Brazilian Feijoada

 A couple days ago, The Blog Tech told me that he had been invited to a birthday party at someone's home he had never met.  I asked him if he wanted to take some food along with him.  He told me that someone that was attending asked if anyone knew where they could buy a good Cubano sandwich.  He mentioned that I make Cubanos and they asked if I could send one to the party. And thus the journey began.  This scenario happens often. Someone casually mentions something they like and the next thing you know, I am consumed with the culture, the food and it always ends up with a huge feast.  The Cubano request came from someone from Brazil.  A week ago I knew nothing about Brazilian food.  Yesterday I cooked a Brazilian feast.

I started by making Feijoada (fay-swa-dah) which is the national dish of Brazil.  Soak 2 bags of black beans overnight. Then start by cooking some bacon.

 While the bacon cooks, dice a large onion.

 Add additional bacon fat if enough didn't render from cooking the bacon.  You need a few tablespoons.

 Dice a green bell pepper, 3 stalks of celery and a lot of diced garlic.

 Saute this all in the bacon grease.

 Add salt and pepper, thyme and oregano.  I used about 1 tablespoon of thyme and oregano each.

 Dice the cooked bacon and return it to the pot.

 Add the drained black beans, several bay leaves, 2 ham hocks and enough beef stock to cover everything by several inches.  Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer, cover and cook for 2 hours or until the beans are tender. Taste for seasoning.  I added 2 beef bouillon cubes.

 Remove the ham hocks and discard and add several different types of sausages.  I used smoked kielbasa, dry chorizo and linquica. 

Feijoada is always served with a side of rice.  Brazilian rice is often made with carrots, garlic and chicken stock.

And always a side of Couve A Mineira:  Brazilian collard greens.

And Molho De Vinagrete: Brazilian salsa.

Peeled sliced oranges are placed on each dish too.

And there is always a side of chimichurri with any good Brazilian feast.  This was just one of the dishes I made.  More to come tomorrow!