RECIPE - Bean Soup Brazilian Beach Style (Caldinho de Feijão)

To wrap up Flavors of Brazil's series of posts on Brazilian beach-style soup recipes, we're posting one of the most traditional as well as most popular caldinhos (cups of soup in Portuguese) - bean soup with coconut milk. Along with the ever-popular fish and shrimp soups solds on the beaches of Brazil, bean soup is a favorite choice for Brazilian beach-goers on beaches all along the coastline of Brazil.

This soup can be made with any variety of dried beans. Even in Brazil, the choice of beans in this soup varies from region to region and from vendor to vendor. In Rio de Janeiro you're most likely to find black bean soup, and in the northeast of the country the most popular choice is carioca beans (similar to pinto beans).

This recipe starts with about three cups of basic Brazilian beans, already cooked. We published the recipe in back in 2010 and you can link to that recipe here), you can use those beans and some of their broth as the soup base. Either way you'll end up with a hearty and nourishing bean soup, enlivened and "Brazilianized" by the presence of coconut milk. The recipe makes a large quantity of soup, but it freezes marvelously, so you needn't worry about any going to waste.
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RECIPE - Bean Soup Brazilian Beach Style (Caldinho de Feijão)


3 cups approximately, cooked Brazilian-style beans, and their broth (recipe here)
3/4 cup (200 ml) coconut milk
1 small chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
2 Tbsp chopped green onion, for garnish
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro, for garnish
2 Tbsp finely chopped red or green bell pepper, for garnish
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Combine the beans and their broth, the coconut milk and optional chili pepper in a large bowl, then blend them, in batches if necessary, until you have a homogenous mixture.

Pour the blended mixture into a large sauce pan and heat over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat, and cook for about 10 minutes at a simmer.

Pour the hot soup in cups or mugs, and sprinkle the surface with chopped green onions, bell peppers and/or cilantro.
Serve immediately.

INGREDIENTS OF BRAZIL - Feijão Manteiga (Butter Beans)

If the Lord's Prayer were colloquially translated into Brazilian Portuguese, those who recited it wouldn't ask for their "daily bread" but rather for their "daily rice and beans." In the biblical prayer bread represents the food required to sustain the body, and for millions of Brazilians, rich or poor, it's not bread that they eat every day of their life, it's rice and beans.

The beans that Brazilians eat on a daily basis are not, of course, green beans. They are dried legumes that have been reconstituted and cooked in liquid until tender. In fact, Brazilians don't even use the word feijão (which means bean) when referring to green beans. They have another word, vargem, for this vegetable and don't consider it a bean at all. Beans mean dried beans, full stop.

There are numerous varieties of dried beans eaten in Brazil, ranging from black beans to white ones, and from large kidney beans to small pea-shaped varieties. The choice of bean is often regional, and most people in Brazil do not eat one type of bean on Monday, another on Tuesday, etc. The bean they eat is always the same. If a Brazilian was raised on black beans, that's likely all he or she eats, and if it was carioca beans served at the family table, that'll be the bean of choice forever.

One bean that is very strictly regional is called feijão manteiga, which translated literally into English means butter bean. However, the bean is not the same as the lima bean, which is called butter bean in many regions of the USA. That bean is called feijão-de-lima in Brazil. The bean on which Brazilians have bestowed the moniker feijão manteiga is a medium-size, light brown bean about the size and shape of a pinto bean, but without the mottling that gives that bean its name.

The Brazilian butter bean is well-named, for it has a rich creaminess when properly cooked, and this richness gives it the mouth feel of butter, though there is almost no fat in the bean. The taste is also characteristically nutty with a hint of sweetness. It's one of the most flavorful and delicious of all the thousands of varieties of dried beans.

Feijão manteiga is eaten primarily in Brazil's north and northeast, and in the state of  São Paulo, and is not well known in other regions of the country.

In the next post on Flavors of Brazil, we'll publish a traditional recipe from São Paulo for this delicious legume.

RECIPE - Pressure Cooker Beans (Feijão na Panela de Pressão)

There's no reliable statistics on how many tons of beans are cooked everyday in Brazilian homes for the family mid-day meal, though it's absolutely clear that the quantity IS in the tons. Brazilian mid-day meals almost always include beans and rice in addition to whatever else is being served that day.

Making beans is part of a Brazilian home kitchen's everyday morning schedule, whether that kitchen is run by a housewife/mother herself, or by a domestic servant. Another day, another pot of beans. If these beans were cooked the way most North American and European cooks make beans - soaking the dried beans overnight, then cooking them on the stove for an hour or two until the are fully cooked and ready to eat - these cooks would spend a good portion of their waking hours cooking beans.

That doesn't happen though, thanks to the continued use of pressure cookers in Brazil, even though they have almost disappeared in other parts of the world. Again, there nor no reliable statistics, but anecdotal evidence would indicate that by far the largest portion of those tons of beans were cooked in a pressure cooker. If you ask a Brazilian cook if they make beans in a pressure cooker, you're likely to get a stunned expression and a quick "of course" as a response. Brazilians just can't imagine why anyone would cook beans any other way. Presoaking isn't required, the cooking time is a mere 15 minutes, and even if you take into account the half an hour that you need to let the pressure cooker cool, the whole process can be done in under an hour. With all the other tasks needed to get the family meal on the table, that's a blessing. At least that's how Brazilian cooks seem to take it.

Flavors of Brazil published a non-pressure cooker recipe for basic Brazilian beans some time back. You can find it by clicking here. However, if you have a pressure cooker lying around somewhere, unused, why not get it out and try making beans the Brazilian way. Here's how:
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RECIPE - Pressure Cooker Beans (Feijão na Panela de Pressão)

2 cups dried beans (any kind - Pinto, black, etc.)
4 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs cilantro, whole
2 green onions, whole
salt and black pepper to taste
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Wash and pick over the beans. Put them in a 4 quart or larger pressure cooker. Add four cups water, the cilantro, green onions and the bay leaf. Cover the pressure cooker and heat on stove according to directions. When the pressure takes (the cooker begins to whistle and steam) reduce heat slightly and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve. Do NOT open the pressure cooker.

After about 30 minutes, check the pressure in the cooker. If there is no pressure remaining you can open the pan. Remove the cilantro, green onion and bay leaf and discard them. Let the beans and their liquid sit in the pressure cooker.

In a cast iron frying pan heat the vegetable oil. When hot but not smoking add the onion and garlic. Cook for about 5-8 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft and transparent but not brown. Reduce heat. With a ladle, remove about one ladleful of beans from the pressure cooker and about one ladleful of their liquid. Add to the frying pan and coarsely mash the beans with the back of the ladle. Cook for a few minutes, then return contents of the frying pan to the pressure cooker. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately, or let cool completely. Can be stored in the refrigerator for two days or in the freezer for up to a month.

