Obrigado Brazil

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/12/2020 (2062 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s summer in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, and today’s high is 28 C. Snow is a rare sight in Brazil, even in June and July, South America’s cold months.

Other than that, Christmas is pretty much the same as in Canada. Especially the family gatherings and the abundance of food, says Patricia Amaral, who, along with her husband Daniel, moved to Winnipeg in August 2017.

“It’s pretty hot, and it’s sort of weird but the kind of food we have at Christmas is a lot like Thanksgiving here,” Amaral says. “We always have turkey. We have a dish called farofa, it’s very Brazilian, that I could compare to stuffing here in Canada on Thanksgiving. It’s made with some vegetables, bacon, sausage and cassava flour.”

Rice, salad with tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers, as well as other vegetable dishes — one advantage of having Christmas in summer is the abundance of fresh produce — complete the typical Brazilian Christmas spread, she says.

“(There are) tons and tons of desserts and another thing very usual in Brazil because it’s so warm is that we have a fruit table,” Amaral says. “Usually at this time of year it’s mangos, two or three kinds of grapes, watermelon.”

During previous Christmases in Winnipeg, the Amarals celebrated with other Brazilian families. This year, of course, it will be just the two of them to mark the occasion.

Amaral is eight months pregnant with her first child and is due Jan. 18, so the couple are excited about a late Christmas gift.

“We are trying to keep things simple with this pandemic situation, also because I’m in my third trimester. Almost time to deliver the baby,” she says.

Amaral enjoys baking, and one of her Brazilian specialties is rabanada, which is similar to french toast, she says.

For Day 8 of the Free Press’s 12 Days of Christmas Cookies, she shares a recipe that puts a tropical spin on shortbread, a cookie common in Winnipeg households at this time of year.

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“We don’t have shortbread in Brazil,” she says with a chuckle. “It’s a Canadian recipe but I try to bring some Brazilian touch with guava paste.”

Guava is a fruit common to South America, Central America and Brazil and guava paste spreads like jam — a common flavouring agent for shortbread in Canada — and has a similar sweetness.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall

Alan Small
Reporter

Alan Small has been a journalist at the Free Press for more than 22 years in a variety of roles, the latest being a reporter in the Arts and Life section.

   Read full biography