Brazilian Feijoada

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In 2017, we were hosting five students from Brazil in the Czech Republic. One of them, Pedro, was spending his stay in the Bares’ family in Dobrusce. From time to time our exchange students bring interesting recipes from their home countries which enrich the menu of their host families. In autumn, Pedro prepared a Brazilian specialty feijoada (feijao= beans) for our international dinner in Pardubice. He was kind enough to share his recipe with us so that you can try to surprise your family with this delicious recipe!

Feijoada (traditional Brazilian dish, popular mostly during festive occasions)

Ingredients:

  • 1kg small black beans
  • 3 tablespoons of lard or oil
  • 100g bacon
  • 100g dried beef
  • 150g smoked shoulder (pork)
  • 150g ribs
  • 2 pig feet + 1 ear
  • 150g chorizo sausages
  • 150g pork sausages
  • 2 big onions
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 chili pepper
  • 1-2 oranges (its juice)
  • 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
  • rice + orange slices as a side dish, spicy salsa also possible

Method:

  1. Soak the smoked meat with the beans at least a day in advance so that the ingredients are completely soaked/immersed. We will change the water once.
  2. Prepare a large pot in which we pre-cook the beans in the second, changed water, in which they were soaked together with the meat.
  3. In a deep skillet, fry the bacon to golden in little oil or lard and gradually add all kinds of meat.
  4. After roasting, add the meat to the pot with the beans.
  5. Pour a little oil into the pan and fry the sausages, which we then remove and also add to the beans pot.
  6. In the sausage cake, fry the onion with garlic and also add it to the rest of the ingredients in the pot.
  7. Then fill the pot with water so that it is about twice as much as the beans.
  8. Add bay leaves, chili pepper, pepper it and bring to a boil.
  9. Stew for about 40 minutes to an hour (until everything softens).
  10. Add a shot of cachaça (Brazilian sugar cane spirit, can be replaced with white rum) and orange juice and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Serve with rice and orange slices.