Feijoada
Regarded as Brazil's national dish, traditionally eaten on a Saturday, ideally with a crowd. The rule is the same as for solyanka: the more different cured meats the better — each brings its own salt and its own smoke. The body does not come from flour: some of the beans are crushed against the side of the pot and their starch binds the sauce. And the array of accompaniments around it is not decoration but the means of eating something this heavy.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Soaking the beans 600 min
- Cured meats 25 min
- Simmering 150 min
- Thickening 20 min
- Accompaniments 30 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the beans overnight
Cover the black beans with cold water and leave 10 hours. Throw the water away. Soaked beans cook faster and, more importantly, cook evenly, so you never end up with half the beans collapsed and half still hard.
Ingredients: 700 g black beans · 3 pcs bay leaves · 3000 ml water
Swollen beans; the soaking water goes.Brown all the meats in batches
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pot (at least 7 litres). Cut the ribs into pieces of 2–3 bones, the sausage into thick slices and the bacon into dice. Brown the ribs, sausage, bacon and shoulder in batches over high heat, until each is coloured, setting them aside on a plate. Added raw to the pot they would only be boiled — browning gives a depth the beans alone cannot bring.
Ingredients: 600 g pork ribs · 300 g smoked sausage · 200 g smoked bacon · 500 g pork shoulder
Each kind separately, over high heat.Soften onion and garlic in the fat
In the rendered fat soften the onion for 8 minutes, then add the chopped garlic (keep 2 cloves back for the greens) and the cumin and fry for a minute. This is the Brazilian refogado — the base many Brazilian one-pot dishes begin with.
Ingredients: 2 pcs onions · 8 cloves garlic · 3 tbsp oil · 1 pcs orange · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp salt
Simmer beans and meat two and a half hours
Add the drained beans, the meat, bay leaves and water. Simmer 150 minutes over low heat with the lid ajar. Stir every 20–30 minutes, scraping the bottom, and top up with boiling water if the beans poke above the liquid. Do not salt — the cured meats bring a great deal.
Ingredients: 700 g black beans · 3 pcs bay leaves · 3000 ml water
Crush a ladle of beans against the pot
Take a ladle of beans with a little liquid, crush them with a spoon against the side of the pot and stir them in. Do this with three ladlefuls and simmer another 20 minutes uncovered. The starch from the crushed beans thickens the stew — there is no flour and no roux in feijoada.
Ingredients: 700 g black beans · 3 pcs bay leaves · 3000 ml water
Three ladles crushed against the side — the whole thickener.Finish with orange juice
Lift out the ribs and shoulder, take the meat off the bones, cut it into pieces and return it to the pot. Add the juice of one orange and simmer 5 minutes more. The acid balances the richness of the cured meats and freshens the flavour. Taste — the salt from the meats is usually enough; if not, add some.
Ingredients: 2 pcs onions · 8 cloves garlic · 3 tbsp oil · 1 pcs orange · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp salt
Prepare the four accompaniments
The accompaniments take about half an hour together; you can start on them while the stew thickens. Cook the rice (about 20 minutes). Strip the tough stalks from the greens, shred them very finely and fry 3 minutes in a tablespoon of oil with the 2 reserved garlic cloves. Toast the cassava flour until golden in a pan with 2 tablespoons of fat skimmed from the top of the feijoada, stirring (this is farofa), and slice the oranges. Each has a different job: fresh bitterness, crunch, acidity and a neutral carrier.
Ingredients: 400 g rice · 400 g kale or collard greens · 200 g cassava flour · 3 pcs oranges
Serve everything separately
Put the feijoada in the middle of the table with the rice, greens, farofa and oranges in separate dishes. Nobody combines them in the kitchen — everyone builds their own plate, and the proportions are personal and occasionally disputed.
Ingredients: 400 g rice · 400 g kale or collard greens · 200 g cassava flour · 3 pcs oranges
Before you start
How many meats
Four kinds is a good minimum; in Brazil there are often more, including dried beef (carne seca) and pork ears, trotters or tail. The rule is as in solyanka: variety matters more than quantity. Two kinds give a good stew, but a plainer one.
Decidedly better the next day
It is worth cooking a day ahead. Overnight the beans finish, the fat sets on top and can be lifted off, and the smoke moves into the sauce. Loosen with water when reheating — it thickens considerably.
Farofa is compulsory
Toasted cassava flour looks unremarkable, but it provides a crunch nothing else in this dish has. Without it feijoada is uniformly soft. Outside Brazil, look for cassava flour (farinha de mandioca) in Brazilian or African grocers, or online.
