said...

thanks for the tip, jim! i will be trying that today!
i was at the supermarket last night and i came across a new type of doritos. it's in a black bag with the name "doritos dippas" and it claims to be PLAIN tortilla chips to use with dips! i haven't found any dips, however, so i will whip up some homemade salsa to test them out. if they are as good as i'm hoping, i will be sure to let you know!