Personally, I have not been to Brazil or tasted Brazilian cuisine before. I was glad that I was sent three jars of Rio Sauces- A Taste of Brazil sauces for review. I always love to try new and different sauces especially from a different continent. I would never say no to trying new foods!
Just a bit history about Brazilian cuisine, it has a strong Portuguese-African-Indian influence and the traditional Brazilian recipes still in use today are derived from these three historical sources. European and Asian traditional are also incorporated in this pot of diversity.
The first jar that I tried is the Amendoim sauce. It is a creamy sauce with coconut milk, ginger, lime and peanuts. They suggested to cook with chicken or use it as a dip with toasted or French bread or with vegetables. It is rated as medium spicy. To cook this dish is very simple, all you need is 500g of chicken. I like to eat it with rice and I also put some frozen vegetables in the sauce. The cooking time is about 20 minutes time.
We all enjoyed eating the creamy thick peppery sauce. The dish went down well with both of my children. Although it is rated medium spicy, it is more like mild. I can hardly taste the spicy as I love spicy food. It is quite flavoursome, delicious and aromatic.
The second jar is the Bife de Panela which is suitable to use it on beef and pork and rated mild. I had used belly pork to cook this dish. Stirred fry the belly pork till it half cook. Next pour in the sauce and stew for 20 minutes. I served it with rice.
The dish tastes like a sweet curry and is quite peppery. It is so mild that my children are able to enjoy it. The belly pork is very tasty and tender.
Next I cooked fish with the Moqueca sauce. Pour the sauce in to the sauce pan for two minutes and put in the fish till it cook. Later, I served it with rice and broccoli.
This is generally stewed in a traditional clay casserole and served with fish and seafood. It can also be used to cook chicken or vegetarian dishes. This is rated as medium but I would say it’s somewhere between mild and medium. It is very flavoursome and it worked really well with the fish as both children enjoyed it, particularly Mr K who asked for extra portions.
As I mentioned above, I have not tried Brazilian foods before, I do think theses sauces are very unique and different from my usual Asian sauces that I use.Out of all three sauces, Moqueca sauce is my favourite! I would recommend them if you like spicy foods. For those who love creamy sauces, you should try to cook the Amendoim sauce. Bife de Panela is particularly suitable for young children or if if you prefer food more on the mild side.
Disclosure: We received the products to do an honest review.
