I actually made food for Brazil four days ago but I'm just now getting around to writing about it. It'll be a pretty short one, because the process for making feijoada, often considered a national dish in Brazil, is a lot less involved than I anticipated. Well, at least the way I made it.
The main ingredient in feijoada is black beans. Feijoa means beans in Portuguese. The beans are cooked from dry.
As with many stews, the base of feijoada starts with some onion and garlic, sauteed until soft.
The second main ingredient in feijoada is pork. This usually comes in the form of several different pork products...ham hock, bacon/lard, smoked sausages, etc. In my case, I used veggie bacon, seen above.
I also added some seitan chorizo. What I really wanted was veggie chorizo links. Portuguese or Spanish chorizo usually comes as a sausage link, rather than Mexican chorizo which usually comes crumbled. This kind really didn't have the spicy flavor I expect from chorizo. It tasted more like ground beef with taco seasoning.
While the beans boiled and the onions sauteed, I chopped up some red and green bell pepper. From the pictures I've seen there's really not that much color in feijoada--it's mostly brownish-black. However, the recipe I used called for full peppers, which made mine a little brighter and probably a little fresher tasting.
Once the beans are soft enough, everything gets thrown into the pot with the onions and garlic. Usually you would have to cook the meats and the ham hock would have to be boiled until it falls off the bone. My version took significantly less time because I didn't have to do all of that. However, the downside is that you don't get exactly the same consistency because you don't have the fat from the meats gelling everything together. I added just a little bit of vegetable shortening to get some of that gelatin consistency you would expect from boiling bones and cartilage (gross).
Once everything has kind of melded together, it's served over white rice. Traditionally, some farofa is sprinkled over the top--farofa is a toasted cassava flour. Instead, I just included some bread that we got in our CSA. It's a polenta loaf, so sort of similar! The recipe I used also said to serve with lemon or orange slices, so I chose lemon. However, googling pictures of feijoada I noticed almost all of them included orange rather than lemon. Still, lemon went nicely with the flavors of the stew and lent some brightness to a very salty and savory dish.
Even though my dish doesn't look exactly how I pictured it--or how feijoada is really supposed to look--it still turned out pretty good. It was flavorful and filling, so still a win. Maybe my next project will be desserts from around the world so I can have a second chance at representing Brazil better, because I've been wanting to make some Brazilian-Portuguese desserts for a while.
Recipes Used: Brazilian Feijoada
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