Zé.

In Brazil, every family or group of friends has someone called Zé (short for José = Joseph). One goes "Is Zé coming for the bbq?" or "Zé, shut up!" or "Zé is fetching me to the bus terminal."... Everyone has ever 'called', 'cursed', 'picked up', 'trucoed' (scored on the most popular cards game in Brazil) or were a son, a cusin, a brother-in-law of one Zé!

Zé is the guy always present. He has always a specific ability that outstands from others' abilities... 'John', 'Marcel', 'Richard'... Zé will probably know all songs by Waldick Soriano (photo) or plays guitar or can cook.

I have met one Zé, recently, that cooks. I don't know about his other abilities, but, the guy prepared a quibebe* - which he calls 'charque' due to one of its ingredients, salted meat, known in the South of the country as 'charque'. In the Northeast, is it called 'jabá' and in the Southeast, it is simply 'dried meat' - that was really nice! I have followed with him the cruzade of preparing lunch for a group of ten people.

In brief: he chopped two winter squashes, in big chunks, and tenderized them a little in boiling water, then he peeled them. Boiled and washed the dried meat twice - to wash away the excess of salt - and cooked in the pressure cooker afterwards. Chopped white onions and parsley. Sauteéd the meat, added the onions, then the parsley. Threw in the cubes of half cooked squashes and the water which they were boiled in. Let it cook for a while and added some seasonings - pretty much everything he could find in the cupboard - and let it thicken the broth a little further. Voilà!! Ready!

The whole process went for a little more than two hours and we made sure his glass of beer was "topped up" all the time.

Nothing better for lunch on a Sunday with your family and friends than a great meal and the privilege of learning how the chef made the magic happen! ;-)

Thanks, Zé!! :-)

*Quibebe is a mash made with winter squash. Sometimes, half mashed only, like Zé did.