Pirarucu de Casaca

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large bowl for soaking the fish
• •Heavy 4-liter pot
• •Wide sauté pan
• •Medium skillet
• •Medium baking dish, about 23 by 33 cm
• •Fine-mesh strainer or slotted spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Dessalgar the fish

   Put the salted pirarucu in a large bowl, cover with plenty of cold water, and refrigerate for 24 hours, changing the water 3 or 4 times. The water should go from aggressively salty to only lightly salty. This is not fussiness. If you skip it, the whole dish tastes like punishment and you'll think the fish is the problem.

   Honest shortcut: buy pirarucu already dessalgado from a fishmonger you trust. The cost is money, not flavor. The bad shortcut is replacing it with random fresh fish and pretending it's the same dish. It isn't.
2. 2

   Cook and shred

   Drain the pirarucu, put it in a pot, cover with fresh water, and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes, until the fish flakes when pressed with a fork. Drain, cool until you can handle it, then pull out skin and bones and desfiar into big flakes. Keep the flakes generous, because tiny shreds disappear into the farofa and this fish deserves to be seen.

3. 3

   Boil the tucupi

   Pour the real bottled tucupi into a pot and bring it to a lively boil for 10 minutes, then lower to a simmer while you work. It should smell sharp, earthy, and clean, not dusty or artificial. Raw tucupi from mandioca brava is unsafe until it has been properly boiled to drive off cyanogenic compounds, so your starting point is real bottled tucupi from a trustworthy producer, never molho amarelo.

   Read the bottle. You want tucupi, not yellow sauce, seasoning mix, or powder. A packet can't give you the acidity, color, or cassava depth this dish needs.
4. 4

   Prepare the jambu

   If you have jambu, rinse it well and blanch the leaves and tender stems in the simmering tucupi for 2 minutes, just until they turn deep green and soften. Lift them out and chop roughly. Jambu brings that gentle mouth-tingle and Amazonian green flavor; when you can't get it, say the truth and make the dish without it. Don't replace it with a sad imaginary substitute.

5. 5

   Build the refogado

   Warm 2 tablespoons of oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and see-through, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic for 1 minute, just until it smells good. Add the tomato, bell peppers, chicória-do-pará, and black pepper, and refogar until the tomato collapses and the oil begins to show at the edges. That little shine means the water cooked off and the flavor concentrated.

   If you can't find chicória-do-pará, use cilantro. It won't be identical, and we're adults, we can survive the truth. What you can't use is powdered seasoning pretending to be the refogado.
6. 6

   Moisten the fish

   Add the shredded pirarucu to the refogado and fold gently so the flakes get coated without turning to paste. Pour in 1 cup of the hot tucupi and the coconut milk, then simmer for 5 minutes, until the fish looks glossy and moist but there isn't a lake in the pan. You want the fish seasoned and juicy, because dry salted fish under farofa is how parties become silent.

7. 7

   Make the farofa

   In another pan, warm 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add the farinha and stir for 3 to 4 minutes, until it smells toasted and feels dry and loose under the spoon. Add 1/2 cup of the hot tucupi, a little at a time, stirring until the farofa is damp and crumbly, not wet. The tucupi carries flavor through the layer; dumping it in all at once makes paste.

8. 8

   Fry the bananas

   Warm the last 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet and lay in the banana slices without crowding. Dourar for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until the edges brown and the banana smells sweet. Pull them out while they still hold their shape. Too soft and they collapse into baby food, and no one invited that to the festa.

9. 9

   Layer the casaca

   Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). In a medium baking dish, spread half the farofa, then half the pirarucu, half the jambu if using, half the bananas, some egg slices, olives, and parsley-scallions. Repeat the layers, finishing with eggs, olives, herbs, and a few banana pieces on top. Spoon over another 1/2 cup tucupi so the dish bakes glossy, not dry. Layers matter because every serving should taste like the whole dish, not one unlucky forkful of plain flour.

10. 10

    Bake and serve

    Bake for 20 minutes, until the edges are bubbling lightly and the top looks settled and shiny. Rest for 10 minutes before serving so the farofa drinks in the juices and the slices hold together. Serve with arroz branco soltinho and a green side. If there are beans on the table too, melhor ainda: the pê-efe came to the party wearing its good shirt.

Chef Tips

• •Salted pirarucu is the spine of the dish. Dessalgar slowly in the fridge, changing the water, because a rushed soak leaves salt trapped in the thick pieces.
• •Tucupi is not decoration here. Buy real bottled tucupi from a trustworthy producer, then boil it again with attention. Molho amarelo is not a shortcut, it's a different product.
• •Jambu is the second non-negotiable when it is available. When it isn't, make the dish without it and serve a real green on the side, like sautéed couve. Honesty cooks better than pretending.
• •Use bananas that are ripe but still firm. Green bananas won't bring sweetness, and overripe ones fall apart in the pan.
• •This dish is rich, so serve it like a Brazilian table, with rice to carry the sauce and greens to cut through the fat. Celebration food still needs a plate that makes sense.

Advance Preparation

• •Start dessalgar the pirarucu 24 hours ahead, changing the water 3 or 4 times.
• •Boil the eggs up to 2 days ahead and keep them refrigerated in their shells.
• •The fish mixture and farofa can be made up to 1 day ahead. Layer and bake the day you serve so the bananas and farofa keep their texture.
• •Leftovers keep 3 days in the fridge. Reheat covered, with a spoonful of tucupi or water over the top so the farofa doesn't dry out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 470g)