Picadinho à Carioca

Picadinho takes its name from the Portuguese picado, 'chopped' or 'diced', and minced-and-diced beef stews are an old Iberian inheritance. Its precise origin is unknown, but it is documented as cheap, restorative late-night fare in the popular bars of Rio's Lapa and Centro districts, prized by the bohemian crowd as a pick-me-up after a night out. Its best-documented chapter is its rise from bar food to celebrated Carioca dish through the Copacabana Palace hotel, whose Meia-Noite ('Midnight') nightclub put a refined version on the menu in the 1940s; by the 1950s it was widely known as 'Picadinho Meia-Noite'. The recipe — filet-mignon tips sautéed in butter with herbs and tomato, served in a small clay pot with a poached egg — is preserved in the memoirs of the hotel's longtime maître Fery Wünsch and in the research of food journalist J. A. Dias Lopes.

A small clay pot or plate of dark, glossy diced beef in a thick gravy that smells of onion, garlic and tomato. The cubes are tender but hold their shape, browned at the edges. Eat it over white rice with a ladle of bean broth; break the egg and the yolk slackens the whole thing into something silkier. The sweet, caramelized fried banana is the counterweight to the salty beef, and the farofa adds a dry, toasty crunch through it all.

The beef is the signature: cut by knife into roughly 1.5cm cubes so each piece browns on its surface and keeps a discrete, toothsome texture that grinding would destroy. The cubes are seared in batches, never crowded, or they release their liquid and steam grey instead of browning. A sofrito of onion, garlic and tomato builds the base; liquid and sometimes a little wheat flour bind it, and a slow simmer reduces everything to a thick, creamy gravy. Cheaper, collagen-rich cuts like patinho or coxão mole turn meltingly tender over the longer cook as the connective tissue breaks down to gelatin.