Guano & Associates

The day before, sort the beans to get all the rocks out and then soak at least 24 hours. The next day, drain the beans and then refill with fresh water with at least 3 inches of water above the beans. Bring beans to a boil on medium heat.

Meanwhile, cut carne seca (or bacon) and sausage into bite-size pieces about 1". Take the ribs and split them into 2-rib sections.

Add the carne seca, sausage, ribs and bay leaves to the beans. Let simmer for about 2 hours or until the beans are soft. This means soft, not with any crunch when you eat one. Stir frequently to keep it from burning on the bottom of the pot and add water as needed to kep the beans covered.

Dice the onion and garlic and sautee in a separate frying pan until golden. Add two large cups of beans to the onions and garlic and mash into a thick puree, like refried beans. Add this mash back into the main pot of beans to the thicken.

Add salt to taste, but in general, the sausage and bacon tend to add more than enough salt for me.

I usually let it simmer for a couple more hours. Serve over rice and garnish with orange slices (I like mandarin slices) and collard greens (or kale).

Brasilian Rice I usually double this recipe simply because the feijoada recipe makes so much that there usually isn't enough rice to go with the beans.

2 cups long grain rice

3 tbsp vegatable oil

1 onion, peeled and diced

2 cups water

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 carrots dice (optional)

Heat the oil in a medium sized skillet (I prefer a sauce pan with a lid). Add the rice and onion and cook, stirring frequently over low heat until the rice makes a swishing, squeaky sound (about 20 minutes). Add water and carrots, bring to a boil. Lower heat and then let cook for 25 minutes.

Collard Greens (couve) - brasilian style

I prefer collard greens to kale but either will work. Wash and pull out the hard stems out of the leaves. Rolls the leaves into loose bundles and then slice into thin, 1/4 inch strips.

Put about 2 tbsp butter into a hot skillet. Add 1 chopped onion and one diced garlic clove. Put the greens into the hot butter just to wilt the leaves. Stir frequently, remove, and then serve hot as a side dish to the beans. Should have a slightly bitter flavor.

Coxinhas I survived on these and where definitely my favorite snack food. This isn't EXACTLY

3 boneless chicken breast
½ chopped onion
2 chopped cloves of garlic
6 tablespoon margarine
2 cubes beef bouillon
salt
ground pepper
3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp paprika
1 (8oz) cream cheese (the authentic recipe has Catupiry cheese, but I've never seen it outside of Brasil. Cream cheese doesn't cut the bill for me, any soft, mild, white cheese should be fine. I used some called Cremevit this last time that was perfect, but it's something like brie.)
2 eggs
Bread crumbs

PREPARE:

Combine chicken breast, chopped onion, garlic, beef bouillon, salt, ground pepper, margarine and 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker. Place the pressure cooker in medium-heat. Chicken is ready 10 minutes after the regulator starts to blow steam.

(If you don’t have a pressure cooker, cut chicken breast into 2-inch cubes and cook with the same ingredients in a saucepan over medium-heat for about 30 minutes or until done.)

Remove chicken breast from broth. Finely chop chicken breast to make the coxinha filling.
You can increment the filling with parsley, green onions. I like to add paprika as well. But do not add liquids to the filling.

Bring exactly 3 cups of the remaining broth to boil. Add the 3 cups of flour into the boiling water and stir vigorously with a wood spoon for about 1 minute until it become dough. Take dough out of pan. When warm, knead dough until it becomes smooth and dissolve the flour lumps (about 10 minutes).

Flatten dough with a rolling pin to about ¼-inch thick and cut medium size circles with a biscuit cutter. Place the dough in your palm, place a small cube of cheese and a teaspoon of chicken filling previously prepared.

Dose the ingredients according to the size of the dough circle you cut so that you can close the dough with the filling inside. Knead scraps and re roll, repeat cutting circles until all dough is used.
Fold and close the dough in a shape of a drum stick (a little chicken drum stick in Portuguese translate to "coxinha"). Grease hands if necessary.

Baste the filled dough with egg whites and roll them over breadcrumb.

Deep-fry the snacks 350 °F for about 8 minutes or until golden brown.