So I'm not really a bad cook....

You may recall that my girls hate my cooking (or, as per Dos's attempt to comfort me, they don't hate my cooking so much as they just hate to eat it). I don't do it as often as I should -- the Schwan's man is my new best friend -- but only because I lack the energy, not the skill.

Anyway. I've been meaning to give my mom a copy of my feijoada recipe. Feijoada (pronounced fay-zjuh-wah-duh) is a traditional Brazilian dish of beans, rice, and pig; the real stuff includes interesting pig parts like ears, tails, and feet, but mine is appropriately Americanized. ;-)

Easier Feijoada

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb ground smoked sausage


• 1/2 lb pork tenderloin, cubed


• some slices of bacon (I think I use ~4-6ish?)


• 2 (15.5 oz) cans of black beans


• 2 TBSP olive oil


• salt to taste


• 1 onion, minced


• ~1-1/2 cloves of garlic, minced


• 9-12 bay leaves

Directions

1. In a medium-sized pot, combine black beans with 2 TBSP olive oil (or bacon drippings from the next step, if you want to wait for them -- I actually think that works better), salt to taste, ~1 clove minced garlic, half the onion, and bay leaves. Cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat and set aside.


2. Meanwhile, in a large pan, cook cubes of pork tenderloin and slices of bacon on medium heat with salt to taste, the other half of the onion, and ~1/2 clove of minced garlic. When the pork and bacon are brown, add the sausage and continue to cook on medium heat until all the meat is completely cooked through. (Or you can cook them all separately. Whatever.)


3. Remove the bay leaves from the black beans, mash the beans with a wooden spoon, and combine the meat with the beans. Simmer this mixture on low for an additional ~10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. (If you like your feijoada a little spicier, this is the appropriate time to add some pepper sauce. But I don't and never have, so I can't vouch for that step, lol.)


4. Serve over rice.

Oh, I forgot to mention it in the recipe itself, but this is a good tip for any recipe with black beans: Rinse the beans in a colander before you add them to the recipe. This will cut down on any, um, flatulence issues you may otherwise experience.

Also, this particular recipe is very flexible. It actually differs a bit from the one I originally found online (no idea where anymore; it was years ago), but that's because the original wasn't very precise -- every ingredient was "to taste," and so my feijoada came out different (but tasty!) each time I made it. I finally wrote down what proportions of what ingredients seemed yummiest to me, and that's what you have here, but feel free to mess around with it yourself.

All right, well I've done my duty! Mom, you now have the recipe. And I'm now off to make my girls a dinner that will be appreciated: frozen pizza. :-)


~RCH~