Feijoada

Rachel Dana was our October 2012 Daring Cooks' Challenge hostess! Rachel brought Brazil into our lives by challenging us to make Feijoada and Farofa along with some other yummy side dishes traditionally served with Feijoada, which is a delicious black bean and pork stew.

Feijoada [fay-JWA-da], a rich stew of black beans and pork, is Brazil’s national dish. Traditional feijoada contains a combination of many varieties of pork. Pork shoulder, pork loin, smoked pork sausage, salted pork ribs, fresh ham, bacon, ham hock, dried pork, pork knuckles. You name it, you can use it. 

I kept my meats pretty standard – bacon, pork shoulder and andouille sausage (linguica would have been more authentic). Otherwise, I was pretty true to the recipe. I was a little concerned that it would be bland, but I was wrong. The combination of leeks, shallots and scallions plus the paprika, Tabasco and Worcestershire gave it a solid, but not overpowering flavor.

I served the feijoada over rice and with the traditional accompaniments of quickly sautéed collard greens and orange slices, a really refreshing side that cut right through the richness of the stew.

Start with the beans. 

Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Cook, covered, for about an hour, until the beans are just cooked through.

In the meantime, sauté the pork shoulder, sausage, and whichever other meats you’re using, in batches, until browned on all sides but not cooked through. Set aside and cover.

In a Dutch oven, sauté the bacon until it’s lightly crisp. Add the onion, celery, leeks, shallots and scallions. Cook until tender. This base is going to give the feijoada lots of flavor.

Add the garlic. Then add the beans, plus all of their cooking liquid to the bacon and vegetables and bring to a boil. Add the meats plus accumulated juices to the beans. 

Simmer, covered, for three hours until the meats are tender. (Look at how thick and rich it is after all that simmering!)

Season liberally with salt, pepper, nutmeg, paprika, Tabasco and Worcestershire.

Serve on rice, along with garlicky sautéed collard greens and orange slices.

  

Feijoada

Adapted from a recipe by Leticia Moreinos Schwartz

4 cups dried black beans, picked and rinsed
4 quarts water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb bacon, cut into pieces
2 lb pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 ½ to 2 lb chorizo, linguica or andouille sausage
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup leeks, chopped
1/2 cup shallots, chopped
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
2 Tbsp chopped garlic, minced
3 bay leaves

Kosher Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Paprika

Cayenne pepper
Tabasco sauce
Worchestershire sauce

1.    Place the beans in a very large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Turn heat to medium, and cook, covered, for 1 hour, until the beans are just cooked but not too mushy (I had to cook mine a bit longer). Set aside.

2.    Meanwhile, start preparing meats and vegetables. Saute the pork shoulder and sausage, in batches, until browned on all sides. Transfer to a large bowl and cover tightly with aluminum foil.

3.    Heat the oil in an extra-large Dutch oven pan, and cook the bacon until lightly crispy.

4.    Add the onions, celery, leeks, shallots and scallions and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3 to 5 minutes.

5.    Add the garlic and stir to blend with other vegetables. Add the beans and bring to a boil.

6.    Add the meats and any accumulated juices from the bowl. Cover the pan and simmer at low heat for about 3 hours, until the meats are tender and falling off the bones.

7.    Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, paprika, Tabasco and Worcestershire, all to taste.

8.    Serve with rice, farofa, collard greens (quickly sautéed over high heat with plenty of garlic), and orange or grapefruit slices.

 Serves 8 - 10 

Char Siu Bao

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2012 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

Dim sum is one of my favorite ways to eat out. For one thing, it's essentially a never-ending series of appetizers (always my favorite part of a meal). I love watching cart after cart roll by, ordering whatever appeals at that moment.

Of course, there are downsides too. I once spent an hour waiting for the lady with the sesame bean paste balls and finally ended up trailing her around the gigantic dining room until she noticed me.

At this point, I've got my definite favorites. In addition to those sesame bean balls, I'm a big fan of anything with seafood. My husband and son, though, are fans of Chinese pork. BBQ pork buns, in particular.

So they were thrilled with this month's Daring Cooks'Challenge -- Char Siu Bao. Char Siu Bao are steamed, spongy buns filled with a sweet/savory filling of chopped pork.

The pork filling is pretty straightforward. You marinate the pork, grill it, then chop it up and stir fry it with some additional flavorings.

The buns, on the other hand, are quite time-consuming. They require kneading, rising, rolling, filling, resting, then steaming. Honestly, even though they came out great, I don't think I'd ever go through all that effort again. Especially considering how little they charge for them at Hei La Moon.

First, the pork. Assemble the ingredients for the marinade. It's a long list, but it results in a tasty sauce.

Combine the marinade ingredients.

Marinate the pork in the marinade and leave the pork in the fridge overnight to soak up all the flavors.

Grill the pork until it's cooked through (you can also bake it if you don't have access to a grill). The recipe said it would take about 15 minutes to cook through. Mine took a lot longer, possibly because it was freezing outside the day I grilled my pork!

Let it rest, then chop it up into tiny pieces.