RECIPE - Brazilian "Refried Beans" (Tutu de Feijão)

One Mexican dish that's become famous outside the borders of that country is somewhat misnamedly called frijoles refritos, which means refried beans. The dish consists of cooked dried beans that have been partially mashed and then reheated in a frying pan, often with the addition of some form of fat, usually lard. Creamy and rich, these beans and an accompanying mound of rice make the traditional sides on a Mexican dinner, lunch or even breakfast plate.

Brazil's variation on this Mexican theme is called tutu de feijão and employs a variety of cured meat products, like sausage or bacon, to add flavor to pre-cooked beans plus manioc flour to thicken and enrich the bean liquid. It's popular all over Brazil, but particularly so in the state of Minas Gerais - so much so that the dish is sometimes called Tutu de Feijão à Mineira, which means "tutu in the style of Minas Gerais".
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RECIPE - Brazilian "Refried Beans" (Tutu de Feijão)
Serves 4

3 cups pre-cooked beans, with their cooking liquid
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 thick slice bacon, cut into small cubes (optional)
1 small linguica or other garlic sausage, cut into small cubes (optional)
1 cup manioc flour (farinha)
1 cup water
chopped cilantro and green onion for garnish
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In a blender or food processor, blend the beans and their cooking liquid until they are homogenous. Reserve.

Using a large frying pan, fry the bacon and sausage until they have rendered the fat and they are thoroughly browned and crunchy. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the fan in the pan. Reheat the fat, then add the onion and garlic and fry over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until they are soft and transparent, but not browned.

Add the reserved beans to the pan, reheat them, then add the water. When the mixture begins to boil, slowly add the manioc flour by sprinkling a few tablespoons at a time and mixing them in before adding additional flour. When all is absorbed continue to cook for a few minutes or until the mixture has thickened.

Put the tutu in a deep serving bowl and sprinkle the cilantro and green onion on top. Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Feijoada Fritters (Bolinho de Feijoada)

Up to now, we've been focusing on classic bolinho recipes in the current series of posts about one of Brazil's favorite bar snacks - manioc, cheese, carne de sol. These recipes have been around for a long time and bar patrons in Brazil have probably been noshing on these bolinhos since the days when Original beer really was original.

Today's recipe, which will be the last bolinho recipe for a while, is different. It's not a traditional recipe whose origins are lost in those fabled mists of time. We know whose idea is was to make a bolinho with the ingredients and flavors of Brazil's national dish feijoada - Kátia Barbosa e Kadu Tomé, owners, respectively, of Rio de Janeiro botecos Aconchego Carioca and Bracarense. They came up with the idea jointly at a gastronomic festival in the state of Minas Gerais, and according to website Receitaculo, the first attempts were less than successful.

Once back in Rio Kátia continued to play with the recipe and discovered that the secrets to making a great bolinho de feijoada were two. First, the bean-based fritters should be chilled thoroughly, almost to freezing, before cooking. Second, the oil used to fry them should be very hot, so that the dough is cooked through and the kale stuffing is hot.

At Kátia's bar, Aconchego Carioca, she serves her bolinhos de feijoada accompanied by slices of orange, fried pork-rinds (torresmo) and a batida de limão, a lime-juice cocktail. The current price is R$15 per portion or about USD $8.50. In a recent edition of the Comida di Buteco competition, these bolinhos were judged the second-best bar-food recipe in Rio de Janeiro.
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RECIPE - Feijoada Fritters (Bolinho de Feijoada)

8 cups (2 liters) water
1 lb (500 gr) dried black beans
4 oz (100 gr) dried, salted beef (carne seca) - desalted and cut into very small cubes
4 oz (100 gr) pork loin - cut into very small cubes
2 links Italian, Spanish or Portuguese-style garlic sausage - peeled and cut into very small cubes
3 bay leaves
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
salt to taste
300 gr fresh farinha (manioc flour)
1 Tbsp manioc starch (polvilho azedo)
1/2 lb (250 gr) smoked bacon, cut into small cubes
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 bunches kale, washed, destemmed and cut into thin strips
additional farinha (manioc flour) for breading
neutral vegetable oil for frying
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In a pressure cooker, add the water and combine with the beans, the cubed meats (except the bacon) and the bay leaves. Cover as directed, and place over medium high heat. Counting from when the pressure takes, cook for one hour. Remove from heat, let cool completely, then open the pressure cooker. Reserve.

Once the mixture in the pressure cooker is completely cooled, blend the beans, the broth and meats (discard the bay leaves) in a blender until homogenous and smooth. Do this is batches if necessary.

In a large sauce pan heat the olive oil, then fry the garlic until it just begins to brown. Add the blended bean mixture and correct the seasoning with salt. By small handfuls, begin to add the manioc flour, stirring constantly. Mix each batch in completely before adding another. When the mass (called tutu in Portuguese) begins to pull away cleanly from the side of the pan remove from heat, transfer the tutu to another pan or bowl and cool completely. Once it is cool, mix in the manioc starch and knead the mass until it is smooth and homogenous. Reserve.

In a large frying pan cook the bacon cubes until they are browned and crispy and have rendered their fat. Add the garlic cloves and cook for a minute or two more. Add the strips of kale and stir-fry only until the kale takes on color and softens slightly. Remove from heat.

Using wet hands or plastic gloves begin to form the balls. Grab a golf-ball-sized chunk of dough and open it out to disc shape in your palm. Put about 1 tsp of the cooked kale in the middle and close the dough around the filling, sealing it well. Roll the ball in farinha to lightly bread it then place it on a cookie sheet. Continue the process, placing finished balls on the cookie sheet, until all ingredients have been used up.

Place the cookie sheet in a freezer and cool until very cold but not frozen (about one hour).

Meanwhile prepare your deep-fryer and heat the oil until very hot but not smoking. Remove just enough balls from the freeze to make a first batch. Add them to the hot oil and cook, rolling them over from time to time, until the outside is deep brown and crispy and the filling is cooked through. Drain on paper towel and reserve, keeping warm, until all the balls have been fried.

Serve immediately, accompanied as above if desired.

Recipe translated and adapted from Receitaculo.com.

RECIPE - Virado à Paulista

In yesterday's post, which concerned the efforts of an informal group of young chefs to preserve the traditional cuisine of São Paulo, we mentioned that one of that city's councilmen has asked the municipal heritage committee to enshrine a dish called virado à paulista in the roll of São Paulo's intangible patrimony.

Should his efforts be successful, virado à paulista will join a number of traditional festivals, dances, and other foods considered worthy of preservation in the face of global homogenization. To be worthy of such august company you'd think that virado à paulista might be a complicated or extravagant dish. Nothing of the sort - virado à paulista is a common mid-day meal in thousands of downtown and suburban restaurants and lunch bars. It's often served as a restaurant's prato feito (blue-plate special). It's never expensive and sometimes it's downright cheap. But its supporters feel that it is worthy of preservation efforts due to its long history, and also to the emotional attachment that many paulistas have to this dish they've eaten since their childhood.

