Even though I know almost nothing about Brazilian food, Ixta Belfrage’s name on the cover was enough to get me interested. Ixta comes from the Ottolenghi melting pot and is known for inventive flavour combinations, and the recipes here, inspired in part by her Brazilian mother, do not disappoint. She tells of the food of Brazil as a mix of indigenous, Portuguese and African influences, seasoned with input from migrants from Italy, Germany, Lebanon, Syria, Japan, Peru and Ukraine among others. She’s first to say that these are fusion recipes inspired by Brazil, so it’s not the first port of call if you want a masterclass in traditional classics but, boy, these sound delicious. There’s a lot of tropical fruit and coconut milk, though put to surprising uses: before summer’s over you have to try the coconut and ginger roasted cherry tomatoes or the roasted eggplant with mango sauce and she’s got me intrigued by stir-fried papaya (tastes just like roasted pumpkin apparently). Guava, curry and chilli meatballs, ‘prawns in a pumpkin’ and chicken livers in coffee butter all look too good not to try. A couple of blitz-it-all-in-a blender cakes sound interesting: papaya cake with citrus honey glaze has a luscious coconut/chocolate topping and tinned corn is put to surprising use in her corn cake with guava-strawberry jam, cinnamon cream and caramelised coconut. I won’t lie, some of the ingredients might be tricky to source and many recipes have long lists of ingredients and several elements. I probably wouldn’t think “Let’s have ‘fusion seen through a Brazilian lens’ for dinner”, but if I’m in the mood to think a little differently, then this collection will be high on the list. TRACY WHITMEY