Feijoada: Cook-Off 38

[johnnyd]

Feijoada Completa - Na moda Carioca

Adapted from "A Little Brazilian Cookbook" - Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz

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1 pig's foot, split (or two smoked ham hocks work well instead)

3 lb smoked beef tongue

1/2 lb piece lean smoked bacon, rind removed

1 lb piece salt (corned) beef - carne seca

4 cups black beans - soaked overnight

1 lb piece lean beef chuck or bottom round

1 lb fresh pork sausages

1/2 lb choriço (I use 2 or 3 whole fresh if available)

Sauce

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 small fresh hot red or green pepper, seeded and chopped

salt

fresh ground pepper

Serves 8 - 10

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The day before, place beans in stockpot and cover with at least two inches cold water. I've noticed on a typical bag of GOYA beans there's a tip on skipping this step for same day cooking: cover with cold water and boil for ten minutes and let sit while you do other prep. See package for details.

If using, cover the pig's foot in cold water top cover and simmer, covered for 1&1/2 hours. Cool, bone, transfer to a covered container together with the cooking liquid and refrigerate overnight. Cover the tongue, bacon and salt beef (carne seca) with cold water and soak overnight.

Next day, drain beans and put them into a saucepan large enough to hold all the ingredients. Add the pig's foot and it's cooking liquid (or two smoked ham hocks). Cover the beans with cold water by 2 inches. Bring to simmer, cover, simmer for 1&1/2 hours at low heat.

When the beans have cooked for 1&1/2 hours add the bacon, salt beef, fresh beef but leave the tongue to simmer separately. If necessary, add hot water to keep the beans covered. Simmer for two hours more. Remove the tongue from the heat and when cool enough to handle, peel and remove the gristle and bones. Add the tongue to the bean pot with more hot water if necessary. Stir the beans from time to time to keep them from sticking. At this point ham hocks will fall apart in all their gelatinous glory. Prick the fresh sausages and add them to the bean pot with the whole choriço. Simmer for 15 minutes, remove from heat.

Sauce: Heat oil in frying pan and saute onions and garlic until onions are soft. Add tomatoes and chilli and cook until the mixture is thick. Season with salt and pepper. Scoop out a cupful or two of beans and mix into the tomato mixture. Stir this back into the pot and simmer on low heat for at least ten minutes. Stir often.

To serve, lift out the meats and arrange them on an oval platter. Slice the tongue and put it in the center - slices overlapping. Slice the beef, bacon, salt beef, choriço and arrange around the platter - add sausages. Pour the beans, which should be very soft, into a tureen.

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Popular companions to the dish are, white rice, sauteed shredded kale or collard in bacon fat, Farofa (cassava meal or manioc) fried in dende (palm oil), sliced fresh oranges, and molho de pimenta e limão (hot sauce with garlic, lime). The farofa is used traditionally to thicken, or bulk-out, a feijoada that's on the thin, soupy side, but is quite tasty fried up as mentioned above.

Here's a feijoada from my 1st foodblog,

I like a nice heart-of-palm salad with red onion and oranges.

E tambem uma caipirinha, com certeza...

Edited February 24, 2008 by johnnyd (log)

[edsel]

I think that turtle beans are the variety that is cultivated as black beans by the big companies like Goya.

←

Note that the Biju beans that JohnnyD pictured are labeled "Brazilian Grade". Folks in Brazil are incredibly picky about their beans. I remember that back in the seventies there was a major crop failure in Brazil. Black beans were shipped in from the U.S., and the reaction was shock that we actualy considered those beans to be edible.

If you can buy beans from a source that caters to Brazilians, do so. There are online vendors like Amigo Foods that stock Brazilian staples. Or you could do as I do and splurge on the "Midnight" beans from Rancho Gordo. A bit on the pricy side, but worth it IMHO.

Johnny also mentions various accompaniments like the malagueta peppers and farofa (manioc meal). The farofa is essential! The beans should be on the soupy side, not overly thick. The farofa is perfect for soaking up the juices (pot liquor) from the beans.

[edsel]

1 lb piece salt (corned) beef - carne seca

←

Various cookbooks I have call for beef jerky or corned beef as substitutes for carne seca. That just sounds wrong! Is there an online source for carne seca? Or is there a reasonable substitute?

E tambem uma caipirinha, com certeza...

Can't argue with that!

[Baron d'Apcher]

Feijoada de Monte Agradável

(Mount Pleasant Feijoada)

Caipirinhia with sugar cane sticks

cebiche and plantain chips

Feijoada. Black beans cooked with smoked ham hocks; my linguiça, cured pork belly and rum marinated pork shoulder (salted beef could not be readily found).