Basically, virado à paulista is a full-meal plate consisting of white rice, cooked beans, manioc flour, a slice or two of garlic sausage, a thin steak, sauteed kale, a fried plantain and sometimes a fried egg. Nouvelle cuisine this ain't. Satisfying and filling, a virado à paulista is fuel for the whole day - for the body and for the paulista soul.

Although there are innumerable variations on the basic virado à paulista theme, this recipe is a fairly typical rendition. Feel free to modify it as desired - everybody has their own favorite way to make virado à paulista.
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RECIPE - Virado à Paulista
1 portion

3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 cup cooked dried beans, with their broth (click here for recipe for beans)
1/3 cup farinha (dried, toasted manioc flour)
4 oz. (100 gr) sliced garlic sausage (kielbasa, linguiça or similar)
8 oz. thin beefsteak (round steak or other)
salt to taste
7 leaves kale, destemmed and cut into thin strips
1 ripe plantain, peeled and sliced
cooked white rice
1 fried egg, sunny-side up (optional)
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In a medium saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp of the olive oil, then saute the onion and garlic until transparent and softened but not browned. Add the beans and their broth and heat through. Mix in the manioc flour, adding a bit at a time and mixing each batch in completely before continuing. Reduce heat to very low and cook for about five minutes, or until the manioc flour is softened. Remove from heat and reserve, keeping warm.

In a small frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and fry  the sliced sausage until browned and crispy. Remove the sausage to a small plate and reserve, keeping warm. Season the steak with salt to taste, add the final Tbsp olive oil to the pan in which the sausage was fried and fry the steak to the desired degree of doneness. Reserve the steak, keeping warm. Still using the same frying pan, briefly stir-fry the kale - just until it takes on a brilliant emerald color. Seaon with salt and reserve. Finally, fry the plantain in the same frying pan.

Assemble the plate - put a scoop of white rice and a scoop of the beans on a large deep plate. Place the steak to one side, and top with the sausage slices. Add the kale and banana slices, and if desired, top it all with a fried sunny-side-up egg. Serve immediately.

RECIPE - Pureed Beans with Coconut Milk (Feijão de Coco)

 

A portion of beans is an almost-universal part of a Brazilian meal plate, along with rice, and if the budget allows, some sort of animal protein. If meat or fish is too expensive, which it is for many Brazilians, then the plate will consist of rice and beans alone, adorned perhaps with a piece of lettuce and a slice of tomato.

Nine time out of ten the beans are prepared dried beans cooked in water until soft, and then seasoned with onion, garlic and salt. But everybody likes a bit of varietyonce in a while, even those very conservative Brazilians who will tell you that they eat rice and beans every day, in the same style.

One unusual and unexpectedly delicious way to serve beans at any meal is this recipe for pureed beans flavored with coconut milk, which comes from the north-eastern state of Pernambuco. It can be made quick thick, sort of like Mexican-style refried beans, or with additional liquid can become a thinner puree - the choice is yours. Obviously, additional coconut milk will not only thin out the pureed-bean mixture, but it will also crank up the coconut flavor in the dish. If you want a thinner puree, but don't want to increase the flavor of coconut, you can use some of the water the beans were cooked in. See the photos accompanying this post to see the results of using less liquid (above) or more (below).

You can serve this dish, plus the obligatory plain white rice, alongside a nice piece of grilled fish, a thin steak or slice of pot roast, or a piece of roast chicken. To make it a perfect copy of a Brazilian meal, just add the piece of lettuce and slice of tomato to the plate and make sure there's some type of hot sauce on the table.

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RECIPE - Pureed Beans with Coconut Milk (Feijão de Coco)
Serves 4

3 cups precooked dried beans (pinto beans are best, but other types can be used)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup coconut milk, canned or home-made
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt to taste
chopped cilantro to garnish (optional)
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Drain the precooked beans, reserving their cooking liquid if desired. Put them in a blender or food processor along with the chopped onion, the coconut milk and the olive oil. Blend for about one minute at high speed, or until you have a completely homogenous mixture. Check for consistency and if it is too thick add additional coconut milk or some of the reserved cooking liquid and blend again for a few seconds.

Pour into a heavy sauce pan and cook over medium low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid burning on the bottom and adding additional liquid as needed. Remove from heat.

Season with salt to taste. Spoon into a decorative serving bowl and sprinkle with chopped cilantro if desired. Serve hot.

What Do Brazilians Eat Most?

Recently, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Portuguese acronym - IBGE) published the results of a survey on the daily eating habits of Brazilians. Completely unsurprisingly, the survey revealed that the three most commonly consumed foodstuffs of Brazil are rice, beans and coffee. Anyone who has any knowledge of Brazilian eating habits would be likely to name the same three foods if asked to guess what Brazilians eat most.

Nonetheless, there were some interesting statistics in the publication many of which indicate wide variations in daily diet from region to region within the country. Because of huge distances, different climates and environments and varying agricultural practices, what a northern Brazilian from the Amazon eats is not the same as what a southerner from Santa Catarina or Rio Grande do Sul finds on their plate. The "big three", however - rice, beans and coffee - are consumed everywhere.

The average daily consumption of rice in Brazil is 182 grams (about .40 pounds). The consumption of beans is slightly less at 160 grams (about .35 pounds). These are washed down with nearly 220 ml (just under a cup) of coffee. Considering that Brazilian coffee is normally drunk in very small cups called cafezinhos, this works out to nearly seven cups of coffee per person per day. Brazil truly does run on caffeine.

Next in line in terms of favorite foods in Brazil are bread and beef.The most common type of bread in Brazil is a small French-style roll, and 63% of the population eats bread on any given day. The percentage who eat beef is just under half of the population (48%). The beef number seems astonishingly high, but Brazil is only 6th in the world in per capita beef consumption and Brazilians eat less than half as much beef as their neighbors the Argentinians and Uruguayans.

Some regional patterns that emerged from the survey show that inhabitants of Brazil's Central West region consume the most rice, beef and whole milk, while those who live in the populous Southeast (which includes the two largest cities in Brazil, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, eat more beans, more yogurt, and more potatoes than anywhere else in the country). It's not a surprise that those who live in the north, home of the gigantic Amazon River system, eat more fresh water fish than their compatriots elsewhere in Brazil as well as more açaí, one of the region's native fruits.

A native starch, manioc, in its many forms is much more consumed in the north and north-east than elsewhere. In those regions 40% of the population consumes manioc in some form daily, while in the south the equivalent number is less than 5%.

