RICHARD FRISBIE - Feijoada x 2

I stayed at the Copacabana Palace Hotel while I was in Rio de Janeiro in August. It is the best hotel in Latin America, with a perfect location on Copacabana Beach, three restaurants, and the most gracious staff of any hotel I’ve ever stayed in. When Chef Luis Incao learned I was familiar with some Brazilian specialties, especially feijoada (which I love!) he gave me his recipe.

Feijoada

(Serves 20 persons)

Ingredients:
4 lb 4 oz of black beans
2 lb 2 oz of dried beef
1 lb 1 oz of salt-cured pork
1 lb 1 oz of bacon
1 lb 1 oz of smoked sausage
6 pieces of dried sausage
1 piece of smoked beef tongue
2 of each - pig's ear, tail and trotter

Method:

* Place the beans and salted meats in separate bowls and cover with water. Leave to soak for 24 hours (change water every six hours)
* Put all the ingredients into a pan and cover with water
* Add half an orange, three bay leaves, a chopped onion and a pepper
* Cook these ingredients over a low heat and gradually remove the meat as it cooks to prevent it from becoming too soft
* In a separate pan, heat two tablespoons of soya bean oil and fry six cloves of garlic and two chopped onions. Pour into the beans and mix well
* Remove a small portion of beans and mash them using a wooden spoon to make the sauce a little thicker  

Serve with:
White rice, fried manioc flour, kale 'à la Mineira' (shredded and fried in oil with garlic), orange, hot pepper

Tricks:

* The orange will add a special flavour and make the dish easier to digest
* Always cook over low to moderate heat
* If more water is required, use boiling water
See RICHARD FRISBIE - Eating & Drinking Like the Cariocas of Rio for more info

I didn’t tell him this, but my version is for fewer people (although feijoada is a GREAT party food) and I use the crock pot.  Feijoada lends itself perfectly to crockpot cooking.
This recipe actually grew out of a black bean recipe, because I think I could live on just black beans and rice, but I added meat to bring out the complexity, and to add variety to the meal after seeing an article about feijoada in Bon Appetite a few years ago.

Ingredients:
1 lb organic black beans
2 oz salt pork
1 ham hock
2 beef shanks (approx 1 lb) with bone
1-2 lbs (4 to 8 links) smoked sausage (I use good German wursts)
½ lb chorizo
1-2 lbs smoked pork chops (the Smokehouse of the Catskills is just down the road!)
2 lg onions, 4 cloves garlic, 2 bay leaves
1 juice orange and 2 peeled segmented oranges

Curiously, while I was looking for sour casava flour to make Pao de Queijo (cheese bread balls) I found seasoning packets for feijoada on http://store.amigofoods.com/ I’ve never seen a reference to them in any recipe, but I needed to add things to my order to meet their minimum of $19.95, so - now that I own some - I’ll try one next time. Anyway:

Wash and put the black beans down to soak

Chop and fry a 2 inch cube of salt pork. When it begins to brown, add two beef shank steaks (bone in - same as used for osso bucco) and quickly brown on both sides. Remove them to a large bowl. Slice two wursts and brown them and the whole ones. Add them to the bowl of beef. Saute one large onion, chopped, and 4 cloves of garlic, chopped, and the sliced chorizo in the grease left in the pan until golden, but do not brown. Put them in the bowl. Use the juice of one orange (and a little water) to deglaze the pan. Then add the liquid to the bowl and allow to cool. Put the meat in the refrigerator overnight and go to bed.

In the morning rinse the beans and put them in a large crock pot. Cover with 1 inch liquid (low sodium beef or chicken broth is ideal - or - water) add the bowl of meat, 2 bay leaves, the ham hock and smoked pork chops. Red & black pepper to taste. (salt, too, if you normally use a lot of it, otherwise wait until you get home to taste. It should be salty enough without adding any.) Turn on the crock pot <--I’ve been known to forget this step - ARGH!!! - and go to work.

Before you are ready to eat, remove the meat to a platter and keep warm. Remove the bay leaves and any bones that didn’t come out with the meat. Run your hand held mixer through the pot a few times to mush some of the beans and thicken the mixture. Put the beans and the platter of meat decorated with orange segments on the table. Serves 4 - 8. Ideally each person will get a wurst, a porkchop, and some beef. Serve with rice, raw chopped onion (not traditional, but I love it!) and a big salad (or try that kale. It's simply stir fried in oil with chopped garlic)

To drink - you will of course need the Brazilian National Drink - Caipirinha!

Also from Luis Incao . . .
The perfect accompaniment to feijoada is caipirinha.

Ingredients:
Cachaça (sugar cane liqueur)
Diced lemon
Sugar
Ice cubes

Method:

* Dice the lemon
* Place in an old-fashioned glass, sprinkle with two tablespoons of sugar and crush together
* Fill with ice and mix with as much or as little cachaça as you like and stir

I had it made with limes, and I had it made with pineapple instead of most of the lemon - Fabulous!
Rio Visitors Bureau

TAM Brazilian Airlines
Richard Frisbie, FOOD Correspondent:

RICHARD FRISBIE is published twice a month to Gather Essentials: Food 
It is a food junkie's take on growing, raising, preparing and - above all else - eating food. Together we’ll explore the trends, addictions, equipment and regional specialties that make up the sometimes mundane and sometimes sublime cooking and dining experience. You can keep up with my other postings and Gather activity by joining my Gather network -- just click the orange “Connect” button on the upper left-hand side of this page --- I look forward to hearing from you.

BIO - Richard has been writing culinary travel articles for more than five years as a columnist for his local newspapers, and as a regular contributor to the many Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountain and other regional New York publications. His most recent addition to that list is a wine column called “Fruit of the Vine” for Life in the Finger Lakes magazine. Online, he writes frequent articles for EDGE publications and Travel Lady, as well as Gather.

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