Feijoida I love you!

There are very few ethnic foods that we haven't tried our hand at. It was Sunday and it was COLD. What would be fun to make? We talked it over and decided to go with Brazilian food. We are lucky to live around lots of great Brazilian markets and restaurants here. There is a large population of Brazilian's so we have all the ingredients at our fingertips for once. I thought about Feijoida which I knew was the national dish there. I had a recipe from "Daisy Cooks" by Daisy Martinez.

I warn you that there is a LOT of pork products in this dish and it is heavy and high on calories, but once in a while you just have to go for it!

It calls for pig trotters so we headed over to the Brazilian market for pork belly, trotters, and slab bacon (I warned you).



Yummm pork belly



Slow cooking was the name of the game.



So added that with black beans and rice and some farofa and the meal was amazing.




I think my favorite part of Brazilian food is the Farofa but Dr Food would most certainly disagree with me.



I made this with sauteed onions and an egg scrambled up in there (ya know how I feel about eggs).

I recommend this dinner highly.

Feijoida
Daisy Martinez
(Printable Recipe)
Ingredients
2 trotters (pig's feet) split
1C white vinegar
1 1/2 one-pound bags black beans
1 smoked ham hock
3 bay leaves
3 leaves culantro or 1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/4 lbs slab bacon rind removed and cut into 8 pieces
1 1/2 lbs pork belly, cut into about 4 pieces
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1 1/4lb andouille, chorizo, or any other pork sausage (spicy is good)

1. Place the trotters in a bowl large enough to hold them comfortably. Pour in enough cold water to cover them completely. Add the vinegar. Let stand 30 minutes or so, then drain and rinse thoroughly under cold water.

2. Put the trotters, beans, ham hock, bay leaves, and culantro in a large (at least 12 qts), heavy pot. Pour enough col water to cover the beans by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat to simmering. Skim off any foam that rises to the top as the beans cook. Cook for 1 hour.

3. Pour 1/2 C water over the bacon in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until the water has evaporated and the bacon begins to cook in its fat. Lower the heat slightly and cook, turning, untiul the bacon is browned. Set the bacon aside, but leave the fat in the pan.

4. While the bacon is cooking, season the pork belly with salt and pepper. Once the bacon has been removed, add the pork belly pieces to the bacon fat and cook, turning often, until well browned on all sides, about 15 minutes.

5. Place the bacon, pork belly, and sausage in the pot after the beans have been cooking for 1 hour. Continue cooking until the beans and meats are tender, about 1 hour.

6. Transfer the meats to a carving board, cut them into slices, and arrange them on a platter. Spoon the beans into a serving bowl. White rice is a must with this dish.