The overall picture drawn by the IBGE's survey shows a country that is united by its eating habits, but one that is also regionally divided by those same habits. Just as the foods of New England and California display varying regional preferences yet share some typical American eating habits, the pattern in Brazil shows the same unity and diversity. And the foods that link all Brazilians as they sit down to a meal are the bid three - rice, beans and coffee.

RECIPE - Brazilian "Refried Beans" (Feijão de Leite)

We've never quite understood why the Mexican dish called frijoles refritos in Spanish and refried beans in English has that particular name. The beans really aren't fried even once, much less refried. They are cooked, mashed, and then reheated on a stove or over a flame with some lard or oil. Perhaps it's the presence of some form of fat that caused the dish to be named refried beans. We don't know.

Whatever the problems the dish has with nomenclature, it's a wonderfully delicious way to serve dried beans, and makes a perfect accompaniment to a simple plate of some sort of protein (meat or fish) with rice. The beans turn the duopoly of protein and starch into a complete meal - and make the dish almost perfectly nutricious as long as a dollop of salsa tops it off.

Traditional Brazilian cuisine has a very similar dish, which in Portuguese is wisely NOT called feijão refrito. It's known instead as feijão de leite (meaning beans with milk). It comes from the northeastern state of Bahia, and typicallof Bahian cooking, the milk employed comes not from a cow, or even a sheep or a goat. It comes from a palm tree - the milk in this dish is coconut milk.

In  feijão de leite, dried beans are cooked in the normal way then they're mashed. Coconut milk is stirred in, and the mashed beans are heated just until they boil. It's a perfect way to use leftover beans, and with (again) protein and rice creates a balanced, delicious plate of food. Since it's just as easy to make a large quantity of beans as it is to make a small one, and since cooked beans freeze beautifully, making this dish from defrosted beans from your freezer is a snap and requires almost no preparation time at all. Next time you make beans freeze some just for this purpose. You'll be glad you did.

(Note: In Brazil this dish is usually made with a type of bean known as feijão mulatinho. The closest equivalent is pinto beans, which work beautifully in this recipe, but almost any sort of dried bean is acceptable as a substitute.)
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RECIPE - Brazilian "Refried Beans"  (Feijão de Leite)
Serves 8

4 cups (1l) precooked basic beans (click here for recipe for basic beans)
1 cup coconut milk, canned or homemade
salt to taste
1/4 cup sugar (optional)

Put the cooked beans, with their liquid, in a blender along with the coconut milk. Blend until smooth and homogenous. Add the sugar (if desired) and correct the salt.

Put the blended beans in a large, heavy pan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring frequently to avoid burning. Heat until the mixture just begins to bubble, remove from heat and serve immediately.

Recipe translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora.

RECIPE - Dobradinha

On Monday, in a post on Flavors of Brazil about the Brazilian tripe-and-beans dish known as dobradinha, I promised that on Wednesday (today) a typical recipe for that dish would be posted. And as far as this blog is concerned, a kept promise is the best kind, so here is the recipe.

Naturally, a dish that has a long and glorious history, like dobradinha, will have countless varieties and variations. Some are regional and some are historical. The one thing about this multitude of recipes is that everyone thinks that their mother has the original (and best) recipe. A good dobradina has to be exactly like Mamãe (Mommy) made it all those years ago.

This recipe comes from the southeastern interior of Brazil, from the state of Minas Gerais. Minas was one of the earliest-settled parts of Brazil and is one of the parts of Brazil in which the influence of Portugal is strongly felt - from the food, to the music, and to the amazing Baroque architecture that graces its churches and relious buildings. Since dobradinha is of Portuguese origin, it makes sense that Mineiro (from Minas Gerais) dobradinha is considered among the best and most traditional.

One thing to note - this recipe calls for the use of a pressure cooker. Almost every Brazilian kitchen has a pressure cooker, and most Brazilian cooks use it daily. A kitchen without a pressure cooker here in Brazil would be like a 21st-century North American kitchen without a microwave - you can cook without one, but most choose not to. The recipe can be made successfully with a pressure cooker. Just allow for approximately double the cooking time for the various parts of the dish - beans, meats - and watch carefully to make sure that the dish doesn't become dried out. Just add a small amount of warm or hot water when that appears to be happening.

This dish is very hearty and substantial. Traditionally it is served with white rice, Mineiro-style kale, and manioc flour (farinha).
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RECIPE - Dobradinha
Serves 8

2 cups dried white beans - Navy beans, cannellini beans or similar
2 lbs (1 kg) tripe
juice of 2 large limes
1/2 cup (125 ml) cachaça
2 unpeeled limes, sliced
white or yellow cornmeal
4 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
Italian parsley and green onions (green part only), to taste
1/2 cup lard or neutral vegetable oil
8 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 Tbsp. ground annatto (urucum) - sweet paprika may be substituted
1 clove garlic, peeled and pounded to a paste with 1 tsp. salt
2 bay leaves
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Prepare the beans: Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water. Alternatively, put the beans in a large saucepan, cover with plenty of cold water, place on medium high heat on the stove and bring to a boil rapidly. Boil for one minute, then remove from the heat, cover the pan, and let stand for one hour. Once soaked or pre-boiled, put the beans in a heavy pan, cover with fresh water, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and let the beans slowly boil (just a few bubbles appearing at any time) for 40 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. Cooking time depends on size and age of beans, so begin checking beans after about 40 minutes. The beans are done when they are fully tender but not falling apart. Once cooked, remove the beans from the heat and reserve.

Prepare the tripe: Cut the tripe into small 2 inch squares. Put the squares in a large saucepan, cover with water, then add the lime juice and cachaca to the pan. Bring to a full boil and boil for five minutes. Remove from heat. Drain the tripe into a colander, rinse with plenty of running water and reserve. Wash the pan, then return the drained tripe to the pan and cover with fresh water. Again bring to a boil, cook for five minutes, then drain and reserve. Repeat the process a third time. After draining a final time, rub the tripe with the lime slices and cornmeal to clean it thoroughly and remove all dirt. Rinse under a thin stream of water, scrubbing the lime and cornmeal into the tripe as you rinse. (This process eliminates the strong odor of unwashed tripe and is essential to a successful dobradinha.)

Make the dobradinha: In a pressure cooker with the top off, melt the lard or add the vegetable oil. Then add these ingredients in order: garlic, onion, annatto or paprika, salt to taste, tomatoes green onion and bay leaf. Stir and cook over medium heat for a few minutes, or until the onion and pepper begins to soften. Add the tripe, mixing it in thoroughly until it begins to color from the annatto. Slowly add water - just enough to cover the ingredients by about one inch. Close the pressure cooker, and cook for approximately 30 to 40 minutes, or until the tripe is tender (If not using a pressure cooker, cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours). When the tripe is tender, add in the beans, and cook, with the pressure cooker uncovered, for about 5 minutes, or until everything is heated through and the beans have been flavored by the tripe. Remove from heat.