Farofa. Manioc toasted in bacon fat, with bacon, marcona almonds, raisins and orange zest.

Couve mineita. Collard greens and my red wine vinegar.

Paõ de batata doce. Sweet potato and sweet, potato breads

Ice-cold, cheap Central American beer.

Mangoes

[loki]

I just made this dish and am one my third day of enjoying it. I got my beans from Adobe Milling, Dove Creek, Colorado, famous for their beans. The black beans are wonderful! They take a long time to cook here at elevation, so sometimes I resort to pressure cooking for about 30 minutes before slow cooking the meats with the beans. This time I soaked them and cooked for 4 hours then added the meat and slow cooked for another 3 hours. Last were the sausages which I cooked for 30 minutes. By then some of the beans have fallen apart, and some are still whole, and make a wonderful 'broth'. I'm looking into how to make Carne Seca (so far no responses) but I think I could just salt some beef and dry outdoors (very low humidity here) or in my dehydrator. Other cuts - the pork parts can be 'corned' or salted in brine and left for a few to several days in the refrigerator (look up how to make corned beef). And here sausages are hard to get apart from some commercial varieties, but I used an Andouille (Cajun type not French) made in Colorado that was excellent in the dish. They may be spicier than Brazilian chorizo but were succulent in the dish. I'm also used fresh very garlicy polish sausage (also not easy to get here, but very easy in the Midwest US) and it worked well too. Chorizo here is the Mexican breakfast type that does not work well except fried (when put in a stew in it's casing it becomes mushy). This version has beef shank (luscious with lots of gelatine), Pork ribs, and the sausage. I like mine with lime juice not oranges! And lots of rice. Am now wondering if it's possible to make farofa from Yuca roots (which are easily obtainable), as I don't think we have manioc flour here (though I may have to check with the Mexican grocery stores as some have South American fare such as Mate).

[Brainfoodie]

Wow I've just joined eGullet and there's a topic on Feijoada already. I'm a native Portuguese (but been living here and there..) so I feel I must

add my input to this discussion :-)

I do love the Brasilian version which introduces different ingredients such as the different salted meats, black beans and farofa but let's put the misconceptions of this thread to rest: this

dish was born in the north of Portugal, and then imported and adapted to what was available in Brazil. Similar to how curry is now UK's national dish :-)

The original Portuguese is version quite different (but also delicious) and the finished result looks like this:

The recipe:

800 grams dried red kidney beans

300 grams smoked pig's nose

300 grams smoked pig's ear (note: in Portugal they sell both the smoked nose and ear together)

1 smoked pig's trotter

300 grams de Portuguese thin salami (salpicão) sliced

1 chorizo in 5mm slices

600 grams de salted pork ribs

1 or 2 Portuguese black puddings (morcela)

1 large onion - chopped

4 Tbsp oilive oil

250 grams pancetta or pork belly

2 large carrots - sliced

1 cabbage chopped in 2-3cm large strips

1 thai chilli (same as malagueta)

1 bay leaf

A few cloves (optional)

salt e pepper

Soak the red beans in water the day before.

Cook beans in just enough water (about 3 fingers above the beans) and some salt, until well done but not to the point of bursting... drain but keep the water.

Scrub and wash the pigs ears, nose, trotters and belly. Boil them together with the black pudding in fresh water with some salt. Remove as they are well done, e.g. the nose usually cooks faster.

Keep the water.

Drain the meats and roughly chop into large chunky bits and the black puddings into 1cm slices.

Sautee the onion and carrot in the olive oil for 2-3mins. Add the salami, chorizo and black pudding. Sauté for 2-3 more minutes until they colour the mixture. Add the chopped meats, bay leaf and cloves. Leave to cook for 5 minutes. Add the cabbage together with some of the water from the beans and meats , half a cup of each or more as needed, but the sauce shouldn't be too watery.. When the cabbage is soft add the cooked beans and sliced black pudding. Add the chilli pepper and season with salt as needed.

It's much better done the day before to let the flavours develop and then just reheating to serve. Always served with white boiled rice (can be slightly dried in the oven) and sometimes tender-stem broccoli. This is not topped with farofa flour. Goes well with a nice Pinot Noir :-)

I'm sorry if this is a bit of a rough description, if there's interest I might put up a better version and take some photos of my own. There are also some regional differences within Portugal, e.g. to the south it's not uncommon to use refogado (the Portuguese sofritto) as the base instead of just onions.

Edited October 11, 2010 by Brainfoodie (log)

[Chris Amirault]

There is interest!

For those of us with little access to smoked snout and ear, can trotters substitute? I assume we're trying to get some collagen from the cartilage.

ETA: Hi, Brainfoodie!

Edited October 20, 2010 by Chris Amirault (log)