Caldo de piranha

As tradition built it

Caldo de piranha

"O viagra dos rios" is a folk claim, stated as belief rather than fact

Ingredients

• 3 medium piranha, halved
• to taste lime
• to taste salt
• to taste pepper
• 6 cloves, crushed garlic
• 2, chopped onion
• 1, chopped bell pepper
• 2, chopped tomato
• 1 bunch, chopped cheiro-verde
• to taste pimenta-de-cheiro
• to taste (sometimes) farinha, to thicken into a pirão (sometimes)

Method

1. Season the halved piranha (three medium fish) with lime, salt, pepper and garlic.
2. Fry briefly until golden.
3. Simmer into a broth built from sautéed onion, garlic, bell pepper, tomato and cheiro-verde.
4. Finish with pimenta-de-cheiro and serve scalding hot in a cumbuca bowl, sometimes thickened with a little farinha into a pirão.

Notes

Called locally "o viagra dos rios", the rivers' Viagra; this chapter states that as a folk claim, not a fact.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide fillet, clarified consommé

Method

1. Fillet the piranha rather than cooking it whole.
2. Poach the flesh sous vide separately from the broth to keep it from breaking apart, then flake it back into the finished soup only at the point of serving.
3. Clarify the aromatics-and-tomato broth through a chinois for a genuine consommé clarity the traditional cloudy pot never attempted.
4. Finish with a spoon of farinha toasted fresh in a dry pan rather than stirred in raw, for texture that holds rather than dissolving into grit.