Cabeça de Galo: Northeast Brazilian Cassava Flour and Egg Soup

Steps

1. 1Dice the vegetables and chop the aromatics

   Cut the tomato, onion and both pepper halves into small, even dice so they soften at the same rate in the lard. Chop the garlic, the aromatic chili and the cheiro-verde finely. Split the herbs into two piles, one for the base and one for the finish. Keep each vegetable in its own pile so you can add them without stopping. You are ready when everything is cut into small, even pieces.

2. 2Soak the flour in a separate bowl

   Put the cassava flour in a bowl, away from the stove, and pour over the 4¼ cups (1 L) of soaking water. Stir once so every grain is wet. Leave it while you cook the base and give it a stir now and then. It is ready when the grains have swollen and turned pale beige and settled into a loose, wet mass with water on top.

   Wet flour goes in smoothly

   Dry farinha dropped into hot broth clumps on contact. Grains that have already drunk their water spread through the pot in one stir, and that is what makes the broth smooth.

3. 3Soften the base in lard

   Warm the lard in the large pot over medium heat until it melts and shimmers. Add the garlic, onion, tomato, peppers, aromatic chili and the first pile of cheiro-verde. Cook, stirring often, as the tomato breaks down and the onion loses its sharp smell. Move on when the vegetables are soft and lightly golden at the edges and smell sweet.

4. 4Add the spices and water and bring to a boil

   Stir in the açafrão, colorau, black pepper and a little salt, and let them warm in the fat for a moment so they colour the base. Pour in about 4¼ cups (1 L) of water and scrape up anything stuck to the bottom. Bring it to a boil. It is ready when the broth is orange-red all the way through and bubbling around the edge of the pot.

5. 5Stir in the soaked flour until lightly thickened

   Pour the soaked flour into the boiling broth together with all of its soaking water. Stir constantly with the wooden spoon, reaching into the corners and across the bottom, so no clumps form and nothing sticks. Keep it simmering and keep stirring until the broth thickens lightly and turns smooth and soft. Taste and adjust with salt and black pepper. The soup is right when it coats the spoon like a thin porridge and still pours easily.

   Hot, thick soup

   Once the flour is in, the soup scorches easily on the bottom and can spit as it bubbles. Keep stirring, use a long wooden spoon and keep your hand back from the surface.

6. 6Crack the eggs and poach them without stirring

   Crack each egg into a small cup first and check it before it goes near the pot. Bring the soup back to a boil and gently slide in the eggs one at a time, leaving space between them. Stop stirring now. The pot stays still while the eggs cook. They are done when the whites are fully opaque and the yolks are set firm.

   One cup per egg

   Crack every egg into its own cup. A bad egg or a stray bit of shell then stays out of the soup, and each egg slides in whole instead of breaking on the way in.

7. 7Finish with herbs and serve hot

   Scatter the rest of the cheiro-verde over the surface. Ladle the soup into bowls, slipping the ladle under one egg at a time so each bowl gets a whole one. Grind over a little more black pepper if you like. Serve right away, while steam is rising from every bowl.