Escondidinho — 'the little hidden one' — is a northeastern Brazilian bake where seasoned meat or shredded carne-seca lies concealed beneath a smooth cassava purée, gratinéed with cheese. The name is the dish's whole joke.
Break the bubbling cheese crust to reveal silky cassava purée giving way to a savoury tangle of seasoned beef beneath. The purée is buttery and mild, the meat deeply seasoned, every layer melting into the next. Pure comfort.
Cassava's high starch mashes into an exceptionally smooth, glossy purée, and baking sets it into a sliceable layer while the cheese forms a savoury browned crust that seals in moisture.
Variations
escondidinho de carne seca, de frango, de camarao with shrimp, sweet-potato purée version
On the Palate
Where Escondidinho sits in the Brazilian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 25 min
- 130 min
Soak and rehydrate dried beef, then boil and shred it into fine strands.
Watch outShred the boiled dried beef into fine strands, not chunks — thin threads soak up the seasoning and layer flat between the purée.
- 28 min
Saute onion and garlic, then add the shredded beef and season well.
- 320 min
Boil peeled cassava until very soft, then drain thoroughly.
- 48 min
Mash the cassava with butter, milk and a little cream into a smooth purée.
Watch outMash the cassava while it's hot into a glossy, lump-free purée — cooled cassava turns gluey and stiff and won't smooth out.
- 53 min
Spread half the cassava purée over the base of a baking dish.
- 64 min
Layer the seasoned meat evenly, then cover with the remaining purée.
- 72 min
Top generously with grated cheese.
- 825 min
Bake at 200C until the cheese is bubbling and golden, then rest before serving.
Watch outPull it from the oven when the cheese is bubbling and blotched golden-brown, then rest it so the layers set enough to cut cleanly.
