My Brazilian housemate was suddenly recalled to Brazil, his scholarship attenuated amidst the global financial crisis. He will return eventually as a postdoc in the same lab but for now this unfortunate scenario will lead to the hunt for housemate in a very unfavourable time of the year. Not looking forward to that. However this departure coincides with it is also an excuse to have a party!
Basically the usual house party ingredients: friends, a lot of food and wine, and a bit of amateur folk singalong with the guitars but this time all with a sprinkling of Brazilian influence.
The Brazilian influence while assisted by caipirinhas was also infused by feijoada. This feijoada is a veritable pork explosion. Really the simplest of stews. It is suppossedly a 'slave food', made from the cheapest cuts of pork that can be found, usually ham hocks, plus a tail, ear, trotter and tongue. Despite these suggestion American interpretations tend to use kielbasa, bacon and other more pedestrian pork cuts often including some beef chuck steak as well. Almost every recipe insists on starting from dried beans, which is the only really time consuming part. Oh, don't forget the bay leaf. That is pretty much all there is to it. There are many interpretations available on the internets. They are all the basic thing of cooking the beans, browning the meat, adding meat to beans plus bay leaf then stewing for several hours at a low temperature. It is surprisingly tasty.
Hurry back Roberto.
