Feijoada – pork and black bean stew
It’s been a windy week in Sydney, so much so, that the inflatable iceberg in Darling Harbour (part of the ‘Cool Yule’ midwinter celebrations), had to be deflated.
Such nippy weather calls for something robust with a bit of attitude on the menu. Continuing with last weeks Brazilian theme, I made what is perhaps one of Brazil’s best know dishes feijoada!
Feijoada, (pronounced fay-zwah-da) from feijão, the Portuguese word for beans. Essentially it’s a pork and black bean stew, but this isn’t your run of the mill stew. It’s a serious heavyweight, the Mike Tyson of one pot cooking; requiring about half a pig, this isn’t something you want to serve the Rabi.
As I was only catering for two, I haven’t included the traditional trotter, ear and carne seca (dried meat). I’ve simplified it somewhat, but I did cook the black beans in some homemade ham stock, which added a fantastic depth of flavour, this is one corner to avoid cutting.
Prep time: 10 minutes plus 8hrs to soak beans
Cooking time: 4 hours
Equipment: Dutch oven or oven proof clay pot with lid, bowl
Ingredients
- 300g dried black beans
- 300g Chorizo sausages – sliced
- 700g pork spare ribs – roughly chopped into 2 inch pieces
- 3 onions – peeled and finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic – peeled, finely chopped and minced
- 1-2 Jalapeno peppers – sliced
- 2 ltrs. Ham bone stock (ham bone/smoked ham hock, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 bay leaf, parsley, pepper corns 3 litres water)
- ½ tsp. ground pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tbs. fresh parsley – chopped
Method
- Cover the black beans with water in a bowl and soak over night.
- To make the ham stock, put all the stock ingredients in a large saucepan, (if using a smoked ham hock, remove most of the meat first and add this to the frying pan with the spare ribs). Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours, removing the scum as you go.
- Drain the beans and put them in a saucepan with enough ham bone stock to submerge the beans. Bring to the boil, reduce and simmer for one hour. After one hour check every 10 minutes until they are soft all the way through. When they are soft, they are cooked.
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degreesC.
- In a frying pan, lightly brown the spare ribs then put them in the ovenproof pot.
- Do the same with the chorizo.
- Reduce the heat and cook the onion in the rendered fat until soft, then add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the onion and garlic to the ovenproof pot.
- Pour the beans and any liquid from cooking the beans into the ovenproof pot with the pork and onions.
- Add the pepper, bay leaf, parsley and jalapenos then top up with ham bone stock until the meat is covered.
- Stir ingredients together, place lid on pot and cook for two –three hours until the pork spare ribs are tender and the meat falls of the bone.
- Serve with rice and either steamed spinach or kale.
Need to work on the depth of field but you get the idea
Perfect for a Winters Sunday lunch
About the Author
Gareth Englishman in Sydney loves a whisky, pies and all things savoury. Digital Marketer by day, cook the rest of the time. Amateur writer, photographer & aspiring anthropologists.
Feijoada is perfect for this weather! And lol I didn’t know they had to deflate the iceberg!
Yep, honest truth, though I tried to convince my work colleagues it had melted.