Opinion – Recipes from Marcão: Chifrijo, from Costa Rica, is the Brazilian PF with Caribbean spices

Before starting, I would like to announce that, starting next week, Marcão’s recipes will also be published in the printed edition of Folha, always on Tuesdays, on the Food page. The digital version will change to Mondays starting September 5th (no column on the 2nd).

Today we are going with a recipe from Costa Rica.

Costa Rica’s great achievement in the World Cups was to have disqualified Italy in 2014, here in Brazil, with a 1-0 victory over the four-time champions. In 2022, Italians are out; Costa Ricans compete for their third consecutive World Cup.

But let’s talk about food. Costa Rica is a small Central American country that actually has two coasts: the Caribbean coast and the Pacific Ocean coast. Its cuisine is similar, in many ways, to Mexican, Caribbean countries and some places in South America, such as Colombia and Venezuela.

Recurring elements in this cuisine are corn, cassava, plantain, lemon, avocado, red onion and cilantro. The defense duo beans and rice can never be missed.

The most typical dish in Costa Rica is gallo pinto, beans and rice cooked together. It is a very common preparation in the Caribbean, with some variations of ingredients and name.

The chifrijo, a recipe that I’m going to teach you today, is exclusively Costa Rican.

The chifrijo was invented in the 1990s, in a bar in San Juan, the country’s capital. They say that the owner of the bar arrived hungry, went into the kitchen and put what he found in a bowl.

He added torresmo (“chicharrón”, in Spanish) and beans (“frijoles”) — the junction of the first two syllables gives the name of the dish.

They also go in the chifrijo: rice, chimichurri —the Costa Rican chimi, very different from the Argentinean one, is similar to our vinaigrette — avocado and corn chips.

This is a dish to be made, preferably, when you already have cooked rice and beans and you want to change the pê-efe.

Hornbeans are usually red beans, which produce a broth that is not too thick. Black also works well.

Corn chips are the ones you eat with guacamole in Mexican bars. If you only find the industrial version, try to buy one with no added aromas.

As for chicharrones, they can be belly or rib. In the original recipe, they are fried in abundant oil. I’m a sworn enemy of deep-frying in the home kitchen—I don’t think dirt pays.

Here, I heat the pancetta until the fat has melted and sauté the meat until crispy—but not nearly as crisp as a pork rind, so it’s best to discard the skin.

horn

Yield: 4 servings

Difficulty: medium

CHICHARRON INGREDIENTS

800 g pork belly

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon smoked or hot paprika

CHIMICHURRI INGREDIENTS

1 large chopped onion

1 ripe tomato chopped

juice of ½ lemon

1 handful of chopped coriander

salt to taste

ASSEMBLY INGREDIENTS

Cooked and seasoned beans and rice

1 small avocado (avocado) sliced ​​(drizzle with lemon juice to keep from browning)

corn chips

chicharron

chimichurri

PREPARATION

1. Remove the skin and cut the pork belly into cubes. Season with salt, cumin and paprika.
2. Heat a pan or skillet over very low heat and cook the pork in its own fat until golden brown (approximately 20 minutes).
3. Mix the chimichurri ingredients.
4. Assemble the dish with the hot pork, rice and beans; the remaining ingredients are cold. The beans should have little broth.