Curau de Milho (Brazilian Sweet Corn Pudding): Easy Traditional Recipe
Festa-junina
Glossário Culinário
Sieve
A sieve is a kitchen tool made of a fine mesh stretched over a frame, used to strain, separate and aerate ingredients. It removes lumps from flours, strains broths, juices and curau (Brazilian corn pudding), drains grains, and leaves batters, creams and sweets smoother, lighter and more even.
Characteristics
The most common sieves have plastic, stainless-steel or bamboo frames with stainless-steel or nylon mesh in fine, medium and coarse weaves. Fine mesh holds back small particles and gives a silky texture to cakes, puddings, quindins and sauces. Medium mesh strains broths, rinses rice and beans and drains vegetables. Coarse mesh helps mash potatoes, pass skinless tomatoes and strain corn curau. Choose sturdy models with a handle or side rests that sit well on the bowl. To keep them, wash right after use, dry well to prevent rust on basic models, and store hanging or nested without denting the mesh.
Uses in the kitchen
The sieve is indispensable for sifting wheat flour, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch and starch before cakes, breads and cookies, which prevents lumps and adds air to the batter. It strains corn curau after blending, separates pulp from juice, strains vegetable and meat broths, filters yolks for quindim and pudding, and drains ricotta and homemade yogurt. It also dusts sugar and cinnamon over cakes, rinses quinoa and small grains, and finishes smooth tomato sauces by pushing spoonfuls through the mesh with a spoon or spatula.
Substitutions
In a pinch, replace the sieve with a cheesecloth, clean voile fabric, coffee filter, small-holed colander or juice centrifuge, depending on the recipe. To aerate flour, whisk it for a minute. No improvisation, though, gives the same fine finish as a fine-mesh sieve in pastry-making.
Fun facts
In professional pastry, sifting dry ingredients twice is a classic trick for fluffier cakes. In curau and pamonha, straining through a coarse sieve separates the corn’s fine fiber and sets the creaminess. Bamboo sieves, common in Asian cooking, are light and ideal for rice, flours and steamed vegetables.
