Fusão: Untraditional Recipes Inspired by Brazil, written by Ixta Belfrage, features a vibrant collection of over 100 dishes with a focus on Brazilian ingredients and flavors alongside beautiful photography and captivating stories. A few highlights include Chilled Avocado Soup with Scallion Butter, Moqueca Fish Burgers, Camarão na Moranga, Slow-Cooked Pineapple Pork with Green Vinagrete, and Coconut Rice Pudding with Guava-Strawberry Jam. I will also be sharing her recipe for Coconut and Ginger Roasted Cherry Tomatoes following the review.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book from Interlink Publishing in exchange for my honest review. All comments and opinions are my own.
Ixta Belfrage
Ixta Belfrage is a cook, author, and recipe developer shaped by the flavors of Italy (where she spent part of her childhood), Brazil (where her mother is from), and Mexico (where her grandfather lived).
She began her culinary career at Ottolenghi’s NOPI restaurant, spent five years at Test Kitchen, and is now a contributing editor at Elle Magazine. Her work has also been featured in Culinary Institute of America, Food 52, Cherrybombe, and more.
Ixta is also the author of Mezcla and the co-author of Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook.
Fusão
Ixta begins Fusão with an introduction covering the inspiration behind this book and how her cooking has been shaped by her family.
She also shares an overview of Brazilian cuisine with its fusion of Indigenous, Portuguese, and West African flavors alongside more recent influences from Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Japanese, and other communities. Additional essays and travel memories are intertwined between the recipes for an even closer look at the people, places, and ingredients.
For those new to working with Brazilian ingredients, there is a helpful guide to notable items with the name in English and Portuguese, pronunciation tips, descriptions, plus where to locate them and substitution options.
Chapters are divided according to the following: Vegetables, Seafood, Meat, and Sweet. There is also a section on condiments and sauces that can be made ahead of time to easily add a burst of flavor to the meals.
The recipe photography is provided by Kim Lightbody with location photography in Brazil by Pedro Pinho. Most of the recipes are paired with a beautifully styled, full page photo of the finished dish. Alongside all of these recipes, the pages are also filled with scenes in Brazil of the people, landscape, and food.
Measurements are listed in US Customary and Metric. Titles are written in English and/or Brazilian Portuguese. Each recipe has a headnote with background information, personal memories, serving ideas, yield, prep and cook time, and other helpful tips. Ixta has also included symbols to note whether the dish is gluten-free (or has a gluten-free option), vegetarian, or vegan/vegan option.
Coconut and Ginger Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
To pair with the review, I made Ixta’s recipe for Coconut and Ginger Roasted Cherry Tomatoes! It is nearing the end of the growing season for cherry tomatoes in my garden and this was a fantastic way to quickly use them up.
A vibrant accompaniment to seafood or meat, these tomatoes come together with only a few minutes of prep and half an hour in the oven.
Simply combine the tomatoes with coconut milk, ginger, cilantro, chiles, garlic, honey, turmeric, and salt in a baking dish. Transfer the dish to the oven and bake the tomatoes until they have developed a few charred spots across the top and the sauce is bubbly and slightly thickened.
We enjoyed the Coconut and Ginger Roasted Cherry Tomatoes warm, but they can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week. Reheat slightly before serving, as the coconut milk will set at cooler temperatures.
This dish is naturally gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan (use maple syrup or agave syrup if avoiding honey).
For the best results, use ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes. Ixta recommends Datterini. I went with a mixture of Sunrise Bumblebee, Rosella, and smaller red cherry tomatoes from my garden.
Want even more spice? Remove the chiles after baking, chop them up, and gently mix back into the tomatoes along with the seeds to incorporate extra heat into every bite.
While the tomatoes are especially perfect as a condiment alongside seafood or meat, they also pair well with toast, eggs, sandwiches, baked potatoes, rice, or noodles.
For a one-pan meal, Ixta recommends adding fish fillets to the baking dish after 25 minutes of baking. Spoon some of the sauce and tomatoes over the fish to nestle them in and continue baking for another 10 minutes. This can also be done with shrimp, but only with a few final minutes in the oven.
More Dishes
We also made the Pastéis de Forno with Crunchy Flaky Spelt Pastry; Quick Steaks with Coffee & Chile Butter; Pineapple Torte; and Guava, Strawberry & Black Pepper Caipirinha.
The Pastéis de Forno with Crunchy Flaky Spelt Pastry from the Seafood chapter was my husband’s favorite. A baked version of the Brazilian Pastel, this recipe has spelt and polenta in the buttery dough to create a crisp and flaky texture perfect for pairing with the spiced tuna tomato filling.
My son actually requested and made the Quick Steaks with Coffee & Chile Butter! This easy meal was developed with picanha in mind, but using smaller steaks. The steak is briefly coated in a coffee chile marinade, seared on each side, then finished with a scallion cilantro butter.
I made the Pineapple Torte to use up an extra pineapple (previous plans for it had fallen apart) and it was such a comforting treat. Inspired by Ixta’s Banana and Sesame Cake in Mezcla, this torte is filled with layers of thinly sliced ripe pineapple barely held together with a spelt flour batter to create a soft, pudding like texture.
The Guava, Strawberry & Black Pepper Caipirinha is such a fun cocktail with a refreshing blend of flavors. Guava puree, tangerine juice, honey, lemon, lime, and strawberries are blended with cachaça until smooth, then strained into a glass over ice. I especially loved the addition of cinnamon and black pepper to add a bit of warmth. If you are looking for something more chilled, these flavors are also represented in the recipe for guava, cinnamon, strawberry & lime sorbet in the book.
Fusão is a great option for those looking to incorporate seasonal Brazilian flavors at home in creative and innovative ways. There are options for every season and occasion, from quick and refreshing lunches to more celebratory meals. Many of the recipes are free from gluten, refined sugar, refined oils, grains, and dairy.
Having a market with Brazilian and South American products nearby will be helpful in locating items such as dried chiles, Scotch bonnet chile, masa harina, ground urucum, fresh seafood, banana leaves, cassava, cassava flour, chickpea flour, passion fruit pulp/puree, and plantains.
Coconut and Ginger Roasted Cherry Tomatoes Recipe
Excerpt from Fusão
Coconut and Ginger Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
Tomatoes:
- 2 pounds 3 ounces (1 kilogram) ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes such as Datterini
- 1 cup scant (200 grams) full-fat coconut milk from a can, not a carton; mix well before measuring
- 1 ounce (30 grams) fresh ginger peeled and cut into short, thin matchsticks
- 1 ounce (30 grams) cilantro
- 6 whole bird's-eye chiles a mix of green and red
- 6 garlic cloves peeled and left whole
- 2 tablespoons honey or maple/agave syrup
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
To serve:
- olive oil
- 1 lime halved
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 475˚F (250˚C), or as high as your oven will go.
- Put all the ingredients for the tomatoes into a baking dish that's just big enough to fit everything snugly in a single layer (a 15 inch/38 centimeter oval dish is perfect for this).
- Mix well, then roast for 35 minutes, or until the tomatoes are charred and the sauce is bubbling.
- Drizzle with a little oil and serve warm, with fresh lime squeezed on top.
- Chop the chiles and stir them back into the sauce if you want more heat.
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