Viewing page 34 of 104

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

30
THIS WEEK
Magazine Section

GOOD-WILL RECIPES FROM RIO
Elsie Houston's dishes from Brail should go well on U. S. tables
by Grace Turner

[[image]]
Robert Keene Studios
Everything she does is exciting--even her expert cooking

Dark, slim to the point of thinness, vivid in every motion and [[obscured by fold in paper]] in the quick soft undertones of her Latin-American speech, Elsie Houston, the internationally known Brazilian singer, is an exotic creature whom you just do not naturally associate with the household kitchen. She seems, rather, to live perpetually in drama, music, art, beauty and among the people who create them. Actually, however, she cooks like a professional and has a sensational reputation among her innumerable friends. She can, if you like, turn you out a Brazilian meal whose every dish involved a preposterous number of delectable ingredients; or if you have an uncontaminated, Simon-pure American palate, she will go all out to raise a simple U. S. standby like roast lamb to a new high in culinary perfection.
Everything about Elsie Houston is colorful. Half-American, half Portuguese-Brazilian, she was born in Rio de Janeiro. her father, James Frank Houston, is a member of the same family as the Virginia-born Sam Houston who has gone down in the history books and the hearts of Texans as the liberator of the great Lone-Star State. her mother's family emigrated from Portugal to Brazil more than 300 years ago.
The pioneer strain of Elsie's inheritance makes a happy combination with the Old World-New World tradition. She loves Brazil and adores the United States. She speaks four foreign languages--Spanish, German, French and Italian--fluently and uses English as if it, instead of Portuguese, were her native tongue.
[[obscured by fold in paper]] Elsie is probably best [[obscured by fold in paper]] Brazilian folk and magic-ritual songs. Passionate research in this field brought her recognition from the distinguished Sorbonne and her book "Popular Songs of Brazil" was published under the Sorbonne's auspices. But she also specializes in Portuguese and Indian songs, is noted for her interpretation of French and Spanish modernists, and represented Brazil in the International Congress of Popular Arts at Prague.
irrevocably addicted to the stimulating life of Great American cities, she sounds like a traveloguist when she talks about the beauty of her native Rio. "It is the most amazingly beautiful country," she says. "But there is no use telling you--you could not believe unless you see. I've known it all my life but it always startles me anew."
She turns the conversation back to food again, discussing the great Brazilian bean dish feijoada and the delicious chicken concoction called--if you can say it--Gallinha com Molho Pardo. She tells about Brazilian sweets or desserts--delicate fruit pastes made of banana, guava, quince and figs; the cakes rich with eggs and coconut milk, and filled with Brazil nuts. She mentions the typical ices.
When it comes to our giving recipes, we decide to Americanize them slightly since some of the ingredients would not be easy for us to obtain and, except on farms, we cannot ordinarily use a chicken killed five minutes ahead of time. The recipes as we work them out, however, are excellent and preserve their distinctly Brazilian characteristics. We think you will like them as much as we do.

Gallinha com Molho Pardo
1 roasting chicken
1/4 cup fat
1 onion, chopped
1 small bay leaf
3 sprigs parsley
Salt and pepper
2 cups boiling water
2 teaspoons sugar
8 small onions

Have chicken disjointed for frying. Brown pieces on all sides in hot fat, with chopped onion, bay leaf, parsley, salt and pepper. Add boiling water, sugar and onions. Simmer 1 hour or until chicken is tender. Thicken gravy if desired. Serve with fluffy rice. Approximate yield: 6-8 portions.

Feijoada
3 cups black beans
1/2 pound dried beef
1/2 pound smoked sausage
1/2 pound smoked pork
1/4 pound smoked tongue
1/4 pound bacon
3 scallions, minced
1 onion, minced
2 tablespoons salad oil
1/4 cup fat
1/2 garlic clove, minced
Dash cayenne

Soak beans in water to cover overnight. Drain, Cover beans and beef with fresh cold water and simmer 2 hours. Place sausage, pork, tongue and bacon in the same kettle. Simmer until the beans are soft enough to mash easily. Sauté scallions and onion in salad oil and fat until soft and yellow. Add garlic and cayenne, continue cooking until delicately browned. Remove half the beans from kettle and add to onion mixture, stir until these beans are well mashed. Return the mashed beans to the kettle and simmer until the mixture thickens. But be sure the mixture is not thicker than an ordinary cream soup. Remove meats, slice and arrange on a platter. Pour a little of the bean mixture over the slices and serve the rest in a deep vegetable dish or tureen. Rice is always served as an accompaniment. Approximate yield: 6 portions

Coffee-Brazil-Nut Ice Cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup strong, cold coffee
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
Few grains salt
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatine
2 tablespoons cold water
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup shopped brazil nuts

Scald milk, ass coffee. Mix together 1/4 cup sugar, flour and salt; add to milk mixture. Cook over hot water, stirring constantly until slightly thickened. Continue cooking 10 minutes. Add remaining sugar to egg yolk. Add hot mixture. Cook a few minutes longer until mixture coats the spoon. Soften gelatine in cold water; add to custard mixture; stir until dissolved. Chill. Whip cream; fold into chilled custard. Add vanilla. Pour into freezer tray of automatic refrigerator with temperature set at coldest point. At the end of 1 hour, stir the mixture thoroughly and add the Brazil nuts. Approximate yield: 6-8 portions.

Pineapple Ice
2 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 cup drained, canned crushed pineapple

Combine 1 cup of water with the sugar, bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil 5 minutes. Cool. Add orange juice, lime juice, pineapple and 1 cup cold water. Freeze in crank freezer, using 8 parts ice to 1 part ice cream salt. Approximate yield: 1 1/2 quarts.