Brazilian Flavours and Memories
When we first moved to America the expats tended to socialize together. This trend continued throughout my childhood especially with an international school forming the basis of our social background in Belgium. Dad played football (soccer) on a team mostly made up of expats and they were ruthless! They always won as they had a great mix of people from all over South and central America with some tough Europeans to boot. The Americans had never seen anything like it and they won season after season. One of his friends on the team was Brazilian and I quickly became friends with his daughter who was my age.
As our friendship grew I found myself being invited over for meals. I had never experienced food like this. Her Mom was a phenomenal cook. At first I was a bit nervous, the only beans I had ever had before came from a can and were red. I tended to stick with the rice. A sweet, peppery pilaf that made my mouth water. I always wondered why our rice never tasted like that and indeed annoyed my mother by constantly asking her!
Eventually my trust grew and I learned to love the black beans. A few years ago I figured out the rice. I knew there was onion and garlic involved, but something was missing. It was only on my return to Ireland that I rediscovered ground white pepper, which is often what you find on restaurant tables here. That was it! The rice is perfect now.
The beans I'm not so sure about. I read up on Feijoada, which is the national dish of Brazil and consists of black beans and various cuts of meat, but this wasn't what Sonja cooked. I think maybe she did a lighter weekday version and what I have come up with is almost as good, but not quite! But hey, at least I nailed the rice!
Be forewarned you may need separate bedrooms and a colon cleanse after eating these! ;-)
Brazilian Inspired Black Beans and Rice (serves 6-8)
For the Beans:
1 lb black beans, soaked overnight*
1lb bacon**, chopped
1/2 lb Kielbasa, chopped***
1 large onion, finely chopped
4-5 ribs celery, finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
Beef Stock
Bunch fresh cilantro/coriander, chopped, plus more to garnish
Dry fry the bacon and kielbasa in large pot. When fat begins to render add onion and celery. Cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook for a minute or two until fragrant. Add spices and beans and just barely cover with stock.
Simmer for 1-2 hours until beans are tender and meat has taken on some of the black colour.
Stir in cilantro/coriander before serving and garnish finished plate with more leaves.
* - If you don't want to soak the beans overnight, rinse them in cold water and place in pot. Add about 6 cups of water, bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Allow to sit for an hour and the same effect will be achieved.
** - I mean bacon in the American sense of the word. Streaky rashers, chopped. You could also use pancetta here.
*** - Whilst common in Europe and the states, Kielbasa is a polish sausage that is just making it's way to Irish shelves, albeit in the Polish sections. It's a wonderful sausage and one I hope Irish people will learn to embrace as well! You could substitute any type of sausage although I would avoid chorizo as I think the smokiness would over power the subtle flavour of the beans
For the rice
1 white onion, very finely diced
2 cloves garlic, very finely diced
1 tbsp vegetable oil*
1 1/2 cups rice
3 cups boiling water
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt, to season
Saute the onion in the oil until just translucent. Add the garlic until fragrant then add the rice. Stir constantly and make sure each grain gets a small coating of oil.
Add the water and cover. Turn the heat all the way down and leave to stand for 15-20 minutes until rice is cooked and all water is absorbed.
Season with a good pinch of salt and white pepper and fluff with a fork. Perfection!
* - Normally for any pilaf I would use butter for the flavour, but this dish doesn't need it. As I was researching recipes it seems there is a consensus that Brazilians like their rice very white and another type of oil would interfere with this.
This bean dish would probably work well in a slow cooker/crock pot too for those of you who don't have time to baby-sit a pot. I have become increasingly fascinated with the crock pot world of cooking. I do not own one as I was of the opinion it would overcook food. Barbara hosted a crock pot festival a few weeks ago and some of the recipes looked incredible and showed me how wrong I was.
Then I stumbled across some more recipes at Moms Who Think. Recipes from dips to roasts to side dishes desserts and even boiled peanuts! I guess I had no idea how diverse this gadget could prove. There is something really comforting about being able to prepare dinner while the kids are eating breakfast and then not have to think about it all day, never mind clean up! I think I am just going to have to suck it up and get one. I saw them at Aldi yesterday, but restrained, but after looking at all these recipes I might just have to go for it. But I digress...
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