Samba Sole

So, last Sunday we had plans for a favourite dinner chez Bobofeed: Sole Meunière with Brown Butter & Capers, to be served with Red Swiss Chard & a biblical grain of some sort. But as you may have read earlier in the week, we became somewhat distracted in the afternoon hours by some serious booty shakin' on College Street, followed by a refreshing Caipirinha. It was simply not possible to say "até logo" to our nostalgia for Ipanema & radically switch gears to la cuisine francaise. Whatever to do?
Improvise, of course!!

Our favourite seafood cookbook describes "a la Meunière" as being in the fashion of the miller's wife. Well, we don't really know our Portuguese, but we suspect "sole in the style of the miller's wife" is probably something along the lines of "o linguado moleira" (although technically, that's probably "in the style of a female miller".) Let's not split hairs, shall we?

Sole Meunière involves giving the fish a light dusting in flour, quickly pan frying, then browning some butter & tossing in lemon juice & some capers. Spoon the butter mixture over the filets & serve.
Our Brazilian spin involved dusting the fish in manioc flour instead of the usual unbleached wheat flour. We fried as per the recipe, and browned the butter, but acidulated with lime juice. We did add some capers, but we augmented them with chopped-up marinated artichoke hearts (which stood in for hearts of palm, a more traditional Brazilian ingredient)

Brazilians will often serve collard greens as a side vegetable. We figured our red chard was close enough. But instead of also preparing a grain we opted for legumes. (beans are big, big, big in Brazil) So we softened some garlic in olive oil (should have been palm oil), added the chard ever so briefly, then poured in a little chicken stock & some Pinto Beans.

As we plated we got a little carried away & added some sprinkles of the courser manioc that's used to make Farofa. Farofa the "condiment" is manioc toasted with onions (and often chopped olives), and from our brief experience it tends to be served alongside a lot of Brazilian dishes.
In our case, the farofa flour helped thicken up the chicken stock a little, giving a great consistency to our side.
Actually, our "side" was more of an "under"

While we didn't have a bottle of red from Rio Grande do Sul state waiting in the rack, we did have this trustworthy Spaniard which suited our fare really nicely.

All in all, a success.
And proof that if you follow your heart & your instincts your efforts in the kitchen are bound to reward you.