Don't Shoot the Food ? Max Payne Memorial Day Edition ...

As of this writing, I?m about ten minutes into the last chapter of Max Payne 3. Good people of Brazil, I apologize for shooting up your fine country. Good people of Hoboken, I doubt you can tell the difference. I?m not going to get much into Max Payne 3, I?l save that for a post next week, but I will tell you that I am enjoying it as much as the original Max Payne and more than Max Payne 2, a game I barely remember. It is definitely one of Rockstar?s most focused games, which can be a detriment if you don?t like what they?re focusing on, but given that I enjoy a good slo-mo gun battle, I?m quite happy. It also doesn?t hurt that I love most of what comes out of Max?s mouth.

Aside from painkillers, I haven?t seen Max eat anything during his ten hour journey, but that doesn?t mean that we have to ignore Brazil?s fine cuisine. To celebrate Memorial Day here in the states, a day typically celebrated with cookouts and barbecues, I?m giving you a main course, a side item and, for my good buddy Max, a Brazilian cocktail. The food comes from The Barbecue! Bible, by Steven Raichlen, a cookbook that I?ve used extensively. Raichlen traveled the globe looking for barbecue and grilling recipes and while he focused on food found mainly in?Rio de Janeiro, the side item could very easily be found in S?o Paulo. I?m not saying these are 100% authentic Brazilian recipes, what with me never having been to Brazil, but it?s a good place to start before taking Max on your very own blood soaked tour of Brazil.

Brazilian Beer Chicken

Ingredients
1. 2 cups Brazilian beer such as Antarctica or Xingu Black Beer ? these are the Brazilian beers that Raichlen mentioned, however you can use whatever beer floats your boat
2. 1/2 cup vegetable oil
3. 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
4. 1 tbl sweet paprika
5. 1 tsp black pepper
6. 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
7. 12 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
8. 2 bay leaves
9. 1 chicken, 3.5 to 4 lbs, quartered
10. Kosher salt

Cooking Steps
1. Combine the first five ingredients (beer through pepper) in a large bowl (plastic or glass) and combine well.? Stir in the onion, garlic and bay leaves.
2. Rinse the chicken under cold water and blot dry. Soak the chicken pieces in the marinade for at least six hours, but two days if possible.
3. Preheat your grill so that half of the grill is at medium heat and half is at high heat. Oil your grill grates.
4. Take the chicken out of the marinade and blot dry, reserving the marinade. Season the chicken with salt and grill, skin side down on the hot part of the grill for three to five minutes. Baste with the marinade several times.
5. Move the chicken pieces, still skin side down, to the medium section and grill until the skin is fully browned, five to seven minutes. Continue basting with the marinade while cooking.
6. Turn the chicken pieces and grill back on the hot side for three to five minutes.
7. Return the chicken to the medium section and grill until fully cooked.
8. Once done, serve immediately.

Tutu ? Mineira?(Black Beans with Bacon) (original name changed to the correct name per Roberto?s comments)
Traditional Tutu ? Mineira?has more stuff in it, greens, sausage, what have you, and Raichlen mentions that this one is toned down. Makes sense given that it?s a side dish. If you want a more traditional version, Google is your friend, as is fluency in Portuguese.

Ingredients
1. 4 strips bacon
2. 1 medium onion, finely chopped
3. 4 garlic cloves, minced
4. 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
5. 1 bay leaf
6. 4 cups cooked black beans or two 15 oz cans
7. 1/2 to 1 cup reserved bean cooking liquid or chicken broth
8. 1/4 tsp hot sauce
9. 3 to 4 tsp manioc flour (available at Brazilian or Portuguese markets, substitute toasted bread crumbs in a pinch)
10. Salt and pepper to taste
11. 2 hard boiled eggs, coarsely chopped

Cooking Steps
1. Cook the bacon in a skillet until lightly browned, about five minutes. Pour off all but two tbl bacon fat.
2. Add the onion, garlic, half of the parsley and the bay leaf to the bacon fat and cook for four minutes.
3. Add the beans, 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid/broth and the hot sauce to the pan and simmer for five minutes.
4. Discard the bay leaf and then mash half of the beans with either a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon.
5. Stir in 3 tsp of the manioc flower and simmer the beans, uncovered for three minutes. If the beans get too thick, add more liquid. If it?s too thin, add the remaining flour.
6. Season the beans as needed and serve immediately.

What would a cookout be without some adult beverages? Nothing good, that?s for sure. In order to have authentic Brazilian drinks you have to pick up a bottle of?cacha?a.?Cacha?a is Brazil?s version of rum, but instead of being distilled from molasses, like traditional rum,?cacha?a is distilled from sugar cane juice. The?caipirinha is Brazil?s national cocktail, a simple mix of?cacha?a, sugar and lime juice. You?ll need a muddler thing-a-mabob so splurge the couple of bucks and make Brazil proud.

Caipirinha

Ingredients
1. 1 2/3 oz.?cacha?a
2. 1/2 of a lime, cut into four wedges
3. 2 tsp crystal sugar (refined works if that?s all you have)

Mixing Steps
1. Place the sugar and limes in the bottom of an old fashioned glass and muddle like there?s no tomorrow.
2. ?Fill the glass with crushed ice and pour the?cacha?a into the glass
3. Drink heartily and make quips about your failures in life.

Enjoy your food and drinks, folks, and try not to shoot anyone. That goes double for you, Max.

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