Tasty Feijoada

"Feijoada" is Brazil's national dish. "Feijoada" is made of black beans and lots of meat. Brazilians eat "feijoada" all year round. Many restaurants have at least a "Feijoada" day" per week.

Ingredients

1 pound of black beans

1 pound of smoked sausage

1 pound of carne seca or 1/2 pound of bacon

4 pork shoulder bones and ears

2 small onions

2 garlic cloves

2large bay leaves

2 cups of beef stock

olive oil salt and fresh pepper

very hot pepper sauce

Preparation

Wash beans well and then leave themsoaking in 1 liter of water overnight. On thenext day, cook the beans and water on lowheat for about an hour with the beef stock.

While the beans are cooking, cut the meatsinto bite size chunks, put them all in a pan,cover them with water and boil them forabout ten minutes.

Chop the onions and the garlic finely and mixin random herbs and spices (a spice mix forsalads would work well here). Heat threespoons of oil in a frying pan and fry the onionmixture until it caramelizes. Add a ladle fullof beans (which at this point should be soft)and mash it together with the fried onionmixture. Put the bay leaves into this mushand let it fry for a few minutes.

Pour everything back into the beans. Put the strained meats into the beans andadd a cup of water. Stir. Add salt and hot pepper sauce to taste.

Serves 5 over rice. Can and should beserved with peeled oranges and boiled,salted and shredded collard greens. To drink, prefer beer or caipirinha.

Notes: While the beans are cooking, stirthem occasionally because if they burn onthe bottom, the whole dish will becontaminated. Also, do not add salt to thebeans until the meats have been in it for awhile as these will tend to release their saltinto the water. The Feijoada will be readywhen the liquid is thick and flavorful.

Remarks:

"Feijoada" is better served at lunchtime because it's a heavy dish.

Brazilians use cured salted pork meat (spare ribs, pig's trotters, head and tail), which is available in Brazilian supermarkets.

Cured salted pork meat has to be soaked in water before cooking.

You can replace cured salted pork meat with fresh pork meat.

If you use fresh pork meat, you can also use some "Kassler" (German smoked pork rib) or smoked bacon to add more flavor to the "feijoada".

Jerk beef (carne seca) is available in Brazilian supermarkets. Jerk beef is very salty and it has to be soaked in water before cooking.

The Brazilian sausages (calabresa/paio) can be replaced with any other kind of smoked sausages available on the market.

To make work easier, you can start with the preparation of "feijoada" one day ahead. Cook the beans, the jerk beef, the pork meat and the sausages one day ahead and keep them in the fridge.

"Feijoada completa" is served along with rice, steamed kale, farofa and vinaigrette sauce.

"Caipirinha" is served for aperitif and beer, soft drink or fresh fruit juice for drink.

Sliced orange is served along with "feijoada", but I personally prefer to serve orange for dessert.

For more infomation on Brazilian recipes go to http://www.maria-brazil.org/feijoada.htm