Brazilian flavour

How to give your USPG Fiesta a Brazilian flavour

Creating an atmosphere
Entertaining your guests
Fundraising
Preparing your meal
Recipes
Worship
Further resources

Creating an atmosphere
• Hang colourful lights and paper flags from the walls.
• Play Brazilian music. (Your local library should have a selection of CDs.)
• Encourage your guests to wear colourful clothes.
• Greet each other in Portuguese:
Hello: Olá (oh lah)
Goodbye: Adeus (ah deuze)
Thank you, God: Obrigado, Deus (oh brie gar doh, deuze)

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Entertaining your guests
• Host a quiz - download questions and answers.
• Invite a USPG Speaker to your party or show the short USPG film on life in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
• Teach your guests how to dance the samba.

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Fundraising
Play ‘Pescaria’ [pesk-a-rhea]: this is a traditional party game in Brazil and a variation on the magnetic fishing game. The number on the fish you catch is your prize. Ask your guests to ‘pay to play’. You could make it more fun by keeping the prizes a secret until all your guests have caught a fish.

Tips: Ask local businesses to donate the prizes.
Invite your young guests to make and decorate the fish before the game starts.

Making the magnetic fish
Cut out and decorate paper fish using paint and coloured paper etc. Don’t forget to number and attach a paperclip to each fish. Make fishing rods by attaching small magnets to pieces of string and tying these to the ends of pieces of dowel or similar, eg pencils or chopsticks.

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Preparing your meal
Sample menu
Main course: Feijoada (Brazilian stew) or Tambaqui Soup (a fish soup from the Amazon).
Dessert: tropical fruit slices, ice cream and sorbets.
Drinks: Fairtrade orange and pineapple crush, other tropical fruit juices and Fairtrade coffee.

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Recipes

Feijoada- inspired black bean stew
Feijoada- inspired black bean stew (Vegetarian alternative)
Tambaqui Soup
Orange and pineapple crush

Feijoada- inspired black bean stew
Feijoada [fay jew ah da] is considered to be the national dish of Brazil.
Serves 10-12

Ingredients
• 3 rashers of bacon
• 2 onions
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1lb smoked pork sausage
• 1lb boneless beef (any cut)
• 1 can (14oz) cooked tomatoes
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 4 cups canned black beans
• Salt and pepper

Preparation
1. Cut the bacon rashers into big pieces. Fry them in a large pot over a medium to high heat for about three minutes, stirring often.
2. Turn the heat down to medium.
3. Cut the onion in half. Peel off the skin and outer layer. Chop both halves into small pieces.
4. Peel the cloves of garlic. Chop them into small pieces.
5. Add the onions and garlic to the bacon in the pot. Stir until the onions are soft, about three minutes.
6. Cut the sausage and beef into one-inch pieces. Add them to the onions and garlic.
7. Cook until the meat is brown on all sides.
8. Add the tomatoes (with juice), hot water, yellow mustard and some salt and pepper. Turn the heat down to simmer. Cover the pot.
9. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring often. If it looks too thick, add more water, quarter of a cup at a time. Add the black beans (with liquid).
10. Cover the pot, and cook for 10 more minutes.
11. Serve with rice.


Feijoada- inspired black bean stew (Vegetarian alternative)
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup tomato juice
• 1 ½ cups brown rice
• 1 tablespoon light olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 4 cups cooked black beans, or two 16-ounce cans, drained and rinsed
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup diced ripe tomatoes, or 1 cup canned diced tomatoes
• 1 small fresh hot green chili, or more to taste
• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
• Salt to taste

Preparation
1. Combine the water and tomato juice in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the rice, then lower the heat and simmer gently, covered, until all the liquid is absorbed, about 35 minutes.
2. Heat the oil in a large soup pot or steep-sided frying pan. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until translucent. Add the garlic and continue to sauté until the onion is golden.
3. Stir the diced sweet potatoes into the pot along with 1 ½cups of water. Bring to a simmer, then simmer gently, covered, until the sweet potato dice are just tender but still firm, about 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Add the beans, bell pepper, tomatoes, and chili. Simmer gently for 15 minutes more, uncovered.
5. Stir in the parsley or cilantro and season to taste with salt.
6. Serve over the hot cooked rice.

Tambaqui Soup
Ingredients
• 2 lbs of tambaqui (or other white fish)
• 1 lb small potatoes boiled and peeled
• 500g prawns
• 1 dozen eggs hard-boiled and peeled
• 1 bunch of fresh chicory
• 1 bunch of jambú (or other stong-flavoured leaf like rocket)
• 1 bunch of fresh coriander
• 1 bunch of chopped fresh parsley
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 large tomatoes (chopped and seedless)
• 2 chili peppers (chopped and seedless)
• 2 jalapeno peppers (chopped and seedless)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 3 cloves of garlic crushed
• 100ml palm oil
• 500ml coconut milk
• Limes

Preparation
1. Cut the fish in steaks and wash.
2. Flavour fish with garlic and limes. Leave for 15 minutes.
3. Gently fry all the herbs in the palm oil together with the prawns and leave to one side.
4. Heat the fish in a large pot and add the coconut milk, and then the prawn mix.
5. Add one litre of hot water and cook until the fish is soft. Add the potatoes and eggs.
6. Serve in a large soup dish.
7. Serve with rice.

Orange and pineapple crush
Serves 2

Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons crushed ice
• 2 tablespoons sparkling water
• ½ cup orange juice
• ½ cup pineapple juice

Preparation
1. Pour the crushed ice and water into a large drinking glass.
2. Add the orange juice and the pineapple juice. Stir and drink.

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Worship
Come Holy Spirit
prepare us to change everything that imprisons
the life that comes from you. Amen.
(Brazil)

Prayer requests from the Diocese of the Amazon
• For the Brazilian government: Big businesses continue to cut down forests to plant soya or raise cattle. The wood itself also continues to be illegally exported. Mahogany is virtually nonexistent today because of so much destruction. And anyone who gets in the way of these businesses is eliminated. Pray that our government has the strength, the pride and the heart to defend its people against so much exploitation, not just from foreign companies, but from our own.
• For the Anglican Church here: Small as we are, may we find the strength to lift our voices against exploitation, and against urban violence - another scar in this "land of no law" as it is known as here.

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Further resources
The following can be ordered online or by emailing enquiries@uspg.org.uk
• Brazilian flavour booklet - a new supplement showing how churches can add a Brazilian flavour to their USPG Fiesta
• DVD: containing a short film and PowerPoint slides on the work of the Diocese of the Amazon
• Photo exhibition on the work of the Diocese of the Amazon