The Sabores do Campo program, broadcast on Sundays, presented a traditional recipe originating from the Cerrado: baru paçoca. The person responsible for the preparation is the rural producer Lázaro, who, together with his wife, Dona Arminda, manages over two thousand baru trees on his property.
The family has been exploring the fruits of the Cerrado for over twenty years, transforming the harvest of the nut into a source of income. The recipe has family roots, as Lázaro used to prepare paçoca in Bahia using sesame before adapting the preparation for baru.
Dona Arminda related that the inspiration to use baru in the paçoca came during a seed festival. Since then, Lázaro has started producing this recipe, which has become one of the main ways to utilize the nut.
Ingredients
The necessary components for the recipe include baru nuts, rapadura to taste, and salt to taste.
Preparation Method
The initial procedure consists of removing the baru from the fruit. Lázaro uses a modified sickle, developed by him and his son, or a machete. The sickle speeds up the cutting, but requires the pulp to be removed later. If the machete is used, the nut is almost ready for the next stage.
After extraction, it is essential to select each nut individually, similar to separating beans before cooking. High-quality nuts are light-colored, while damaged ones must be discarded to prevent the paçoca from becoming bitter.
Next, the nuts undergo a sieving process to eliminate any impurities. Only after this cleaning are they taken to the oven.
The baking time should be approximately thirty-five minutes. It is essential to stir the nuts every ten minutes to prevent them from burning on one side. The ideal point is reached when they acquire the characteristic, more reddish hue.
With the toasted nuts, the making of the paçoca begins. They are placed in a mortar along with some rapadura and a pinch of salt. The ingredients are pounded in the mortar until completely mixed, requiring some stirring during the process to equalize the distribution of the grains.
The paçoca will be ready to serve as soon as all elements are well incorporated and exhibit the typical texture of the sweet.
In addition to valuing a typical Cerrado fruit, this recipe preserves a family tradition. The production method also motivated Lázaro's son to develop other items derived from baru, with support from the National Rural Learning Service (Senar).
For the family, the preparation evokes memories of past generations, as the use of the mortar recalls stories of parents and grandparents who also used this utensil in the kitchen. Lázaro commented during the tasting of the paçoca about the variation in seasoning, saying: 'Did you see how much the pinch of salt changes?'