Brazilian fusion

Chef Ixta Belfrage, who co- wrote the bestselling Flavour with Yotam Ottolenghi is back with her next cookbook. Lauren Taylor reports

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YOU’RE unlikely to see piranha in the seafood aisle of your local supermarket, but the toothy, carnivorous fish are an everyday staple in the Amazon.

“It’s delicious,” says Brazilian-British chef Ixta Belfrage. “It has the fattiness of a mackerel, but not the strong flavour of mackerel - it kind of tastes like seabass. It's quite thin so there’s not much flesh.”

Amazonian river fish “are some of the most bonkers fish you've ever seen”, says the 34-year-old. Another popular species is tambaqui, with its big meaty, fatty ribs eaten in the same way pork ribs would be.

Ixta rose to fame under the leadership of famed Israeli chef Yotam Ottelenghi, co-writing his bestseller, Flavour, after she worked in the test kitchen for his restaurants. But you won't need to try to track down piranhas for recipes in her latest cookbook, Fusao, which marks the context and history of the cuisine of four key areas of Brazil, and offers fusion recipes which are accessible to make at home.

For some impossible-to-source outside of Brazil ingredients - like tucupi, a bright yellow liquid extracted from a type of wild cassava - Ixta has designed a way to recreate the flavour with everyday foods.