Carne seca

Two days of soaking, then it puts the salt back into the beans slowly, from the inside out.

Pounded together in a wooden mortar until the toasted meal takes up the meat fat.

Plain white rice is a diluent. It takes the salt down to where a whole plate is possible.

Refogado first, always. Melted allium is the only sweetness a two-day soak leaves room for.

Sweet collapsed squash under salt beef. The Northeast layers them and calls it a hiding place.

Cured beef carries no acid of its own; a squeeze at the table is what wakes the shreds up.

Shredded fine and thrown into hot garlic fat. The bitter leaf is the only green on the plate.

Salt beef fries dry. Hot clarified butter poured over at the end puts back what the cure took.

Cowpeas and rice in one pot, the meat shredded through. Ceará built a meal out of scarcity.

Thrown in off the heat. Raw green soap against hard cure is a Northeastern reflex.

Fried until the edges go black; caramelised starch is the sweet counterweight to the salt.

Sliced, never cooked in. Cold citrus resets a palate that cured meat has coated in salt.

Pará eats the pulp savoury, with dried meat and toasted meal. Salt is what the berry wants.

Tart black skin against a hard cure. It does the job of a reduced red without the cellar.

Sour seedy pulp in place of the lime wedge, and it brings a perfume the lime never had.