Place in a decorative serving bowl, and sprinkly chopped parsley and green onion over the top. Serve immediately.

(Note: some recipes call for additional meats - sausages, pork ribs, or bacon. If adding these, put them in the pressure cooker at the same time as the tripe, and cook as directed above.)

Recipe translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora.

Dobradinha - A Sunday Feast

I've been to pizza parties, to strawberry ice-cream socials, and even to a beaver roast, but until yesterday I'd never been to a dobradinha party. On a rainy Sunday afternoon here in Fortaleza, a friend of mine hosted just such a party for about twenty guests. The focus of the party was a traditional dish called dobradinha, and the party was in honor of a visiting friend from Rio de Janeiro whose culinary specialty just happens to be dobradinha. So even though this friend was the guest of honor, he was given the task of making the main dish. Which he did a magnificent job of, by the way.

Dobradinha is one of the meat-and-bean dishes that Brazil has inherited from its Portuguese ancestors, just like the famous Brazilian feijoada. In Portugal the dish is a specialty of the north of the country, and is the subject of a famous poem by Fernando Pessoa, "Dobrada à moda do Porto". The Portuguese call the dish dobrada, and the Brazilians, who like to add diminuitives to many words have modified that name to dobradinha, meaning little dobrada.

Dobrada is the Portuguese term for cow's stomach and the dish features exactly that ingredient. The meat portion of the dish consists of tripe (which is the gastronomic term for cow's stomach), smoked pork ribs and linguiça sausages. The beans used in dobradinha are dried white beans, what we might call Navy beans - the type from which Boston baked beans are made. The beans are either cooked in a pressure cooker or slow cooked, and the meats are added towards the end of the cooking process.

Yesterday, the guest of honor-cum-cook, whose name is Napoleão, started to cook the dobradinha about 9 am, and the dish was ready to serve around 2 pm. Dobradinha is not something you'd want to make for a quick weeknight supper!  Cleaning the tripe was the first step, and any good dobradinha cook will tell you that a proper and thorough cleaning of the stomach is the secret to a successful dish. Then the beans were cooked in a pressure cooker while the ribs and linguiça were browned. Finally all the ingredients were mixed together and the completed stew was allowed to bubble slowly on the stove for a couple of hours.

The dobradinha was served accompanied only by white rice and hot sauce for those who wished to add it to the dish. Most of the guests washed it down with plenty of beer. Most of the guests were enthusiastic dobradinha eaters, though as is often the case with organ-meat dishes, some just weren't interested in trying it - fortunately, there was an alternative dish of chicken stroganoff for those who didn't have the stomach for stomach.

I found the dobradinha a delightful variation on feijoada. The beans were creamy-soft and melted in the mouth. The tripe was cooked to a gelatinous state, but still had a bit of firmness to it, so that it didn't feel overly-mushy as can sometimes happen with tripe. It was extremely rich, and one plateful, plus a bit of rice, was very filling. I'm not normally a lover of innards, and have to confess that I approached the dobradinha with a bit of trepidation, but I'm glad I tried it. It's a dish with a long and noble history and an important part of Brazilian food culture - and that's what Flavors of Brazil is all about.

Tripe and linguiça sausage

Pot of dobradinha

Dobradinha for 20

The chef - Napoleão

On Wednesday, I'll provide a typical recipe for dobradinha.

RECIPE - Minas-style Cattleman's Beans (Feijão-Tropeiro Mineiro)

The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, and even more so the states to the west, such as São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Goiás, are in many ways the Brazilian equivalent of the American "Wild West". In early colonial times there were considered empty lands notwithstanding their substantial native populations and were seen to be ripe for colonization and for raising cattle on the vast tracts of scrubland, known as cerrado in Portuguese, found there.

Like in the American west, these lands were often "opened up" by troops of cattlemen and cattle rangers (called tropeiros in Portuguese) who traveled great distances in search of suitable territory for raising cattle, often banishing or slaughtering the native people who had the misfortune to inhabit good cattle range country. On their long expeditions the tropeiros couldn't rely on local sources of food, so their carried most of their food with them. Beans, salted or dried meat and manioc flour were the three cornerstones of their diet, and all three were often combined into one dish. This dish eventually became known as cattleman's beans (feijão-tropeiro) and while today no one needs to carry their food with them on horseback, the dish continues to be an important part of local cuisine.

There are unnumerable variations to feijão-tropeiro - the type of bean can vary as can the meat. Often the dish includes bacon, or carne de sol, Brazilian sun-dried meat, or it may contain charque, which is similar but drier and saltier. The animal protein content of the dish in enhanced by adding crunchy fried pork rinds, torresmo, at the last minute. But the three principal ingredients - beans, meat and manioc flour - must all be present in true feijão-tropeiro.

This recipe, for Minas Gerais-style feijão-tropeiro gives a good general idea of what the dish consists of. Everybody makes feijão-tropeiro their own way, or rather their mother's or grandmother's way, and nobody agrees on how it should be done. So take this recipe as a template only and vary it to your heart's content - unless you have a recipe that comes down from your mother or grandmother. Then, vary it at your own risk!
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RECIPE - Minas-style Cattleman's Beans (Feijão-Tropeiro Mineiro)
Serves 10

1 lb (500 gr) dried beans of any type
1/2 lb (250 gr) smoked bacon, cubed
1/4 lb (125 gr) fried pork rind (torresmo), crumbled
5 whole eggs
2 Tbsp lard (neutral vegetable oil can be substituted
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 lb (200 gr) manioc flour (farinha de mandioca)
Chopped parsley and green onion to taste
Black pepper to taste
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Soak the dried beans overnight, then cook in plenty of water until just tender. Drain and reserve.

In a large heavy pan, fry the bacon until crispy, then remove it from the pan and reserve. In the same pan, using the bacon grease, fry the eggs over hard. Remove them, break them up and reserve.

Add the lard or vegetable oil to the bacon grease remaining in the pan and if using lard, heat it to melt. When hot, add the garlic and onion and fry until transparent but not browned. Add the drained beans and cook for about five minutes. Add the manioc flour, one handful at a time, stirring constantly.

When all the manioc flour has been added, remove the pan from the heat. Add the crumbled pork rinds and stir thoroughly to mix completely. Add the eggs, the parsley and green onion and fold in gently. Serve immediately.

Recipe translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora. 

RECIPE - Creamy Black-eyed Peas (feijão verde cremoso)

In the last post on Flavors of Brazil, I mentioned that the most famous dish on the menu at Fortaleza's Docentes & Decentes restaurant was a creamy dish of fresh black-eyed peas (feijão verde). It has been chosen a number of times and by a number of critics as the best version of this traditional dish to be found in the city's restaurants. The restaurant's logo even includes the phrase "o melhor feijão verde da cidade", which means "the city's best black-eyed peas."

