1980-12-19

Feijoada (Brazil's national dish)

1 lb black beans
1/4 lb salt pork, diced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 lg cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 bay leaves
1 tsp ground cumin
2 ts chopped fresh parsley
1 lb corned beef uncooked
4 hot spicy sausages
4 mild sweet sausages
4 smoked pork chops
Optional additional meats: ham, canadian bacon, smoked pork hocks
 ribs, feet, ears, tails, fresh or salt beef, tongue (traditional)
Prepare the beans: either soak overnight or boil 2 mins and soak an hour. About 2 in of water above the beans. Use plenty else it dries out later. I used to cook a single recipe in a 3.5 quart pot and it barely fit. Now I use a big stainless restaurant pot and make a double or triple recipe. This stuff freezes beautifully and is even better after reheating. (When I was a bachelor I used to keep a block of it in the freezer, and just chip off a hunk and eat it with minute rice.)

Brown the salt pork & onion & garlic. Add them to the beans. Add the corned beef (big chunks). Add bay leaves, cumin, parsley. Bring all to a boil, cut back to simmer, let it cook 2 hrs. Meanwhile brown sausages, etc in skillet.

Cook beans until skin splits when you blow on them. Overcooking ok. Stir so bottom doesn't burn. It looks very watery at first but will thicken up. Dip up a cup of beans & juice, mash with a fork & dump back in. Add sausages, pre-cooked meat, etc. Simmer for another hour or so. Or longer, adding water and stirring to keep the beans from burning.

Salad sauce

2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
4 scallions, chopped fine
1 large clove garlic, pressed or crushed
1 green pepper, diced
1 small red or white onion, chopped fine
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup salad oil
2 ts vinegar
mix, salt, pepper.

Serving

Serve with rice & orange slices & beer. Farinha de mandioca is traditional, use cream of wheat if you can't find any. Tabasco on the side or other peppers. To eat: take some rice, some feijoada, some farinha-de-mandioca, some sauce.

(This recipe is based on a Boston Globe article I found in the mid-70s. The version I make has been eaten by Brazilians, who were polite about it, but said that I put a lot more meat and less beans than the real recipe. The idea of having it as a party meal was surprising to these Brazilians.)

(One day about 1975 I was walking around Harvard Square and noticed a new restaurant, Restaurante Brasilia. It was lunch time so I went in and sat down, and ordered feijoada. Turned out that this was the first Saturday the place was open, and I was the first feijoada customer. I became good friends with the proprietor, Amarilio Rodrigues, who was from Minas Gerais, and ate there often until the place shut down abruptly about 1980.)


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