Feijoada Blog

Okay, so I was in a Brazilian restaurant and my tastebuds exploded over my first taste of the national dish of Brazil - feijoada which is pork and beans as far as I can tell from the recipe but what a combination! Use ham bones and white beans and tomatoes and molasses and you get something quite different - Boston Baked Beans. Use black beans and lots of smoked meats and garlic and bay leaves and you get a national dish! I knew I had to try making this myself and it was the long weekend so I assembled all the ingredients:

Smoked ribs, beef jerky, smoked hock, chorizo sausages and some pork bones.

I had soaked and boiled a kilo of organic black beans the night before and drained them a couple of times so the black colour from the beans wasn't too strong, my dish turned out more brown than the thick purple/black of the restaurant's version.

I stirfried the raw pork bones in oil with garlic and the bay leaves and then added the smoked meats, chopping them up so the flavour would come out really quickly. Once I got the soupy mix rapidly boiling, I added the cooked beans into the mix and turned down the heat, simmering the stuff until the meat started falling off the bones.

I tasted the feijoada and decided it was salty enough so I fished out the bones which still had a lot of meat on them so I put them in a separate saucepan and added more water to make some stock.

The stew I let boil until most of the beans had broken down but still leaving enough for some whole beans to still be in the mix. I then served it up over some plain white rice.

I was happy with the flavour although it wasn't as rich as the version I'd tried, but found it to be too mushy compared to the restaurant's version. I probably didn't need to cook the beans as much beforehand and next time I would leave the beef jerky out, it didn't really add anything to the dish and ended up being chewy and stringy on the plate. And I had a lovely smokey stock to make vegetable soup with the next day!

Capoeira Festival

Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian art form that incorporates dance, martial arts, music and acrobatics. Believed to have been developed by African slaves brought over from Angola as a guise for practicing the martial arts that their slave-masters forbade. Australian now has one of the largest Capoeira communities in the world and where there is Capoeira, there will surely be Brazilian food.

Guarana Antarctica. Brazil's version of Mountain Dew. Taste leans more towards a semi-deflated creaming soda, with apple and berry undertones which really works. Trying to avoid looks of confusion when I was ordering it in Brazil the best way I can describe its pronunciation is Gwa-la-na. Apparently it's only made in three countries Portugal, Brazil and Japan (thanks Wiki) so grab it if you ever have a chance.

Next up is Feijoada (Fesh-wa-da) the national dish of Brazil. A black bean stew, traditionally made with the off cuts of meat like the ears, trotters, snouts etc the one I bought was somewhat lacking in these little delicacies. Replaced instead with pork belly, dried beef, and chorizo and topped with Farofa, it all adds up to one hearty meal. My preference is to have this as a side dish, it was extremely nice, but a little thick and dry in that quantity. Serve it up with a churrasco (charcoal bbq'd meats, try the chicken hearts!) and that'll make my day.

Finally for dessert a frozen berry product called Acai (a-sigh-ee). The flyer claims that this product makes Brazilian soccer players play better, and Brazilian bikini babes look hotter and sexier. It also reduces blood cholesterol, is high in antioxidants, high in fibre and fights infections. Unverified claims aside, it's an enjoyable ice treat that tastes like chocolate berries. I still have doubts about looking good in a pair of speedos but I did play better in soccer so you never know. If you want to find out for yourself check out amazonpower.com.au because whether it works or not, it tastes pretty good, and that's what it's all about.