Flavours of Brazil combine with Lebanese and Italian influences in these deliciously untraditional dishes.
Lebanese food is my go-to when I'm back in Brazil and I need a break from Brazilian food. My favourite Lebanese restaurant in Rio de Janeiro, Basha, makes the most incredible meat-stuffed cabbage rolls, charutos Libanais (which means Lebanese cigars and is the Portuguese name for the dish malfouf). They are served in a fragrant tomato broth and come with pimenta caseira (homemade hot sauce) and lime wedges to squeeze over, in a beautiful union of Lebanese and Brazilian cuisine that inspired today's first dish.
Put all the filling ingredients in a bowl, mix well and set aside.
For the broth, fill and boil the kettle, then whisk 200g boiling water with the tomato puree and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
Hold the bunch of chard by the stalk over a large pan. Pour the rest of the boiling water from the kettle all over the leaves to soften them and make them easier to roll.
Cut the stalks off the leaves, then chop 100g of the stalks as finely as possible and mix with the lamb filling (save the rest of the stalks for another dish).
Clean a work surface and lightly grease it with olive oil. Lay the leaves on the work surface rib side up, taking care not to rip them. If the leaves are on the large side, you'll need just one per roll; if they're smaller, you may need two or three overlapping each other. Fill each leaf with about 50g of the lamb filling, then fold in the sides and roll up tightly. You should end up with about 12 rolls. Place on a tray seam side down.
Put a 28cm-wide pan for which you have a lid on a high heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and, once hot, lay in the chard rolls seam side down and fry for two and a half minutes on each side, until nicely browned. Pour over the tomato broth and drop in the whole scotch bonnet, turn down the heat to low, cover and cook for four minutes more.
Meanwhile, put all the ingredients for the garlic oil in a small saucepan on a medium heat, then cook gently for three minutes, until the garlic is soft, golden brown and fragrant (take care not to burn the garlic).
Squeeze the scotch bonnet into the sauce to release its flavour. Drizzle the rolls with some of the garlic oil, then serve with the rest of the oil on the side and with lime wedges to squeeze over.
If you've ever tried calabresa sausages in Brazil, which are modelled on Calabrian sausages, you'll know that they are superior to just about any other sausage out there (don't get me started on my contempt for English sausages, which lack flavour and texture and are always filled to the brim with rusk and fillers). Fresh calabresa are hard to come by in the UK, unless you can get to a Brazilian butcher, so I've come up with these meatballs. Just like Italian and Brazilian sausages, they're packed full of flavour and have a chunky texture. I've added a few of my favourite untraditional flavours - guava jam, curry powder, scotch bonnet and mustard - and the result is sweet, sticky and completely addictive.
Heat the oven to 210C (190C fan)/410F/gas 6½. Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix until thoroughly combined - make sure you incorporate the guava jam, tomato paste and mustard thoroughly.
With lightly oiled hands, form into eight meatballs, squeezing as you go so that they are compact.
Heat a large frying pan on a high heat. Once hot, fry, turning, until crisp and well browned all over - about four minutes. Transfer to a baking tray and finish cooking in the oven for five minutes. Serve the meatballs with feijão, salad or in a sandwich.