Sunday, February 1, 2009

Feijoada

Some disclaimers: This looks scary. And maybe the first time you make it, it WILL be scary. There, there - it will be ok. I generally stock up on meat at Costco or when my local grocery store has smoked sausage and/or breakfast sausage on sale. You don't need all of these meats, but I don't make it if I don't at least have a ham hock, some kind of stew-ish meat (beef or pork) and some smoked sausage. Oh, and chorizo. I recently, mistakenly, bought heat-and-eat chorizo which was more of a smoked sausage consistency. It was ok, but I much prefer the stuff that comes in tubes and is about 50% fat and looks disgusting while you cook it. I never know if it's cooked all the way (about 8-10 minutes in the pan), so I just cook it until I'm bored and then dump it in the beans and simmer that for another 15-20 minutes. I figure all the heebie-jeebies will be killed at that point.

And all spice mixtures are to my taste. This is not a hot/spicy dish, nor is it meant to be. The only thing you really need to watch is the salt - too much, and you'll ruin the whole thing (been there!); too little, and there's definitely something lacking that even adding later doesn't fix. As I tried and erred (pronounced ERR, not AIR - you're learning to cook AND pronunciation! you're welcome!), I found I really favored sea salt. For kosher salt, I'd probably scale back to 1 tablespoon. For regular...I don't know. I have a billion boxes of it thanks to someone offloading their food storage onto me, but I really only use that for salting boiling water and dusting popcorn. I'm a salt snob, what can I say?

Oh, and I use a pressure cooker. I forgot to mention that. It's a pretty important part. You CAN make it in a regular pot or even in a slow cooker, but it's going to take a lot longer and you'll probably need more water (you can add as you go). I'll try to guess how long, but I haven't done it that way. Joel said that the sound of the pressure cooker in the morning reminds him of walking down a street in rural Brazil. They are NOT scary tools. (ok, in Brazil they are, but not here) People do not blow up their pots any more. Or lose fingers. Or whatever. Well, as long as you follow the directions. But that's like saying nobody blends their hands - if you use common sense and follow directions, all limbs will stay intact.

Ok, so here we go. Please ask questions - I never know what isn't self-explanatory. And, mostly, enjoy!

Sarah's Feijoada

Beans:
2 lbs (~4 cups) black beans, picked over
1/4 C olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 cloves minced fresh garlic
2 bay leaves
2 T ground cumin
2 T ground coriander
2 T sea salt (less if using regular salt)
1 T Adobo seasoning
6 1/2 cups water (or until beans are covered by about 1/2")
1 ham hock (or ham bone)(or a couple teaspoons of ham base)

Meat:
1 T olive oil
1/2 lb stew meat, in bite-size cubes
1/2 lb pork loin or shoulder, in bite-size cubes
1/2 lb smoked sausage, sliced lengthwise, and then in about 1/2" slices
1/2 lb breakfast sausage links or bulk sausage
1/2 lb chorizo sausage

Lots of cooked rice (around 8 cups)

Soaking beans:
Place beans in a pot with a LOT of cold water, covering it by several inches. Bring to a boil and keep it there for a minute. Then cover, push aside, and let sit for an hour. OR - soak them overnight, though I think this sometimes leads to soggier beans. OR - place beans in pot and over with HOT water and let sit for 4 hours. This is my current favorite - it combines the above two and leads to lovely soaked, but firm, beans.

Drain beans, and rinse. Heat oil in large pressure cooker over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until translucent (5-8 mins). Add garlic and bay leaves and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add cumin, coriander, salt and adobo (I usually put all of these in a bowl while the onion is cooking, for efficiency). Stir. Add water, beans and ham hock, sinking ham hock beneath water in the middle of the beans. Add more water as necessary to cover beans and hock. Seal lid, and bring to full pressure, letting it cook for 30 minutes. Depressurize cooker according to directions. (if you don't have a pressure cooker, use a large stockpot, and simmer beans, uncovered, for about 2 hours or until beans are very tender - I think in the crockpot on low this would take at least 8 hours? I don't know - it's better to overcook for a softer bean than undercook for a firmer and more gas-producing bean).

While beans are in pressure cooker, sauté the meat, starting with the beef, then pork, smoked sausage, breakfast sausage (roughly chop while browning), and finishing with chorizo. Brown meat on all sides and transfer to a plate. (I prefer this order because chorizo releases a LOT of oil that will get very messy)

Remove ham hock from cooked beans and shred any meat. Add all meat to the stew, and return it to a simmer and cook about 15 minutes. Turn heat off and let the stew sit for another 15 minutes.

When ready to serve, arrange a mound of rice in the center and spoon some of the stew over the top of each. Serve with cooked collard greens or spinach and fresh orange wedges for more authenticity.

For lunches, I scoop equal portions of rice and stew into gladware and freeze. It's very good the next day and freezes very well. Sometimes I do a a meatless version with black and/or pinto beans to serve over rice, in burritos, or even to later fry in bacon fat (wheee!) for my own refried beans. Cooked, even just soaked, beans freeze well.

Scary, right? It really isn't. And this makes enough for 3 dinner's worth (2 adult and 2 children portions, each) and about 8-10 more lunches. If you're local, I'll tell you the next time I'm making it and you can come watch. And eat.

Oh, and for extra deliciousness, serve with Brazilian Lemonade.

2 comments:

Dawnette and Mark Coltrin said...

Ok… I didn’t understand one word in this entry. Is that bad??? Does it just prove that I really don’t know how to cook and how I should have paid more attention in YW when you were trying to teach us things… Oh well… I will stick to what I know... you know… the good Mexican food we all love. Yeah… at least I know I can cook that… sort of.

Nataluscious said...

Um Sarah, they're not collard greens, they're colored. You don't call them "collard people" that would be offensive.