Although the exact recipe used by Docentes & Decentes is a closely-guarded secret, the following recipe, translated and adapted from the Brazilian website Tudo Gostoso, is a very close approximation. The recipe calls for fresh black-eyed peas, but if you cannot find them, you can use a equal quantity of dried black-eyed peas that have been soaked in cold water for 24 hours to rehydrate them. The quantity of black-eyed peas should be measured from their reconstituted weight in this case, not from their dry weight.
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RECIPE - Creamy Black-eyed Peas (feijão verde cremoso)
Serves 10

2 lbs (1 kg) fresh or rehydrated black-eyed peas
3 small sausages - linguica or chorizo-style, sliced thin
fried bacon to taste
2 Tbsp. neutral vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 small chili pepper - serrano or japaleno
2 cloves garlic,minced
1 sprig Italian parsley, minced
4 oz. (200 gr) cubed mozzarella cheese
1 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1/2 cup Philadelphia-style cream cheese
salt to taste
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 green onion, green portion only, minced
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In a large heavy saucepan, place the peas and add cold water to cover by 2" (4 cm). Add one or two strips of bacon to the pot, then bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and cook over low heat until the peas are tender (about 30-60 minutes, depending on whether fresh peas are used, or the age of rehydrated peas). Remove from heat, remove the bacon,drain the peans and reserve.

In a small frying pan, fry the sausage slices until cooked through and browned.

In another heavy saucepan, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat, then add the chopped tomato, onion, garlic, chili pepper and parsley . (For a milder dish, leave the chili whole - for a spicier dish, seed the pepper, then chop before adding to the pot.) Saute this mixture until the onions and garlic are transparent but not browned and all the other ingredients are softened. Add the drained peas and sausage slices.

Stir in the sour cream and mozzarella and mix completely. Taste for salt and add if necessary. Remove from heat and let cool.

Put the pea and cheese mixture into a ceramic or glass baking dish. Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Cook for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the mixture is hot, bubbling, and beginning to brown on top. Remove from over, sprinkle grated parmesan and chopped green onion on top, then serve immediately in baking dish.

RECIPE - (Baião for Two) Baião-de-Dois

Continuing Flavor of Brazil's exploration of the humble black-eyed pea (feijão-fradinho in Portuguese) this recipe comes from the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará, and differs from most black-eyed pea recipes in that it uses freshly-picked beans, rather than dried ones.

Luiz Gonzaga

The dish is called baião-de-dois, which might be translated into English as "baião for two" or "baião of two."  The baião is a typical folk dance of Ceará, and has a rhythm that is still part of the music culture of that state. In the middle years of the 20th century, two well-known and well-loved musicians (Humberto Teixeira and Luís Gonzaga) wrote and popularized a song called Baião-de-Dois, and somehow the name attached itself to a simple but delectable dish of fresh black-eyed peas and rice cooked together. Presumably, someone thought that the two ingredients went together like a couple smoothly dancing the baião, and the name stuck. If you'd like to hear the song, I've embedded a YouTube video below of an amateur version. It's very sweet and nostalgic:




There are innumerable variations and countless recipes for baião-de-dois. Some are very basic - just a combination of beans and rice with flavoring elements - and some are more complex. Many versions of the dish add carne de sol, the dried beef typical of northeastern Brazil. Others add pork. And everyone in Ceará thinks that their mother's or grandmother's recipe is the only true recipe for baião-de-dois. The following recipe is my own, combining elements from many recipes in an attempt to recreate the Ur-baião-de-dois. 
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RECIPE - (Baião for Two) Baião-de-Dois
Serves 6

1 lb (500 gr) fresh, shucked black-eyed peas
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 large yellow onion, grated
1 Tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped
3 Tbsp. neutral vegetable cooking oil
2 1/2 cups long-grain rice, washed and drained
6 cups (1.5 litres) light chicken, beef or vegetable stock
salt to taste
5 oz. (150 gr) home-style cream cheese or ricotta salata
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In a large heavy pan, cook the black-eyed peas until just tender (about 15-25 minutes, depending on the freshness and age of the beans). Drain, and refresh under cold water to stop the cooking process.

In another large heavy pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat, then saute the garlic and onions briefly until transparent but not browned. Add the rice and chopped cilantro and continue to cook until the rice becomes transparent. Stir in the beans, add the stock and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover pan, and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until all the stock is absorbed. Remove from heat, season to taste with salt, and let stand for five minutes.

Meanwhile, crumble the cheese, or form into small balls, depending on the consistency of the cheese. Briefly uncover the pan, stir in the cheese, then recover it. Let the dish stand for another five minutes to melt the cheese.

Stir the dish once more to distribute the melted cheese, then turn it into a serving dish and serve immediately.

Abará - Bahia's Version of a Pamonha/Tamal

In yesterday's post on Flavors of Brazil, while discussing how important the black-eyed pea (feijão-fradinho) has always been in traditional Brazilian gastronomy, I mentioned that it was particularly associated with the regional cuisine of the state of Bahia, the center of Brazil's Afro-Brazilian culture. Salvador, the capital of Bahia, was the capital of all of Brazil during earlier colonial times, and was the center of a vast area of sugar-cane cultivation. The agriculture of sugar cane requires a tremendous amount of human labor, a need which was met with the transportation of millions of Africans to work in the fields as slaves. Among the things that arrived in Brazil in their meager belongings must have been some black-eyed peas, which were planted and which thrived in Bahia.

In addition to eating these legumes cooked but whole, the black cooks of Bahia learned to de-skin black-eyed peas, mash them, and use the mashed beans to create a number of dishes, some of which have become iconic dishes of Afro-Brazilian cuisine. The most famous, without a doubt, is acarajé, a fritter made of frying mashed black-eyed peas in dendê palm oil. (Click here to read about acarajé on Flavors of Brazil.) Another dish made with the same mashed beans is called abará, and it's related both to Mexico's tamales, and to the Brazilian cornmeal dish pamonha.  What all three dishes have in common is that they share the common technique of wrapping a moist paste in banana leaves, and then steaming them. This technique is common throughout Latin American, and these are not the only examples. But it does show how a shared method of cooking is modified and adapted to local conditions - in the case of abará, by substituting mashed black-eyed peas for cornmeal.

Like acarajé, abará is not just a well-loved traditional dish. It is also intensely associated with the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, and in that religious tradition it is one of the ritual foods offered to the gods and goddesses of Candomblé, the Orixás, during ceremonial occasions.

