Passport & Plate - Feijoada
Brazil | Tuesday, February 24, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
1.- 200 gr. Dry meat
2.- 200 gr. of pork rib
3.- 200 gr. of pork paw
4.- 100 gr. of pork tail
5.- 100 gr. of pork ear
6.- 100 gr. of pork sausage
7.- 100 gr. of fumed beef tongue
8.- 50 gr. of bacon
9.- 900 gr. of black beans
10.- 2 chopped onions
11.- 10 chopped pieces of garlic
12.- 6 bay leaves
13.- 5 red peeled tomatoes
14.- Traditional spices (pepper, salt, bay, oregano, etc.)
How to prepare this recipe1.- Clean all the lean meat, getting rid of all the nerves and grease excess. Taking off the hairs and putting the meat to rest in water for about 12 hours.
2.- Change the water about 5 or 6 times during this process.
3.- Boil the meat in full pieces for about 20 minutes in high flame and the throw the water out.
4.- Put the meat to definitely cook with the beans, the bay leaves and the tomatoes in the next order: dry meat, paw and ear.
5.- Half an hour later put the beef tongue, pork sausage and bacon.
6.- Throw the juices out during the whole coking and also all the fat laying on the surface.
7.- In another pan, cook the garlic and onions with a little bit of vegetable oil until you get the onions a bit transparent.
8.- Then put it to cook with the rest of the meat as well.
9.- After two hours of cooking, start checking upon the meat softness , due to the fact that not all the meats cook at the same exact time.
10.- Take the ones that are already cooked out and put them in a separate plate.
11.- When all the meats with the beans are already cooked, take the meats out and cut it into small pieces to serve.
12.- Put them again in the pot with the beans and cook everything again for 10 to 15 min for the flavors to settle.
13.- Serve with white rice.
The story behind this recipeI was at Diamantina, located in Minas Gerais Brazil with my friend Katya. We stayed the first night at her friend’s Aninha place. She was the best host ever. And well, the Carnival was just starting, so we enjoyed the opening night with great performances and beautiful people all around dancing in the streets. Diamantina is certainly a mystic place, filled with old buildings of all sorts and located right in the middle of what used to be a huge old mine place. That particular night, we met this really nice couple (a teacher and her student) who were just coming back from the surroundings of the town from a field trip, both of them are agronomists and were looking for the different kinds of soil that area produces, which by the way are plenty because the mineral richness of the entire area. Anyway, they told us about the surroundings and how it was a lot better to go around and walk through the reserve with beautiful waterfalls and vegetation, than being in a huge crowd because of the carnival in Diamantina. So, next day we rose up at dawn and walked all the way to this beautiful paths in the Reserve. And we did that pretty much the whole week, it was a long walk to each cascade, so we had to get up quite early to make it through the whole day. One in particular we decided to go to the most distant which was about ten miles away. Right in the middle a truck found us and inside there was this nice couple, they gave us a ride right to this beautiful little town called Biribiri immersed in the forest. The couple were the owners of the restaurant there called “Raymundo Sem Brazo” which honored the name of the husband which literally had lost his right arm. They fed us the most exquisite meal, in which was included a deliciuos feijoada, molten cheese and of course a variety of home cured cachaça, which was more than tasty! We had the greatest time there with them and decided to stay there instead of going back to Diamantina to party. Best time ever!
