Feijoada (Brazilian Black Bean Stew)

As chance would have it, we have a Brazilian Café here that has a fantastic lunch-time dish: Feijoada (fay-uh-WAD-uh). It is, by my estimation, a Portuguese cassoulet. The starchy base is made with black beans and onions with a protein-y richness from ham hock, lardons, and sausage. I've slow-cooked mine all day, and the results are spot-on. Here's how I did it.

Ingredients:

• 500g black beans
• 2 onions, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 150g Keilbasa sausage, sliced
• 1 smoked gammon knuckle (ham hock)
• 250g bacon lardons, diced
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1. Soak the black beans overnight. 
2. In a large Dutch oven, sauté the onions in half of the vegetable oil until translucent. Add in the garlic and stir for another 2 minutes. Next, pour in the drained black beans and cover with water. Bring to the boil and let simmer for 2 hours.
3. In a separate pot, cover the smoked ham hock with water, bring to the boil and let simmer for 2 hours. 
4. Reserve the broth from the simmering ham hock. At this point the meat should almost be falling off the bone. Place meat in a foil-lined pan along with the sausage and diced bacon lardons. 
5. Here the key step: put all the meat under the broiler and keep a close eye on it, stirring it around. You want the meat to get crispy on the edges. 
6. At this point, your beans should be fully cooked and the starch from them should have thickened the broth. Add in the char-grilled meats and top up the liquid in the pot using some of the broth reserved from the simmer ham hock. Add some freshly ground pepper to taste. Simmer an additional 20-30 minutes. 
7. Serve warm over rice or fufu.

Ham Hock and Lima Beans

This dish has no pretensions to beauty. It doesn't go out to parties. It won't be seen in restaurants. It wouldn't even invite friends over. But what it lacks in appearance and social skills it makes up for in warmth and down-home goodness. For me, fewer sensations epitomize the feeling of home like the smell of a slowly cooking pot of ham hock and lima beans. If one did have to dress this up for presentation, I'd like to think of it as the poor Southerner's cassoulet:

Ingredients:

1 smoked ham hock (smoked gammon knuckle if you are in the UK)
1 lb of butter beans*
1 small onion, diced and lightly sautéed
2 bay leaves

1. Soak the dried lima beans overnight.
2. Simmer the gammon knuckle on low heat for about 2 hours.
3. Remove the ham bone from the broth and separate the meat from the fat and bone. Discard the latter.
4. Add the limas, onions and bay leave to the pot and cook gently for 30-45 minutes.
5. Return the meat to the pot and cook with the beans for an additional 15 minutes--this allows the flavours 'to marry.'
6. Pepper to taste and serve hot. Reheats well.

*A note on butter beans versus lima beans: 'In the Southern United States the Sieva type are traditionally called butter beans, also otherwise known as the Dixie or Henderson type. In that area, lima beans and butter beans are seen as two distinct types of beans.' [Wiki]