Food: Brazilian bombshell

WE HAVE some splendid names among our saints this week, starting with St Cunegund, married to Duke Henry of Bavaria who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1014. He died in 1024, whereupon the Empress Cunegund took off her imperial regalia and replaced them with the habit of a nun. She founded a nunnery for Benedictines at Kassel, having vowed to do so some time before, when she recovered from a near-fatal illness. St Chrodegang saved Pope Stephen II from exile and brought him over the Alps where Pepin the Short welcomed him to France; and St Fridolin was an Irish wanderer who found the body of Hilary of Poitiers and started a school for young boys on an island in the Rhine and happily encouraged them to play many sports. Such excitement they all got up to.

I shall devote this article to a wonderful receipt sent to me by Claude Kauffmann. A sort of Brazilian cassoulet, it takes time but is well worth the effort. This is suitable for eight to ten people.

Having found all these ingredients, start cooking the night before consumption. If you can't find dried beef, use some thick bacon, pigs' trotters or ears, or even good black pudding. Soak the beans in plenty of water with a pinch of bicarbonate. Wash all the salted pork under running water and leave to soak in more water in a separate container. Treat the beef or bacon the same way.

Next day wash the meats again and place them in a large casserole together with the smoked meats, minus the sausage. Cover with cold water and bring slowly to the boil. Remove scum and gently simmer for two hours. Add the sausage 45 minutes before the end. Meanwhile, rinse and boil the black beans for ten minutes. Drain and return to the rinsed-out saucepan with two of the onions, two of the cloves of garlic and the bouquet garni. Season with the pepper only. Cover with plenty of fresh water, bring to the boil and simmer for 90 minutes.

Once cooked, cut the meats into medium-sized pieces and slice the sausage into large chunks. Take a ladle of the black beans and reserve. Place the rest of the drained beans with the meats in a large casserole and simmer for 45 minutes. Fry the remaining onion and garlic in oil, season with salt and pepper. Drain the reserved ladle of beans and add them to the pan, crushing them with a fork or a wooden spoon. Add a small cup of the cooking juices from the casserole, stir and reduce, then add to the meats and beans. If it becomes too dry, add a little hot water.

This dish should be accompanied by dry, fluffy rice like basmati or Patna, usually fried with chopped onion and garlic before adding the water (double the amount of water to rice). Other accompaniments include:

Farofa: manioc flour lightly fried in butter. Start by frying a finely chopped onion in the butter, then break in an egg and add the manioc flour, about two tablespoons per person. Keep stirring until the farofa is dry and golden in colour. This is sprinkled over the meat.

Couve mineira: a Brazilian type of cabbage which cannot be found in this country. Substitute greens instead. Wash the leaves and roll them very tightly, then slice them as finely as possible. Fry quickly in very hot oil and salt to taste. Very like the so-called Chinese fried seaweed, which is in fact greens.

Pimento sauce: chop two small onions, crush one clove of garlic and one small deseeded red pepper. Place in a blender with the juice of two limes, and you can add one or two not very ripe tomatoes.

Oranges: orange segments served with this dish are de rigueur.

Batida or caipirinha: this is really an aperitif, not something to be drunk while eating, like wine. It is delicious but can be quite lethal. Squeeze the juice of one or two limes into a tumbler, add some sugar to taste and plenty of crushed ice, then fill the tumbler with cachaca, a Brazilian eau de vie made from sugarcane. It is compulsory with feijoada, but drink it in moderation. This cachaca is difficult to find unless you have friends at the Brazilian embassy, but I suppose you could use white rum or any eau de vie.

The other stranger ingredients are best looked for in ethnic shops and first-class pork butchers. Anyway, it makes a fine feast. Many thanks to Mr Kauffmann.

Copyright Spectator Mar 8, 1997
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