Açaí com Peixe Frito

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy skillet, 28 cm
• •Medium 3-liter pot with lid
• •Mixing bowl for seasoning fish
• •Shallow plate for dredging
• •Fine-mesh strainer for rinsing rice
• •Tongs or fish spatula

Instructions

1. 1

   Read the label

   Choose frozen unsweetened açaí pulp labeled açaí grosso or açaí médio. Grosso is thicker and richer, médio is easier to find and still works, fino is thinner and more watery. Skip sweetened blends, syrup mixes, and powder. You want fruit pulp, not dessert pretending to be lunch and not dust pretending to be fruit.

   Don't confuse polpa de açaí with polpa de cupuaçu or polpa de bacuri. Cupuaçu is pale and tart, bacuri is creamy and fragrant, both wonderful, neither is this lunch.
2. 2

   Season the fish

   Pat the fish dry, then rub it with 1 teaspoon salt, the lime juice, grated garlic, and black pepper. Let it sit for 15 minutes while you start the rice. Dry fish browns better, and a short rest lets the seasoning enter instead of sitting on the surface like gossip.

3. 3

   Start the rice

   Rinse the rice until the water runs mostly clear, then drain it well. Warm 1 tablespoon oil in a medium pot over medium heat, add the onion, and cook until soft and see-through, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. This refogado is small, but it matters, because loose rice with real aroma beats plain boiled rice every time.

4. 4

   Cook arroz soltinho

   Add the drained rice and stir for 1 minute, until the grains look glossy. Add 3 3/4 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt, bring to a lively boil, then lower the heat, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Don't stir while it cooks. Stirring breaks the grains and releases starch, and then your arroz soltinho becomes rice paste with ambition.

5. 5

   Prepare the açaí

   Set the frozen açaí packs in a bowl at room temperature until they soften enough to squeeze, about 10 to 15 minutes, but keep them cold. Open the packs into a bowl and stir until thick and spoonable, adding cold water 1 tablespoon at a time only if it won't loosen. The texture should be like a thick sauce, not juice. Too much water makes it fino at home, and a gente did not pay for grosso to drown it.

6. 6

   Refogar the greens

   Warm 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and cook just until it smells good, about 30 seconds. Add the jambu or couve and toss until bright and wilted, 2 to 3 minutes for jambu, 3 to 4 for couve. Stop while the leaves still look alive. Cook them to death and they go dull, wet, and apologetic.

7. 7

   Dredge the fish

   Lift the fish from the marinade and pat off excess moisture. Coat lightly in cassava flour or all-purpose flour, then shake off the extra. You want a thin dry veil, not a winter coat. Too much flour falls into the oil and burns before the fish is ready.

8. 8

   Fry until crisp

   Heat 1/2 cup oil in a wide skillet over medium-high heat until a pinch of flour sizzles right away. Fry the fish in batches, 2 to 4 minutes per side depending on thickness, until the crust is deep gold and the fish flakes when pressed with a fork. Don't crowd the pan. Crowd it and the temperature drops, the fish releases water, and instead of dourar you get pale fish soaking in oil, a small tragedy with witnesses.

9. 9

   Serve the plate

   Fluff the rice with a fork. Spoon rice onto each plate, add the fried fish and greens, then set a small bowl of cold unsweetened açaí beside it. Put farinha d'água on the table so each person can sprinkle and thicken as they eat. The farinha gives crunch and body, and the cold açaí against the hot fish is the point, not an accident.

Chef Tips

• •For this savory lunch, buy açaí grosso if you can. Médio is the honest Tuesday shortcut and works well. Fino is cheaper, but it eats thinner, so serve it in a bowl and use farinha d'água to give it body.
• •Farinha d'água is coarse, toasted, and made from fermented mandioca. Farinha seca is drier and finer. It won't ruin the meal, but it doesn't give the same crunch and swelling texture beside açaí.
• •Farinha de tapioca is not the same as tapioca pearls. In Pará, farinha de tapioca can mean crisp little granules scattered into açaí. Tapioca pearls are the round things people cook for sweets and drinks. Read the bag before it reads you.
• •If your fish is very fresh and affordable, use it. If the counter smells tired, cook something else. I won't make you fry a sad fish and let you think dinner failed because of you.
• •The shortcut I allow: frozen unsweetened pulp. The shortcut I refuse: açaí powder. One is preserved fruit. The other is an imitation trying to sell you convenience in a spoonful of purple dust.
• •If you want the full everyday plate, serve feijão simples on the side another day, or with this if your house eats that way. Soak dried beans overnight so they cook evenly and sit easier, then finish with a real refogado and mash a ladle into the pot so the caldo turns creamy instead of watery.

Advance Preparation

• •Keep the açaí frozen until the day you cook. Thaw only until stirrable, 10 to 15 minutes, so it stays cold and thick.
• •Season the fish up to 30 minutes ahead in the fridge. Longer with lime can make the surface tighten, so don't leave it all afternoon.
• •Wash and slice the greens up to 1 day ahead. Wrap them in a clean towel and refrigerate so they hit the pan dry, not dripping.
• •Cooked rice can be made earlier the same day and reheated with a spoonful of water, covered, over low heat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 620g)