Cookware · Hearths
Cuscuzeira
A lidded steamer pot: cuscuz of maize or rice that is a Brazilian breakfast, not a Maghrebi stew.
The journey
Cuscuz in the Brazilian northeast is steamed maize or rice meal, often eaten with butter, coconut, or eggs. The cuscuzeira is a pot with a perforated insert — cousin to a couscoussier, born of a different grain and a different morning.
The Maghreb has the couscoussier. Recife and Fortaleza have this smaller steamer.
In the kitchen
Moisten the meal until it clumps. Pack loosely in the insert. Steam until the smell turns sweet. Serve hot.
The Brazilian volume's banana-and-maize breakfasts assume this pot. A bamboo or metal steamer can stand in.