Black-eyed Peas - The Bean, Not The Group

Beans, fresh or dried, are one of the cornerstones of Brazilian nutrition. Consequently, they are also fundamental in Brazilian traditional gastronomy. They are the most important source of protein for the poorer strata of society - those who cannot afford to regularly consume animal protein. Without the proteins provided by beans, the good nutritiion of millions of Brazilians would be at risk.

In earlier posts on Flavors of Brazil, you can find discussions of some of the most common species of beans consumed in Brazil, such as the feijão carioca (Carioca bean) and the feijão preto (Black bean). Besides these two, there are many other varieties of beans in the Brazilian bean-pot. Which bean is most likely to make its way to your table depends on your economic level, your geographical location, and often, your racial background.

One bean is particularly associated with all aspects of Afro-Brazilian culture; understandably so, since this particular bean, unlike most beans, originated not in the Americas but rather in tropical Africa. It probably arrived in Brazil on board slave ships bringing African slaves to Portugal's South American colonies - current-day Brazil. It's scientific name is vigna unguiculata, and in English it's most commonly called "Black-eyed pea." It is the most commonly consumed bean in large parts of Brazil, particularly in the state of Bahia, where the cultural influence of Africa is most strongly felt in Brazil, and in the traditionally-poor regions of Brazil's northeast, where this bean will grow in the infertile soils and harsh semi-arid climatic conditions which prevail locally.

One of the many fascinating things about the black-eyed pea is the huge number of common names it carries in the Portuguese of Brazil. In English there are only a few names for  vigna unguiculata - black-eyed pea, black-eyed bean, cowpea or lobia. But there is a rich range of names attached to vigna unguiculata in Brazil. Some are quaint, some humorous, but all are regional. Here are just a few:

boca-preta (black mouth)
ervilha-de-vaca (cow pea)
favalinha (little fava bean)
feijão-alfanje (scimitar bean)
feijão-careta (straight bean)
feijão-chícharo (chickpea bean)
feijão-chicote (whip bean)
feijão-chinês (Chinese bean)
feijão-congo (Congo bean)
feijão-corda (string bean)
feijão-de-boi (ox bean)
feijão-de-frade (monk's bean)
feijão-de-olho-preto (black-eyed bean)
feijão-de-vara (pole bean)
feijão-fradinho (little monk bean)
feijão-galego (Galician bean)
feijão-lagartixa (lizard bean)
feijão-mineiro (miner's bean, bean from Minas Gerais)
feijão-miúdo (tiny bean)
feijão-miúdo-da-China (tiny Chinese bean)
feijão-vinha (vineyard bean)
feijão-verde (green bean)

In the next few posts on Flavors of Brazil, I'll cover this bean in more detail, concentrating on its use in the traditional gastronomy of Bahia and of Brazil's northeast.

RECIPE - Everyday Beans (Feijão)

There are about 195 million people in Brazil, and probably almost as many recipes for making beans (feijão). Some people soak the beans, some don't. Some people add animal fat, such as bacon or salt-pork, others don't. Some people add garlic, while others wouldn't consider it. Every cook has a personal recipe, most likely inherited from a mother, a grandmother, or a maid.

The recipe that follows is an attempt to reduce all these recipes into their most basic form. Treat this recipe not as an instruction on how to make Brazilian beans, but rather as a road-map to lead you to create your own recipe, your personal feijão. Vary it to see what you like best - add a chunk of smoky bacon one time, leave out the garlic another. Use black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans (but probably not chick-peas). Use olive oil or neutral vegetable oil. Make it soupier, make it thicker. Eventually you'll have not the recipe but the process internalized and you'll never again need a recipe to make Brazilian beans. You'll just make them.
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RECIPE - Everyday Beans (Feijão) 
Serves 6

2 cups dried beans, any type
6 cups cold water
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 med. onion, finely chopped
salt to taste
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Spread the dried beans on a rimmed cookie sheet and carefully sort for spoiled beans and small stones. Place the beans in a colander and run cold water over them to wash thoroughly. Put them in a large bowl, cover with cold water (at least 2" higher than the surface of the beans). Leave overnight, in the refrigerator in hot climates. In the morning, remove any beans that are floating - they are likely spoiled.

(If you don't have time for an overnight soaking, follow instructions above, but after washing the beans put them in a large heavy saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring the beans to a boil over high heat, let them boil for 2-3 minutes, then turn off heat, cover the beans and let stand for one hour.

Drain the soaked or pre-boiled beans and place them in a clean large saucepan. Cover with water to approximately 2" higher than the surface of the beans in the pot. Add 1 tsp. of the oil and bay leaf, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to bring bean liquid to a very slow boil, cover the pan, and cook until the beans are just tender. Cooking time can range from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the variety and age of the beans. Begin testing the beans after 30 minutes for doneness.

Meanwhile, heat the 2 Tbsp. oil in a heavy-duty frying pan, then add the onion and garlic and saute until they are golden. When the beans are done, add two serving spoonfuls of beans to the pan, then use the back of the serving spoon to mash the beans into the onions and garlic. Return this mixture to the beans in the pot, salt to taste, bring once again to to low boil and cook for 5-10 minutes for the flavor to develop and the liquid to thicken.

Serve immediately, or cool and store in refrigerator or freezer for reheating later.

Rice and Beans (Arroz com feijão) - Getting Down to Basics

There are no reliable statistics to offer concrete numbers, but it's safe to say that the overwhelming majority of the population of Brazil eats rice and beans (arroz com feijão in Portuguese) every day of their lives. It is the absolute core of Brazilian cuisine and of Brazilian nutrition. Eating rice and beans is not limited to certain geographical regions, nor is it associated with social or economic classes - the ultra-sophisticated "ladies who lunch" in Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, the subsistence farmers in the Amazon, and the windsurfers along the northeastern coast don't have a lot in common in many way, but they all eat rice and beans daily. A Brazilian friend of mine returned from Canada some time ago and among the things his mother found most wondrous and strange about that country far to the north was that Canadians didn't eat rice and beans every day. "What DO they eat, then?" was her question.

Rice and beans, of course, plays a large part in the cuisines of many other parts of Latin America - Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, etc. But it is in Brazil where this combination of an Asian grain (brought to Brazil by the Portuguese)** and a native legume (known to the Indians long before the arrival of Europeans) reaches its prime importance. It provides the nutritional basis for the feeding of the nation.

Rice and beans is eaten by everyone largely by tradition and preference, but also because it is the least expensive way to support human life nutritionally in Brazil. The very poorest Brazilians eat rice and beans and very little else. As one ascends the economic scale the variety of other foods increases, and the amount of nutrition obtained from rice and beans diminishes, but it never drops to zero. Fortunately, besides being inexpensive, rice and beans is a very nutritious dish. It provides protein and carbohydrates, plus iron, vitamin B, calcium, lysine and amino acids. With the addition of a small amount of fruit or vegetable (primarily for vitamin C content) one can survive a lifetime on a diet of rice and beans. Nutritionally, the best proportion is three parts of rice for each part of beans, which are the standard proportions in Brazil.

