Farofa de Natal

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy 30 cm skillet or sauté pan
• •Wooden spoon or silicone spatula
• •Measuring cups and spoons

Instructions

1. 1

   Render the bacon

   Put the bacon in a wide, heavy skillet over medium-low heat and cook, stirring now and then, until the pieces are browned and the fat has melted into the pan, about 8 to 10 minutes. Go slow. If the heat is too high, the bacon burns before giving you the fat that seasons the whole farofa.

2. 2

   Soften the onion

   Add the butter to the bacon fat. If the pan looks dry, add the oil too. Stir in the onion with a pinch of salt and cook until it goes soft, glossy, and see-through, about 5 minutes. This is your refogado, and it matters because cassava flour has no mercy for lazy flavor.

3. 3

   Wake the garlic

   Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute, just until you can smell it. Stop there. Burnt garlic turns bitter, and farofa carries every little mistake loudly because there is no sauce to hide behind.

4. 4

   Toast the fruit

   Add the raisins, apricots, and prunes. Stir for 2 minutes, until the fruit looks glossy and a little plump. The fat coats the fruit so the sweetness spreads through the farofa instead of sitting in random sticky pockets.

5. 5

   Add the flour

   Lower the heat and add the cassava flour one cup at a time, stirring well after each addition so every grain touches the fat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the farofa turns lightly golden, smells nutty, and feels dry and loose in the spoon, about 8 to 10 minutes. Low heat is the lesson here: rush it and you get burnt dust, not farofa.

6. 6

   Finish with nuts

   Stir in the chopped nuts, salt, and black pepper. Cook 2 more minutes, just until the nuts smell warm and the farofa sounds sandy against the pan. Taste before adding more salt, because bacon already came to the party with opinions.

   If the farofa feels greasy, add 2 tablespoons more cassava flour. If it feels dusty and dry, add 1 tablespoon butter. Farofa is learned in the spoon, not in pride.
7. 7

   Add parsley

   Turn off the heat and stir in the parsley. Add it off the heat so it stays green and fresh instead of going dull in the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature, loose and crisp, beside roast meat, rice, beans, and something green.

Chef Tips

• •Buy plain toasted cassava flour, farinha de mandioca torrada, not a ready-seasoned farofa mix. The mix is someone else deciding your onion, your salt, and your flavor. A gente can do better.
• •Medium-grind farinha gives the best crunch. Very fine flour works, but it turns sandy faster, so keep the heat lower and stir more often.
• •Dried fruit is the Christmas part, not a law. Raisins are traditional in many houses and a December argument in many others. Use apricot, prune, or dried cranberry if that's what keeps peace.
• •Honest shortcut: buy the nuts already chopped. You'll lose a little freshness, but you still have real food in the pan. The shortcut I won't hand you is flavored powder pretending to be a refogado.
• •Farofa should be moist from fat but loose, never wet. When you drag a spoon through it, it should fall back like coarse sand with shiny little bits of bacon and fruit.

Advance Preparation

• •Chop the bacon, onion, dried fruit, nuts, and parsley up to 1 day ahead. Keep the parsley separate and refrigerated.
• •The farofa can be made 1 day ahead. Cool completely, refrigerate in a sealed container, and rewarm gently in a skillet over low heat, stirring until loose again.
• •Add the parsley after reheating if making ahead, so it stays green and fresh.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 115g)