Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Brazilian Feijão Preto

Please leave a comment for Brazilian Feijao Preto. Did you like it ? Did you love it? Did it feed six?

2 cups dry beans (soaked over night with a tbsp. of baking soda in 6 cups water- should reduce gas during digestion)
4 cups water
1 cup (1/2 lb) browned mild sausage
2 cups baked pork chop pieces (remove bones but leave most of the fat, this is where the flavor is)
2-3 cloves garlic minced
½ yellow onion
1 Tbsp salt1 Tbsp black pepper

Rinse the soaked beans (should be about 4 cups now) put in the crock pot. Add about 3-4 cups of water (depends on how soupy you like it). Add diced meats and seasonings. Cook on low (or high) for several hours. This can also be cooked in a pot on the stove. An easy way to do this is to put the dry beans and raw meat in the crock pot with plenty of water and turn it on high for 1-2 hours. Then turn it down to low and let it simmer all night and through the next day. I usually add the garlic, onion etc. in the late morning.

--This soupy bean dish was a staple lunch served to my husband when he was in Brazil. Everyone made Feijão Preto, and they used whatever they had to flavor it. The better off they were, the more meat they put in. The poorer families would have no meat. True to tradition we make this to use up left- overs and have never really written down a recipe before. We have learned that roast beef, pork, bacon, sausage, and hamburger taste good, ham and chicken do not. For flavor, use as much or little as you like of each, it really depends on whether you like onion or garlic more, or if you like more salt or pepper.

Basic recipe:
some black beans
a little meat
a few garlic cloves
an onion
salt and pepper to taste
serve over rice

Special rice:Aaron has seen some of the women get a little oil boiling in a pan and pour the dry rice kernels in there and stir them around, like frying them, but only for a minute. Then boil the rice like you normally would with almost twice the water. It seems to keep the rice from getting sticky.

2 comments:

Bernie said...

This was so good! My husband also served his mission in Brazil and when he first saw the beans and rice he was so excited! He loved it and ate about 1/2 of it in one sitting.

Anonymous said...

We also really liked this.. my kids called it "Black Soup." It has a really good flavor and there was plenty.