Tacacá

As tradition built it

Tacacá

Serves 2 (or a large batch). About 30 minutes to assemble, plus 12 to 24 hours soaking the shrimp

Ingredients

• 500ml (2 servings) or 2 litres (larger batch) tucupi
• 2 unpeeled cloves (2 servings) or 5 cloves (large batch) garlic
• 5 (large batch only) cheiro peppers
• 1 bunch (large batch only) chicory (larger-batch version only)
• 1 (large batch only) onion (larger-batch version only)
• 1 bunch (large batch only) chives (larger-batch version only)
• 3 tbsp (2 servings) or 500g (large batch) goma de tapioca (tapioca starch)
• 1 cup (2 servings) or around 1 litre (large batch) water, for dissolving the tapioca starch and for the separate pot it is stirred into
• to taste (2 servings) or 2 bunches (large batch) jambu leaves
• to taste (2 servings) or 500g (large batch) dried shrimp, desalted by soaking 12 to 24 hours

Method

1. Simmer the tucupi with garlic and cheiro peppers, and, in the larger-batch version, chicory, onion and chives, for long enough to concentrate its flavour.
2. Dissolve the goma de tapioca cold in water before it ever meets heat.
3. Stir the dissolved tapioca starch into a separate pot of hot water, where it thickens within seconds into a translucent porridge.
4. Boil the jambu leaves briefly, around 5 minutes, until the stems soften and the numbing effect is released.
5. Desalt the dried shrimp by soaking for 12 to 24 hours.
6. Prepare every element entirely separately and combine only at the point of serving: hot tucupi poured into the cuia first, a few spoonfuls of the tapioca porridge, then jambu and shrimp, topped with more tucupi.

What a modern chef changes

Self-fermented tucupi and a dosed jambu powder

Rung 01, 02

Method

1. Press grated bitter cassava through a muslin-lined sieve or a proper tipiti substitute, since tucupi cannot be bought bottled in Britain at all, then boil the extracted liquid for a genuine, timed 24-hour ferment and 40-minute cook, with no shortcuts on the safety step.
2. Pass the finished broth through a chinois for a clarity the traditional cloudy pot was never trying for.
3. Dehydrate the numbing yellow buzz button flower heads rather than only the leaves, and grind them to a fine powder in a dedicated spice grinder, finishing each bowl with a measured pinch rather than relying on a variable quantity of boiled leaf.
4. Rehydrate the dried shrimp in a portion of the finished tucupi itself rather than plain water, for a shrimp that tastes of the dish it is about to join.