Feijoada

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Feijoada, Brazil's national dish, is a stew loaded with black beans and meats of every description: smoked pork loin, bacon and sausage such as chorizo.

Feijoada
Photo:

Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver

Active Time:
45 mins
Total Time:
2 hrs 55 mins
Servings:
8 to 10

Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner of Manhattan's famed Le Bernardin, learned to make this recipe from Maria Auxiliadora Etheve, owner of the restaurant Cacau in the Brazilian beach town of Trancoso. To make the base, Etheve sweats garlic and onion in oil in a cast-iron pot, then adds the black beans and water and cooks them until the beans are almost tender. Then she adds all the meats and a whole hot chile to the pot and simmer the mixture some more. Once it's finished, the stew is so murky it's almost pitch-black, and deeply flavorful. The dish is traditionally served with sweet, cool orange wedges on the side, and with toasted manioc flour for sprinkling over the feijoada, adding substance and crunch.

Manioc, also called cassava, is a starchy tropical tuber. Ground and dried, it becomes manioc flour — what tapioca is made of. Manioc flour is often sprinkled over feijoada to thicken it and add substance and crunch.

Ingredients

Toasted Manioc Flour

  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

  • 1 small onion, very thinly sliced

  • 1 large egg, beaten

  • 1 1/2 cups manioc flour (see Note)

  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

  • Kosher salt

Feijoada

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

  • 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

  • 1 large onion, finely chopped

  • 1 1/2 pounds dried black beans, soaked overnight and drained

  • 3 1/2 quarts water

  • 1 pound fresh spicy sausage, such as linguiça

  • 3/4 pound dried beef (carne seca) or corned beef, in one piece

  • 1 1/2 pounds smoked pork chops

  • 3/4 pound lean slab bacon

  • 3/4 pound chorizo, in one piece

  • 1 dried red chile

  • Kosher salt

Directions

Make the Toasted Manioc Flour

  1. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook over low heat until softened, about 7 minutes. Stir in the egg and cook, stirring, until dry and crumbly, about 30 seconds. Add the manioc flour and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly toasted, about 8 minutes. Stir in the parsley and season with salt.

Make the Feijoada

  1. Heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy casserole. Add the garlic and onion and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, about 7 minutes. Stir in the drained black beans. Add the water to the casserole and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the beans for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add all of the meats and the dried chile and cook until the beans are tender, about 1 hour longer.

  2. Remove the meats from the casserole and thickly slice them; discard any bones. Pick out and discard the chile. Season the beans with salt. Ladle the beans into shallow bowls and serve with the sliced meats. Pass the toasted manioc flour at the table for sprinkling over the feijoada.

Make Ahead

The toasted manioc flour can be prepared earlier in the day and reheated.

The feijoada can be refrigerated overnight. Reheat gently.

Notes

Manioc flour, or cassava flour, is available at Latin markets.

Serve With

Sautéed collard greens.

Suggested Pairing

Pairing feijoada, Brazil's national dish, with Malbec, Argentina's national wine, is like a World Cup match — except that both sides win. Full-flavored Malbecs from the San Juan region stand up particularly well to feijoada's smoky and hearty flavors.

Originally appeared: February 2006

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