Cuscuz nordestino

As tradition built it

Cuscuz nordestino

Serves 4 . 25 to 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 300g (about 75g per person) flocão (pre-steamed, flaked cornmeal, not fine fubá)
• roughly half the flocão's volume salted water
• to taste butter, to serve
• to taste milk, to serve, optional

Method

1. Hydrate the flocão with roughly half its volume in salted water until it resembles wet sand, then rest covered for around fifteen minutes.
2. Steam in a two-chamber cuscuzeira, water boiling below, the loosely packed flour steaming above, never touching the water directly, for ten to fifteen minutes, testing by pressing a handful together to see it hold its shape without crumbling.
3. Eat hot, plain, with butter, or doused in milk, at breakfast above all.

Notes

The writer Rachel de Queiroz, herself sertão-born, called it simply "the sertanejo's bread."

What a modern chef changes

The same steam, held even edge to centre

Rung 02

Ingredients

• fried egg, to serve
• queijo coalho, grilled, to serve

Method

1. Hydrate the flocão exactly as tradition dictates.
2. Steam it in a single even layer rather than mounded in a chamber, at a set humidity, in a combi-steam oven for a cuscuz with genuinely uniform texture edge to centre.
3. Serve under a fried egg and grilled queijo coalho, the way it is already eaten, simply done with more control.