Arroz de Cuxá Maranhense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 3-liter pot with lid for the rice
• •Wide sauté pan or shallow 4-liter pot for folding
• •Dry skillet for toasting sesame
• •Fine sieve
• •Mortar and pestle, food processor, or mini chopper

Instructions

1. 1

   Soften the shrimp

   Put the dried shrimp in a bowl, cover with cool water, swish with your fingers, and soak for 15 minutes. Drain and taste a tiny piece. If salt hits first and shrimp comes second, rinse and soak 5 minutes more. Pick off any hard shells or heads, then chop half the shrimp and leave half whole. This is how the camarão seco seasons the cuxá instead of shouting over it.

2. 2

   Wilt the vinagreira

   Bring 6 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt to a lively simmer. Add the vinagreira by handfuls and press it down until the leaves collapse, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain through a sieve, saving 1/2 cup of the green cooking liquid, then press the leaves gently and chop them fine. Murchar first matters: raw vinagreira can be tough and sharply sour, while wilted vinagreira turns tender and lets the rice taste bright instead of harsh.

   Don't boil the leaves to exhaustion. When they're collapsed and darker green, they're ready. Cook them into mud and the color goes dull, and there goes half the joy.
3. 3

   Toast the sesame

   Put the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir or shake the pan until the seeds smell nutty and a few turn pale gold, about 3 minutes, then tip them onto a plate. A hot dry pan gives even color. Oil makes the seeds clump, scorch at the edges, and then you stand there pretending burnt sesame was the plan.

4. 4

   Make the body

   Grind the toasted sesame with the farinha de mandioca and the chopped half of the shrimp in a mortar, food processor, or mini chopper until coarse and sandy. It doesn't need to be smooth. This mixture gives the cuxá body, so the molho clings to the rice instead of leaving green liquid at the bottom of the pan.

5. 5

   Cook the rice

   Warm 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the 1/2 small onion and cook until soft and see-through, about 4 minutes, then add 1 minced garlic clove for 1 minute, just until fragrant. Stir in the drained rice and 1 teaspoon salt until the grains look glossy and separate, about 2 minutes. Add 3 1/2 cups hot water, bring to a boil, cover, lower the heat, and cook until the surface is dry and little holes appear, 12 to 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and rest covered for 10 minutes. Don't stir after the water goes in. Stirring breaks the grains and releases starch, and a gente wants arroz soltinho, not paste.

6. 6

   Build the refogado

   In a wide pan, warm 3 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add the medium onion, bell pepper, coentro stems, scallion whites, and a small pinch of salt. Cook until the vegetables soften and smell sweet, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the tomato and cook until it collapses and looks saucy, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, pimenta-de-cheiro if using, and the whole shrimp. Stir for 1 minute, just until the garlic smells alive. This refogado is the foundation. Skip it and you'll have green rice with ingredients in it, not arroz de cuxá.

7. 7

   Finish the cuxá

   Add the chopped vinagreira, the sesame-shrimp mixture, and 1/4 cup of the saved vinagreira liquid. Stir and press everything together until it becomes a thick green molho that leaves a path for a second when you drag the spoon through it, 4 to 6 minutes. If it gets stiff before it looks glossy, add the remaining 1/4 cup liquid a spoonful at a time. Taste before adding salt, because dried shrimp changes its mind from bag to bag.

8. 8

   Fold and rest

   Fluff the rice with a fork, then add it to the cuxá in three additions, folding gently after each one. Stop when the grains are stained green and the sesame and shrimp are spread through the pot, but the rice is still loose. Cover off the heat for 5 minutes so the grains drink the molho. Finish with the coentro leaves and scallion greens. Serve with beans, fish, chicken, or a fried egg, and there it is: dinner resolved.

Chef Tips

• •Buy vinagreira when the leaves look perky, green, and cheap. That's usually when it's actually good. If the leaves are tired, cook something else. Sorrel or azedinha can make a sour green rice in a pinch, but it won't be the Maranhão dish, and we don't need to lie to dinner.
• •Dried shrimp is salty by personality and by packaging. Rinse, soak, taste, then salt the pan only at the end. If you salt early, you may spend the rest of the recipe trying to rescue a pot that didn't ask to be rescued.
• •The sesame is not decoration. Toast it and grind it with the farinha and chopped shrimp so the cuxá has body. Whole sesame scattered around is pretty for five seconds and useless in the spoon.
• •Tuesday shortcut: use 5 to 6 cups cooked arroz soltinho from your fridge. Fold it into the finished cuxá over low heat with a splash of water. The cost is that the grains won't carry that fresh onion-garlic perfume from the pot, but dinner still works. The shortcut I won't hand you is a seasoned packet.
• •Serve this as part of a pê-efe without making a speech. Beans on one side, fish or chicken or egg on another, something green already folded into the rice. Comida de verdade doesn't need a costume.

Advance Preparation

• •The rice can be cooked up to 1 day ahead. Cool it, refrigerate it covered, and use 5 to 6 cups cooked rice in the final folding step.
• •The vinagreira can be wilted, chopped, and refrigerated up to 2 days ahead with a little of its cooking liquid.
• •The shrimp can be rinsed and soaked up to 1 day ahead. Keep it covered in the fridge.
• •Finished arroz de cuxá keeps 3 days in the fridge. Reheat gently with a spoonful of water and fold, don't mash. It freezes poorly because the rice breaks and the green goes dull.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 320g)