Regionally, the type of beans used in making this dish varies. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, black beans are favored, while in the northeast a bean similar to Pinto beans is preferred. The rice used, however, is almost universally long-grain white rice. Naturally, if the rice were brown the dish would be nutritionally richer, but long-held custom requires white rice. The rice is steamed or boiled, and the beans are cooked until just soft. The broth for the beans is normally seasoned with at least onion and garlic, plus if economic conditions allow, some form of animal fat or meat - things like bacon, smoked pork, or carne de sol.

Rice and beans, because of their absolute importance in Brazilian nutrition, have become symbolic to most Brazilians of their culture and their lives. The mixture of white rice with brown or black beans is taken to exemplify the racial mixing which is characteristic of Brazil. A well-known Brazilian singer, Daniela Mercury, used this symbolism on the cover of her 1996 album Feijão com Arroz, which was lauded as the best album cover in Brazilian history by an important music magazine. (Incidentally, the album is also marvelous musically, and is worth searching for.) In Brazilian Portuguese, the phrase "arroz com feijão" has come to mean anything that is ordinary or everyday - someone who is looking to change their life might tell their family or friends that they want to get out of this "rice and beans" and find a new life. In actuality, they might find a new life, but they are unlikely ever to get out of the habit of eating rice and beans daily. It's in the blood.

** Check the comments for this posting for a reader's response regarding the possible routes by which Asian rice arrived in Brazil - perhaps via Portugal, perhaps via Africa. 

INGREDIENTS - Black Beans (Feijão Preto)

Even though the city of Rio de Janeiro has a bean named after it, the "Carioca bean" (feijão carioca in Portuguese), in fact that bean is not the most commonly eaten bean in Brazil's most famous city.  That honor must go to the black bean, or the black turtle bean as it's sometimes called.

Brazil is a vast country, and although dried beans are a staple of the Brazilian diet everywhere in the country, the type of bean which is preferred is a regional choice. In some parts of the country white beans are standard, in others brown, or pinto-type beans are the norm. Only in Rio de Janeiro (the city and the state) is the day-to-day choice of bean likely to be the black bean.

When Brazilians anywhere in the country made feijoada (click here for more information), the use of black beans is obligatory, because this dish is particularly associated with Rio de Janeiro. In Rio itself, it is estimated that more than 75% of the population eats beans on any given day, and the vast majority of those beans will be black turtle beans, normally eaten with white rice.

Black beans are particularly appreciated throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and it's impossible to imagine Mexican or Cuban cuisine without them. I find them to be one of the more flavorful beans, and one of the most suited to tempering with spices, herbs and citrus juices.

All dried beans are very healthy dietary choices, and the black bean is one of the most beneficial in the whole bean family. It is rated as being extremely high in levels of molybdenum, very high in folicin (vitamin B9), tryptophan and fiber, and high in protein, vitamin B1, magnesium, manganese, iron and phosphorus.

Besides its use as a daily staple, the back bean is used in soups, stews and, of course, in the national dish feijoada. (Click here for a bean soup recipe that can easily be made with black beans, and here for feijoada).

North Americans would do well, diet-wise to imitate the bean-eating habits of Brazilians. Dried beans are inexpensive, easy to preserve and store, versatile in cuisine, healthy and delicious. What more could one want from a food?

RECIPE - Feijoada (Classic, Traditional Recipe)

In my previous posts about feijoada, I mentioned that this meal contains numerous possible additions, modifications, substitutions and deletions. Consequently, there is no single definitive recipe for feijoada. Cookbooks and food magazines, Brazilian and foreign, newspapers and the internet offer up thousands of recipes for making this dish.

I'll post a few feijoada recipes here in Flavors of Brazil, but I thought it would be proper to start out with a very traditional recipe from 's Rio de Janeiro . As it's from Rio de Janeiro, it is called "Feijoada Carioca" in Portuguese. Carioca is a Portuguese word that means someone or something that is from Rio de Janeiro. Although feijoada is enjoyed everywhere in Brazil, it is most closely associated geographically with Rio de Janeiro.

This recipe is for a very traditional feijoada, and I'm posting it, even though not all the ingredients are likely to be available outside of Brazil, as illustrative of a classic feijoada. Fortunately, feijoada is infinitely flexible, and can be altered to suit taste, budget and availability, so don't hesitate to try this recipe even if you can't find everything that's in the list of ingredients. Just improvise!

You'll note that this recipe is high in saturated animal fats, and it is consequently highly caloric and probably not the most healthy recipe from Brazil. However, the final product is quite rich and most people do not eat a large quantity at one time, nor is feijoada eaten frequently. Just like the Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner, this is a meal for special event or celebration, and as such, rules of healthy nutrition go out the window.
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RECIPE - Feijoada (Classic, Traditional Recipe)
Serves 6

1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pork ribs, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's tail, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's foot, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pig's ear, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) pork loin, salted
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) carne-do-sol (click here for instructions on how to make your own carne-do-sol)
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) beef brisket
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) Linguiça sausage, or other smoked sausage
1/2 lb. (250 gr.)  Linguiça sausage, spiced, or pepperoni
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) Kielbasa sausage, or other garlic sausage
1 1/2 cups dried black beans
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onions
5 bay leaves
1/2 cup cachaça
1 unpeeled orange, scrubbed and quartered
1 lb. (400 gr.) pork lard
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) thick sliced smoked bacon, cubed
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
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The day before cooking the feijoada, place all the salted,meats in a large pan, and cover with cold water. Refrigerate. Change the water every three hours, for minimum 24 hours. Drain thoroughly.

In a very large kettle or bean pot, place the beans, the meats and sausages, the cilantro and green onions tied together, the bay leaves, the cachaça, and the orange. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue to cook over low heat. As each meat in turn becomes fully cooked and tender (test with a fork) remove from the kettle, let cool, cut into bit-size pieces, and reserve.

When the black beans are fully cooked and soft (about 1.5 - 2 hrs.), remove 1 cup of beans and cooking liquid, and blend until smooth in a blender. Return 1/2 cup of this mixture to the beans in the kettle to thicken the cooking liquid.

In a large frying pan heat the lard, and cook the bacon in it until browned and crispy. Remove the bacon cubes, and in the same lard, fry the garlic and onion until soft and transparent, but not browned. Remove from heat, then stir in the reserved 1/2 cup of the blended beans. Stir entire contents of frying pan plus the reserved meats and bacon, into the beans in the kettle. Let cook over low heat for 20 minutes for flavors to blend.

Serve accompanied by Mineiro-style kale, thick slices of peeled oranges, white rice, farofa (recipe to follow), and caipirinhas to drink.