Please join me for a description of the origins of Brazil's National Dish - The Feijoada!
 
History

Once again it was the Romans who gave rise to this amazing dish, due to their introduction of the practice of cooking meat slowly in an earthenware pot, giving rise to other such dishes like the Cocido Madrileño , Fabada Asturiana and the Cassoulet to name but a few.

For us Brazil lovers the Feijoada reigns supreme though! The Europeans planted the black bean in Brazil and then would enjoy them slowly cooked with high end parts of the pig together with manioc and green vegetables like couve, (broccoli leaves). Legend has it that the people who had been stolen from their own countries to work for them thousands of miles away, ie their slaves, would have the black beans with the parts of the pig that the 'owners' did not want, ie tail, ear etc

This National dish of Brazil is normally eaten on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Reserve time for a snooze afterwards!

Ingredients:

500g pork shoulder
500g baby pork ribs with a bit of salt
500g pig's tail
1kg trotters
500g smoked shoulder of pork
400g smoked breast of pork
500g smoked sausage
Key ingredient is 1kg carne seca, (Brazilian dried beef)
2kg Brazilian small black beans (without these forget it)
2 onions
1 head of garlic , preferably one that comes from nearby, rather than those small ones that sprout in the hold of the container ships as they do not know what time of year it is.
1 stick celery
1 bouquet garni
3 fresh bay leaves
I tsp black pepper
5 oranges

Don't panic about finding these ingredients. If you live in London head up to Harlesden to my friend Gaucho at Ki Carne, 24 Station Road, NW10 4UE, but there are many Brazilian and Portuguese shops around.

Method

Soak the slightly salted meats the night before.

Put the meat, beans, chopped up onions, crushed garlic bouquet Garni , freshly ground pepper and the finely chopped celery into a large heavy and ideally eathernware pot. Fill with water and bring to boil. Simmer for 2 hours.

As soon as each piece of meat is cooked remove them from the pot and keep them warm, cook the beans for a further hour. Then cut the meat into cubes and add to beans. By this stage the beans should have taken on a creamy consistency. And just to reinforce, do not use the brown Portuguese beans for this dish, only the little Brazilian ones. Then bring to boil and serve with white rice, slices of orange, farofa, which is manioc which can be bought from a packet from all good Brazilian and Portuguese stores. Also you need couve which are fine strips of broccoli leaves or Spring Greens sautéed in garlic and a little bacon fat. I also like lots of rashers of crispy and thin streaky bacon. Not everyone does this but if it is good enough for the Caesar Park in Ipanema, it is most certainly the way to go.

To accompany go with a caipirinha (a demo on this can be found in this channel) and cold lager. By the way Brazilian beer is fabulous!

For my first Feijoada in 1982 in São Paulo, when I was working for Lloyds Bank International, a delightful man called Aoses took me and the other trainees straight off the plane to the Hilton, which in those days was THE place for Feijoada. We then proceeded to drink these huge glass boots of beer, which on reflection was a mistake!

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