Recipe: Brazilian Black Feijoada

It's been just shy of 8 years since I wrote this recipe I invented which was my early attempt at making a simple, easy Brazilian feijoada dish. Looking back on it, I'm super embarrassed at how lazy I was. Well, since then, I have made feijoada dozens and dozens of times for my family meals and it's gotten better and better. I think just in the past few months I've finally perfected it. For years, I didn't think it was possible for a non-Brazilian to manage to make this dish—its specific flavor was so elusive, especially without authentic Brazilian Sazon packets—but now I think I finally figured it out. And if blue-eyed, white-skinned, Idahoan me managed to cook it, you can too, no matter where you're from!

Brazilian Black Feijoada

"Uma delicia auténtica!"

 Ingredients

• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 4 oz. pork, cubed
• 3 beef hot dogs, 2 brats, or 1 smoked sausage, sliced
• ¾ large onion, chopped and divided
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cans black beans, drained*
• ½ tsp cumin
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• ½ tsp cracked pepper
• ¼ tsp. ground coriander
• 2 bay leaves
• cilantro, chopped

Directions

1. Brown the bacon, pork, and hot dogs in a cooking pot over medium high heat.
2. Set aside meats and sauté the garlic and half of the chopped onions in the bacon fat.
3. Add beans, seasonings, the rest of the onions, and 2 cups of water to the pot* and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes, then add the meat and simmer for another 15 minutes or until the flavors are combined and the pork is stained from the black beans. Stir occasionally. Add more water if it starts to get too thick, or uncover if it's too thin for you.
5. Add salt, pepper, and water to taste and to the desired thickness, and add desired amount of cilantro (or Italian parsley if you don't like cilantro)—I usually go with a half a bundle or so.
6. Serve with hot sauce, farofa pronta, Brazilian vinagrete salsa, sliced bananas, mashed potatoes, pão de queijo, steak, chicken, or whatever else you want, on a bed of Brazilian rice. Click the links for good recipes for each of those.
7. Enjoy!

*If you'd like to do it with dry beans in a pressure cooker, instead use ½ pound (1 cup) dry black beans soaked for an hour or so, 2 teaspoons of salt, ¼ teaspoon of baking soda, and 2½ cups of water. Pressure cook all the ingredients together (except cilantro) for 35 minutes with a natural release.

YIELD: About 5–8 servings.

Washes down well with...  Guaraná, Sprite, or fresh mango, guava, or passion fruit juice.

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*Found at some Latin food markets