Maria Isabel is Northeastern rice cooked with shredded sun-dried salted beef (carne de sol). It is the Piauí rice that sits under an arrumadinho, a composed plate that lines rice, meat, farinha, and sauce up side by side. It is not baião de dois. Baião is rice cooked in bean broth. This pot has no beans.
At a glance
- Region: Nordeste
- 4 to 6 sides
- Rice cooked with shredded carne de sol. No beans.
- 15 to 18 minutes after the pot is covered
What to buy
Sun-dried salted beef (carne de sol) is air-dried salted beef, not jerky and not corned beef. Look for it at a Latin or Brazilian market, or make it first: how to make sun-dried salted beef (carne de sol) at home. That takes two or three days in the fridge. If you cannot buy or make it, 10 oz (280 g) leftover grilled steak, shredded, works in this pot.
Ingredients (4 to 6 sides)
- 2 cups (370 g) long-grain white rice, rinsed
- 10 oz (280 g) homemade or store-bought carne de sol, soaked if needed, cooked and shredded, or leftover grilled steak if you cannot buy carne de sol
- 1 onion, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) bottled Brazilian butter (manteiga de garrafa), or melted salted butter
- 3 1/2 cups (830 ml) water
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 g) salt, only after you taste the meat
Method
- If a raw sliver of the cured meat is inedibly salty, soak it 2 to 4 hours, changing the water once. Cook and shred it.
- Melt the butter. Cook the onion, then the garlic, then the shredded meat 2 minutes.
- Add the rice and stir until the grains look wet.
- Add the water. Cover and cook 15 to 18 minutes.
- Taste. Add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt only if the meat did not salt the pot.
How you know it is done
The rice is separate, not creamy. The meat is mixed through, not sitting in a wet pile. If the pot is still wet at 18 minutes, leave the lid off 2 more minutes.
When it goes on the table
Serve with dry cassava flour (farinha de mandioca) from a Brazilian market, not tapioca starch, Brazilian tomato-onion sauce (vinagrete), and a skewer. That plate is an arrumadinho when you line the parts up. This is the rice.
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