#44 Brazil's Feijoada

We made brown rice and Brazil's Feijoada (pronounced Fay-ZWAH-da). It is a meat and black bean stew, served with rice and orange wedges. Adapted from Julianna Grimes' recipe but I used beef instead of pork, replaced the bacon with the less fattening turkey bacon and omitted the ham. I like how the vinegar gives that slight sourness to the dish. I used sunkist navel and cara cara ( a type of navel) oranges. It's a great dinner meal. We liked it very much!

FEJIOADA


Ingredients:

2 cups dried beans
4 slices turkey bacon
1 pound beef stew meat
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
3 bone-in beef short ribs, trimmed (about 2 pounds)
3 cups finely chopped onions
1 1/4 cups fat free, lower sodium chicken broth
4 garlic cloves,  minced
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 orange wedges


Directions:

Soak beans over night. Place in a small sauce pan, cover with cold water. Bring to boil; cook for two minutes. Remove from heat; drain and cover. 

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium  heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, crumble. Set aside. 

Sprinkle meat evenly with  1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Increase heat to medium high , add olive oil, sauté meat, turning to brown on all sides. Transfer to electric slow cooker.

Sprinkle rib meat evenly with 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add ribs to skillet, sauté meat, turning to brown all sides. Add ribs in slow cooker. 

Add drained beans, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, onions, broth, garlic cloves and vinegar.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until meat is tender.

Stir in vinegar and crumbled turkey bacon.

Serve with rice and orange wedges on the side.

What we learned today:

• Brazil's official language is Portuguese. The country was a colony of Portugal until September 7, 1822 when they declared it's  independence and became Empire of Brazil.
• We saw lots of pictures of Rio de Janeiro's Cristo Redentor, it is amazing how massive it looks. What beautiful beaches they have. And of course, we also saw carnival pictures. 
• I already know that Brazilians are very nice, very affectionate and very happy people as I had the pleasure of spending many days with Brazilian ladies during my first few years in the United States. One lady in particular is so dear to me, and she opened my eyes to a lot of things..I just have no means of contacting her since she left with her family back to Brazil- if somehow you end up reading this blog...Adrianna, obrigada!! Um biejo! I hope to see you again. :)

We're back!

I haven't blogged in a while! What a busy month for us. We moved 5 hours away from the San Francisco Bay Area at the end of January and after a month of living here, we feel like we have lived a 100% more adventurous life than ever! Life is laid back, but there's just so much to do, days are very short! :)  We live up 5,000 ft + above sea level, and the view is SPECTACULAR.

 

Within the week of the move, we were visited by.. a deer family, many beautiful birds, and they come everyday! A wood pecker peeked in my bathroom window one morning! Soon we learned that a bobcat is our neighbor and that we get nightly visits from other wild animals that share our community.

I saw a chipmunk for the first time in my life..and this particular one, visits us every morning, although whenever  we try to open the windows..it runs away!


We also had 2 snow falls within the month. One was nice, and short....

The latest one, we had one night of endless snow fall....we enjoyed watching the snow from our room, it glistens against the fluorescent light in the dark...but the next morning...

 

 

 

 

It is one beautiful place. People are very nice. No traffic jams, air smells fresh, just lovely.. For the first time in 10 years, I have been getting 8+ hours of sleep every single night...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what are we cooking this week? We will visit Brazil, and I will be making lots of breads (for the first time!) and  some Filipino dishes as well.