Moqueca Capixaba de Ovos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Black panela de barro de Goiabeiras or heavy shallow 3-liter pot
• •Small cup for cracking eggs
• •Fine strainer, if using urucum seeds
• •Small pan for pirao

Instructions

1. 1

   Season the eggs

   Crack each egg into a small cup, one at a time, and keep them ready near the stove. Stir the lime juice, minced garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt together in a small bowl. You are not marinating the eggs like fish, because eggs would fall apart and make a mess. You're making the fresh seasoning that will go into the sauce at the right moment, where it can perfume the whole pot.

2. 2

   Color the oil

   Warm the oil in a black panela de barro or a heavy shallow pot over medium-low heat. Add the urucum seeds and stir until the oil turns orange-red, about 2 minutes, then strain out the seeds and return the oil to the pot. If using colorau, stir it straight into the warm oil for 30 seconds. Keep the heat gentle, because burned urucum tastes dusty and bitter, and no cook needs that insult on a Tuesday.

   This is the Capixaba color marker. Not dende. Not coconut milk. Urucum gives color and earthiness without turning this into the Bahian pot, which is its own beautiful thing.
3. 3

   Start the refogado

   Add the sliced onion to the stained oil and cook, stirring now and then, until it softens and goes glossy, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped cilantro stems and the garlic-lime mixture, then stir for 1 minute, just until the garlic smells sharp and good. Garlic burns fast, and burned garlic follows you through the whole pot like a bad decision.

4. 4

   Layer the tomatoes

   Spread half the tomato slices over the onion, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt, then layer the remaining tomato on top. Add the water around the edge of the pot, not straight over the tomatoes, and shake the pot once to settle everything. Don't stir. Layers cook into a clear, bright broth; stirring breaks them down too early and gives you a muddy sauce.

5. 5

   Simmer the sauce

   Cover the pot and simmer over medium-low heat until the tomatoes slump, release juice, and the broth looks orange and glossy around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Taste the broth and add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and the black pepper. This is where you correct the pot before the eggs go in, because once they're poaching, you stop fussing.

6. 6

   Poach the eggs

   Make 8 shallow spaces in the tomatoes with a spoon and slide one egg into each space. Spoon a little broth around them, not over the yolks, then cover the pot. Cook 5 to 7 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft, or 8 to 9 minutes for firm yolks. Do not stir. The eggs need quiet heat to stay whole, and a busy spoon is how a moqueca becomes scrambled eggs with ambition.

7. 7

   Finish the pot

   Turn off the heat and scatter the cilantro leaves over the top. Let the pot rest uncovered for 3 minutes so the sauce calms and the eggs finish gently. Serve from the pot with lime wedges, arroz soltinho, feijao, and sauteed greens. That's the pe-efe doing its job: rice, beans, the center of the plate, and something green.

8. 8

   Make the pirao

   After serving the eggs, ladle about 2 cups of the leftover broth into a small pan. Warm it over low heat and rain in the cassava flour slowly, stirring all the time, until it thickens into a soft porridge, 3 to 5 minutes. Stop when it falls from the spoon in heavy ribbons. Too much flour and it turns stiff; add a splash of water and bring it back. Nothing here gets wasted.

Chef Tips

• •Use ripe tomatoes that smell like tomatoes. If they're pale, hard, and sad, cook something else or use good canned whole tomatoes crushed by hand. The canned shortcut works, but the sauce will taste rounder and less fresh.
• •Colorau is not the same as a seasoning packet. Buy plain ground annatto if you can, and read the label. If the jar is mostly salt, starch, and mystery flavor, put it back. Real food doesn't need a costume.
• •The pot matters, but it shouldn't stop dinner. A panela de barro de Goiabeiras holds heat gently and is the traditional vessel. A heavy enameled pot or deep skillet works at home. Preheat clay slowly so it doesn't crack.
• •Don't add dende, coconut milk, or bell pepper and call it Capixaba. That isn't snobbery, it's definition. The Bahian version belongs to Bahia, and this one belongs to Espirito Santo.
• •Serve the moqueca from the pot. Moving the eggs to a platter breaks them, cools the broth, and creates dishes nobody asked for.
• •Muma de siri, a Capixaba crab dish thickened with cassava flour, is one of those near-forgotten foods worth teaching back to the table. This pirao is the little cousin: broth, farinha, no waste.

Advance Preparation

• •Slice the onion and tomatoes up to 1 day ahead and refrigerate them covered. Keep the tomatoes in their juices, because that juice belongs in the pot.
• •If using urucum seeds, the stained oil can be made 1 week ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Warm it gently before cooking.
• •This moqueca is best eaten right after the eggs are poached. Leftover sauce keeps 3 days in the fridge and makes excellent pirao, but reheated eggs turn firm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 275g)