Actress Morena Baccarin Cooks a Brazilian Stew

“If I take these house to my children and so they don’t like them, I’m going to kill them,” the actress Morena Baccarin stated.

This was on a sopping morning at Rio Grocery store, a Brazilian grocery within the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. Ms. Baccarin, an Emmy-nominated actress, moved from Rio to New York Metropolis at 10. She nonetheless craves the meals of her childhood, like coxinhas, rooster and potato croquettes, shaped right into a golden-brown kiss. She positioned two orders — one for her, one for her kids — in speedy Portuguese after which bit right into a croquette, someway managing to not smear her lipstick.

“It’s not a part of my food plan, however I can’t not eat these,” she stated. “It’s deep fried and it’s heaven.”

Ms. Baccarin, 42, had come to Rio Market on a latest Friday on the suggestion of two of her cousins, the identical cousins who had given her the flamingo pink earrings she wore. She had a day shoot for “The Endgame,” the thriller collection that just lately premiered on NBC. However she hoped to have simply sufficient time to buy elements after which rush house to make moqueca, a Brazilian fish stew, for her three kids: an 8-year-old son, whom she co-parents together with her first husband, the producer Austin Chick, and a 5-year-old daughter and 11-month-old son together with her present husband, her “Gotham” co-star Ben McKenzie.

She grabbed a basket and started to fill it with frozen cheese bread, bay leaves, natural tea and a carton of brigadeiros, Brazilian sweets made out of condensed milk, cocoa powder and butter.

“The youngsters will forgive me for working all day if I carry that house,” she stated, striding by way of the aisles in a camel-hair coat. Her method was energetic, environment friendly, self-effacing. Her hair hung like a skein of silk, proof against humidity.

Ms. Baccarin began appearing early — her mom had been an actress in Rio, her father a journalist at Globo. “I like hiding in character,” she stated. “I imply, clearly, it’s me, however I wish to fake that it’s not. I inform myself that I’m creating this complete new individual.”

So whilst she struggled to assimilate to Manhattan life, she stored at it, honing her craft first on the Fiorello H. LaGuardia Excessive College of Music & Artwork and Performing Arts, after which on the Juilliard College. She by no means felt that she slot in there.

“I used to be not a favourite,” she stated. “I had numerous perspective.” Juilliard taught her method, stamina, survival, however not easy methods to embrace her strengths or her ethnicity. After graduating, she thought she would do classical theater; Hollywood known as as an alternative. “I felt like I used to be letting all people down,” she stated.

She had a breakout position as a courtesan in Joss Whedon’s short-lived area Western “Firefly.” (She didn’t expertise abuse from Mr. Whedon, however she doesn’t dispute that others might have.) On set she found that her coaching helped her to deal with elevated, stylized textual content and make it sound pure, which in all probability explains why she has discovered her solution to so many superhero tasks together with “Gotham,” “Deadpool,” and “Justice League Limitless.” Her work on the Showtime thriller “Homeland” earned her an Emmy nomination.

Her character in “The Endgame,” an arms vendor and prison mastermind named Elena Federova, has no superpowers. She doesn’t want them. “What’s actually enjoyable about this character is I simply get to mess with folks continuously and poke at their weak spots,” Ms. Baccarin stated. She additionally will get to do stunts. In heels.

That day she wore wise ankle boots, which clacked in opposition to the bottom as she added palm oil to her basket, then scorching sauce for her husband. She noticed a 12-pack of soda flavored with guaraná berries. “It’s the very best. So candy,” she stated. She upgraded her basket to a cart.

After including coconut milk, natural tea, hearts of palm, biscuits, juice, cheese and a pair of Havaianas flip flops for her nanny, she paid, toting her haul to a ready SUV. Half an hour later it delivered her to her South Brooklyn kitchen, within the basement of a brownstone.

Rising up, Ms. Baccarin hardly ever cooked. “My mother at all times swore that I might by no means prepare dinner for any man,” she stated. However as a working actress, she realized to prepare dinner for herself and her associates. “It appears like probably the most like caretaking and loving stuff you are able to do,” she stated.

She realized some Brazilian dishes from her cousins, some from cookbooks. Her husband, regardless of having grown up in Texas, taught her a couple of extra.

After eradicating her coat, she laid out the elements after which snapped on a pair of swimming goggles as she briskly chopped an onion, which she slid into effervescent palm oil. Minced garlic adopted, then sliced bell peppers, then leeks, a last-minute substitute for lemongrass. “I’m doing it slightly bit otherwise,” she stated.

From the fridge she took a packet of fish and one other of shrimp, which her husband had purchased that morning. The shells had been nonetheless on the shrimp. “Guys by no means get it proper, however he’s so candy I can’t complain,” she stated. The shrimp, nonetheless unshelled, went in too, together with a bottle of coconut milk, a squeezed lemon, cilantro and salt.

“And bay leaves,” she stated. “I’m a insurgent.”

She stirred the soup, blew on it, tasted it. She added extra salt and extra cilantro and tasted it once more. Then she took a sip from a freshly chilled guaraná soda.

“I’m such the quintessential Brazilian proper now,” she stated.