With garlic, farofa and potatoes, Oswaldo Aranha steak is the face of Rio – 02/26/2024 – Marcão’s Recipes

Next Friday, March 1st, the city of Rio de Janeiro celebrates 459 years. I decided to pay homage to Rio’s cuisine, despite all the risks of a São Paulo native from Cambuci taking on such a challenge.

Rio has a food culture with strong Portuguese and African influences. Some dishes are difficult to find in other parts of Brazil: squid rice with broccoli, ham with mayonnaise, shrimp with chayote.

My favorite Rio dish is the Oswaldo Aranha steak. A steak with lots of fried garlic, served with rice, farofa and Portuguese fries, cut into thin slices.

They say that the steak was a recurring request from politician and diplomat Oswaldo Aranha, who presided over the UN assembly that ratified the partition of British Palestine in 1947.

According to this version, Aranha would go to a restaurant in the center of Rio — some say it was Cosmopolita, others point to Minhota, now closed — and order the bifão sangrado (he was from Rio Grande do Sul) with the side dishes that became the classic garnish.

In fact, in many places in Rio, you can order the garnish from Oswaldo Aranha separately, to accompany any meat: picanha, striploin, sirloin. I made it with ancho steak, tastier and much cheaper than filet mignon.

Many Rio restaurants also send a side dish of black beans. I love beans, but I think that here they kill the textures of the dish: the broth softens the potatoes and makes a mush with the farofa.

One thing to be careful about when frying the garlic is: you need to be very careful not to let it burn. I recommend turning on the low heat and, when the blades start to brown, turn off the flame and wait until they are ready in the residual heat.

The accompanying farofa varies from place to place. I’ve seen egg farofa, banana farofa and green olive farofa. I suggest something simpler, just with butter and onion.

You don’t need to peel the potatoes before frying. If you prefer to make frozen potatoes in the air fryer, I promise I won’t tell anyone.

OSWALDO ARANHA STEAK

Difficulty: average

Performance: 2 servings

Ingredients

400 g of meat (fillet, ancho steak, picanha or rump), divided into 2 thick steaks

2 tablespoons of butter

½ red onion

1 cup cassava flour

Vegetable oil (as much as you need)

8 sliced ​​garlic cloves

2 potatoes, very thinly sliced

2 tablespoons of butter

½ red onion

1 cup cassava flour

Cooked white rice

Salt and black pepper to taste

Way of doing

1. Heat the oven to 200ºC

2. Season the meat with salt and pepper and leave it out of the fridge for 1 hour.

3. Make the farofa. Melt the butter, sauté the onion until softened, mix in the flour and season with salt. Reserve.

4. Heat the oil over low heat. Deep-fry the garlic until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

5. Using the same oil, increase the heat to medium and fry the potatoes in a few batches, so as not to cool the fat. The amount of oil and number of batches will depend on the pan. Set aside in the heated and turned off oven.

6. Heat a griddle or frying pan and grill the steaks to the desired doneness. Distribute the garlic over the meat and serve with farofa, potatoes and rice.

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