What is "Feijoada"?

Some people wrote me to ask what Feijoada is. So I decided to write a post about the Feijoada, including the history of the dish.

Brazil's most famous regional dish, Feijoada is a stew of black beans (in Brazil) with various cuts of pork and beef, such as salted pork trimmings (ears, tail, knees, feet), pork sausage and bacon, and salted beef (loin and tongue). The traditional accompaniments are plain white rice, cooked greens, fresh orange slices, toasted cassava flour (called farofa), deep-fried bananas, and torresmos (Fried pig skin). The taste is strong, moderately salty but not spicy, dominated by the flavors of black bean and meat stew.

And, of course, Caipirinha (the famous brazilian cocktail made with Cachaça) is the drink to have when you eat feijoada.

Since it is a rather heavy dish that takes several hours to cook, feijoada is consumed in Brazil only occasionally, usually on the weekend and at lunch time. Traditionally restaurants offer it as the "day's special". However, some restaurants serve feijoada all the week long.

The traditional history of Brazilian feijoada is that it was a "luxury" dish of African slaves in Brazilian farms, as it was prepared with relatively cheap ingredients (beans, rice, collard greens, farofa) and leftovers from salted pork and meat production not used in the meals of the famers and slaves' owners. Over time, it first became a popular dish among lower classes, and finally the "national dish" of Brazil, offered even by the finest restaurants.

However, this history is disputed. Some claim that it was inspired on the French cassoulet, while others conjecture that it evolved from the bean-and-pork dishes from the regions of Estremadura and Trás-dos-Montes in Portugal.

Font: Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feijoada)

Another nice website, with the recipe!: www.brazilbrazil.com/feijoada.html