Feijoada in ottawa [General]
2012 Dec 13
Ok, here goes. I consulted a lot of internet resources, cookbooks and some Brazilian friends in developing my "recipe" - which is actually rather simple.
Initial thoughts:
This was historically a dish prepared by slaves, so the meat used was the less choice cuts of pork, both fresh and cured, and beef. If you cooking it for a squeamish crowd, I’d use a selection of pork sausages (smoked and fresh), bacon cut in 1.5cm dice and cubed pork shoulder – maybe stewing beef or a beef shank. But the real way to do it is to get some tongue (pork, beef or veal, soak in salt water for 6 + hours first) smoked ham hocks, pigs tails, ears, smoked jowl in 1.5cm dice, sausages, salt beef or beef jerky.
Black beans cook reasonably quickly compared to other dried beans/legumes, so I don’t find that you have to pressure cook them before adding the meats. In fact in this case, I think some of the tougher meats actually take longer to cook than the beans do. As a rule of thumb, I estimate tougher cuts (tails, hocks tongue etc.) take about 2.5 hours on a low simmer, med. cuts (pork shoulder) 1.5 hours, and sausages well under one hour. You can add the meats that require the longest cooking first, or add everything at once at the beginning, but your sausages might over cook/fall apart this way.
You could use canned beans, but you are going to have to rethink your approach, this recipe won’t work for that. You could also precook some of the meats in water before adding them to shorten overall cooking time.
Saute lots of diced onions and garlic in a big, big pot. I add crushed cumin, coriander and red pepper flakes, and sometimes a diced carrot, but this is not traditional. Add dried rinsed black beans and liberally cover with water or stock. Salt to taste. Add 2 bay leaves, and your meats as discussed above. Simmer on very low heat with the lid on for about 2.5 hours.
Traditional way to present is serve meats separately from beans. The Beans should be very brothy and distinct – i.e. not mashed.
Accompaniments (not optional)
Thinly sliced, kale, collards or swiss chard sauteed in olive oil with lots of garlic.
Steamed white rice (I use basmati and cook it very carefully so it is fluffy and distinct)
Sliced oranges
Chopped cilantro
Farofa: Saute course manioc flour in a bit of fat (ideally I use bacon fat or chicken fat) with some very finely diced garlic/onion until it gets a light brown colour. Transfer to a bowl and add whatever is on hand of the following: sliced green onion, cilantro, parsley, sliced black olives. It is almost like making a couscous-type salad, but it is crunchier - closer to the texture of toasted breadcrumbs.
Eating
Put a pile of rice on your plate, add a brothy ladleful of beans, meats of choice on the side, greens on the side, and sprinkle everything with farofa and cilantro, squeeze orange juice and hot sauce on everything.
Go to Brazilian heaven.
Initial thoughts:
This was historically a dish prepared by slaves, so the meat used was the less choice cuts of pork, both fresh and cured, and beef. If you cooking it for a squeamish crowd, I’d use a selection of pork sausages (smoked and fresh), bacon cut in 1.5cm dice and cubed pork shoulder – maybe stewing beef or a beef shank. But the real way to do it is to get some tongue (pork, beef or veal, soak in salt water for 6 + hours first) smoked ham hocks, pigs tails, ears, smoked jowl in 1.5cm dice, sausages, salt beef or beef jerky.
Black beans cook reasonably quickly compared to other dried beans/legumes, so I don’t find that you have to pressure cook them before adding the meats. In fact in this case, I think some of the tougher meats actually take longer to cook than the beans do. As a rule of thumb, I estimate tougher cuts (tails, hocks tongue etc.) take about 2.5 hours on a low simmer, med. cuts (pork shoulder) 1.5 hours, and sausages well under one hour. You can add the meats that require the longest cooking first, or add everything at once at the beginning, but your sausages might over cook/fall apart this way.
You could use canned beans, but you are going to have to rethink your approach, this recipe won’t work for that. You could also precook some of the meats in water before adding them to shorten overall cooking time.
Saute lots of diced onions and garlic in a big, big pot. I add crushed cumin, coriander and red pepper flakes, and sometimes a diced carrot, but this is not traditional. Add dried rinsed black beans and liberally cover with water or stock. Salt to taste. Add 2 bay leaves, and your meats as discussed above. Simmer on very low heat with the lid on for about 2.5 hours.
Traditional way to present is serve meats separately from beans. The Beans should be very brothy and distinct – i.e. not mashed.
Accompaniments (not optional)
Thinly sliced, kale, collards or swiss chard sauteed in olive oil with lots of garlic.
Steamed white rice (I use basmati and cook it very carefully so it is fluffy and distinct)
Sliced oranges
Chopped cilantro
Farofa: Saute course manioc flour in a bit of fat (ideally I use bacon fat or chicken fat) with some very finely diced garlic/onion until it gets a light brown colour. Transfer to a bowl and add whatever is on hand of the following: sliced green onion, cilantro, parsley, sliced black olives. It is almost like making a couscous-type salad, but it is crunchier - closer to the texture of toasted breadcrumbs.
Eating
Put a pile of rice on your plate, add a brothy ladleful of beans, meats of choice on the side, greens on the side, and sprinkle everything with farofa and cilantro, squeeze orange juice and hot sauce on everything.
Go to Brazilian heaven.
iheartsamosa