Pato no Tucupi

The festival dish of Belém, duck browned and then simmered in the sour yellow cassava broth called tucupi, finished with jambu leaves that leave the mouth tingling

Origin: Belém, Pará, Brazil (the Amazon estuary)

From the journey of Cassava.

Pato no tucupi is the great dish of Pará and the one eaten at the Círio de Nazaré, the procession that fills Belém every October and is among the largest religious gatherings in the world. Families cook it the day the procession passes, and a great many of them cook nothing else that week. Its sauce is the reason it belongs to this entry. Tucupi is the liquid pressed out of grated bitter cassava, which is the poisonous fraction that every other tradition on earth throws away. The peoples of the Amazon estuary established that boiling it hard and long drives off the cyanide entirely, and that what remains, usually fermented afterwards, is a thin golden broth of a savour nothing else in cooking supplies. This dish is a duck poached in that broth. The third element is jambu, Acmella oleracea, whose leaves contain spilanthol and produce a spreading numbness across the lips and tongue rather like a mild Sichuan pepper. It is not a garnish; the tingling against the sourness of the tucupi and the fat of the duck is the whole architecture of the dish. The duck is not incidental either. Muscovy duck, Cairina moschata, was domesticated in South America long before contact, so a dish of native duck in a native cassava broth with a native Amazonian leaf is very nearly untouched by Europe. What the Portuguese contributed was the garlic, the black pepper, and the name.

Ingredients

Duck

1 whole duck (about 2 kg), jointed, or 6 duck legs

Marinade

6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 limes, juiced
2 tsp fine salt
1 tsp black pepper, ground

Broth

1.5 litres tucupi (fermented cassava broth), from a bottle
6 cloves garlic, sliced
3 sprigs chicória do Pará, or coriander with a little celery leaf
4 sprigs alfavaca or sweet basil
2 pimenta de cheiro, or 1 mild chilli, pricked
1 tsp fine salt, or to taste

To finish

400 g jambu leaves and stalks

To cook

2 tbsp neutral oil

Method

Rub the jointed duck all over with the crushed garlic, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or for at least four hours.
Wipe the marinade off the duck pieces and pat them dry. Brown them well, skin side first, in a dry heavy pan over a medium heat for eight to ten minutes a side, until the skin is deep gold and a good deal of fat has rendered.
Meanwhile bring the tucupi to the boil in a large pan with the sliced garlic, the chicória, the alfavaca, the pricked chilli, and the salt. Boil hard for ten minutes, then reduce to a simmer.
Lower the browned duck pieces into the simmering tucupi. They should be nearly covered; top up with a little water if not. Cover and simmer very gently for one and a half to two hours, until the meat is tender enough to pull from the bone.
Lift out the duck and keep it warm. Skim the fat from the surface of the broth and taste it for salt and sourness. Discard the herb sprigs and the chilli.
Blanch the jambu in a separate pan of boiling salted water for three to four minutes, then drain.
Return the duck to the broth, add the drained jambu, and warm through for five minutes.
Serve in deep bowls with plenty of the broth, white rice, and farinha d'água on the table to scatter over.

Notes

Bottled tucupi is sold frozen or in glass by Brazilian grocers and online. There is no substitute and the dish cannot honestly be made without it. Never use raw liquid pressed from cassava. That liquid is the toxic fraction and becomes tucupi only after prolonged boiling. Jambu is sold frozen by the same shops. The numbing is caused by spilanthol and is harmless. Nothing else reproduces it, though watercress with the barest pinch of ground Sichuan pepper gives an honest approximation of the effect. Muscovy duck is the traditional bird and is what is sold in Pará. Any duck works; a large chicken makes a perfectly good frango no tucupi and is what many households cook midweek.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pato no Tucupi
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Brazil
Ingredients: 1 whole duck (about 2 kg), jointed, or 6 duck legs; 6 cloves garlic, crushed; 2 limes, juiced; 2 tsp fine salt; 1 tsp black pepper, ground; 1.5 litres tucupi (fermented cassava broth), from a bottle; 6 cloves garlic, sliced; 3 sprigs chicória do Pará, or coriander with a little celery leaf; 4 sprigs alfavaca or sweet basil; 2 pimenta de cheiro, or 1 mild chilli, pricked; 1 tsp fine salt, or to taste; 400 g jambu leaves and stalks; 2 tbsp neutral oil

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control