Heat the shallots in some oil, then add the chopped pork.

Stir in the oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and sesame oil.

Then add the cornstarch/stock mixture. At first it will look liquidy, but it will help to thicken up the mixture. Set the pork mixture aside and let it cool.

Now the buns, or bao. The buns start out with a surprising ingredient (at least, I was surprised) -- milk. You scald the milk, which basically means you heat it to just below boiling.

Then stir in sugar, oil, and salt and let it cool to lukewarm. Letting it cool to lukewarm is a critical step. Once it's lukewarm, you're going to add the yeast. If you add the yeast before the milk has cooled enough, the yeast will die and your buns won't rise. So, once the milk is lukewarm, sprinkle the yeast into the milk. At first nothing will happen.

Over the next 10 to 15 minutes, though, you'll notice some slight bubbling. Soon the surface of the milk will be frothy. This means the yeast has been activated.

Sift the flour into a bowl. Once the milk/yeast mixture is ready, add it to the flour.

Bring the dough together with your fingers.

Then knead it on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes until it's smooth and feels nice and elastic.

Place the dough in a covered bowl for an hour or two until it doubles in size.

Pull off a piece of dough, roll it into a ball in your hands, then roll it with a rolling pin into a 3-inch circle.

Place some of the pork filling into the center of the circle.

Then gather up the edges of the dough at the top.

Place each bun on a small square of parchment paper. Then cover with a damp towel and let the dough rise again for about 20 minutes.

Finally, the buns are ready to cook! Set up a steamer on your stovetop. Pinch the tops of the buns together again (they will probably have come apart a bit while they were resting). This helps the pork filling to stay nice and moist as the buns steam. Leave some room between the buns so they have room to expand.

Steam the buns for about 12 minutes, until the dough is cooked.

Enjoy your homemade dim sum!

Steamed Char Siu Bao

Char Siu (Cantonese BBQ Pork)

1 1.5-pound pork tenderloin

4 large cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tsp ginger, grated

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 ½ Tbsp maltose (you can substitute honey)

1 ½ Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp hoisin sauce

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 Tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp oyster sauce

1 Tbsp shaoxing cooking wine (or dry sherry)

½ tsp black pepper

pinch of salt

½ tsp five spice powder

½ tsp sesame oil

½ tsp red food coloring (optional)

1.      Trim the pork loin to remove fat and tendon and slice lengthways so you have two long pieces, then cut in half. By cutting the pork in to smaller pieces to marinate you will end up with more flavorsome char siu. Place in container that you will be marinating them in.

2.      Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine.

3.      Cover pork well with ⅔ of the marinade mixture. Marinate for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Place the reserved ⅓ portion of the marinade covered in the fridge. You will use this to baste when cooking the pork.

4.      Place marinated pork loin on the grill of your BBQ.

5.      Cook on a medium heat for 15 to 30 minutes, until cooked through, basting occasionally with the reserved marinade.

Char Siu Bao Pork Filling

3/4 pound char sui (finely diced)

2 green onions/spring onions (finely sliced)

1 Tbsp hoisin sauce

1 Tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

¼ cup chicken stock

1 tsp cornstarch

½ Tbsp vegetable oil

1.      Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or pan.

2.      Add diced char sui to the wok/pan and stir then add spring onions, cook for 1 minute.

3.      Add hoisin, dark soy sauce and sesame oil to the pork mixture, stir fry for one minute.

4.      Mix cornstarch and stock together and then add to the pork mixture.

5.      Stir well and keep cooking until the mixture thickens, 1 or 2 minutes.

6.      Remove mixture from wok/pan and place in a bowl to cool. Set aside until ready to use.

Char Siu Bao

1 cup whole milk

¼ cup sugar

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

¼ tsp salt

2½ tsp dried yeast

3 cups all purpose flour

1.      Scald milk. Stir in sugar, oil and salt, then leave to cool until it is lukewarm.

2.      Once it is the right temperature add yeast. Leave until yeast is activated and it becomes frothy, about 10 to 15 minutes.

3.      Sift flour into a large bowl.

4.      Add milk/yeast mixture to the flour. Bring the flour mixture together with your hands.

5.      Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes. The dough should be smooth and slightly elastic.

6.      Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rise until it is double in size. This will take from 1 to 2 hours.

7.      Punch down dough and divide in to 20 equal portions.

8.      Roll each dough portion in to a 3-inch round.

9.      Place 1 tablespoon of pork filling in the center of the round. Gather the edges together at the top and place on a 3-inch square of baking paper. Repeat until all dough has been used.

10.  Cover with a damp towel and let rise for 20 minutes.

11.  Place a few buns at a time in a steamer, leaving space between the buns.

12.  Heat water in the bottom of the steamer until it is simmering and place steamer on the pan.

13.  Place lid on top of steamer and steam for approximately 12 minutes.

Makes 24 buns.

  

Bacon Jam

Thanksgiving has always been a big deal in our house. As soon as Halloween is over, we dive into our trove of cookbooks and archived Bon Appetits. 

Then the emails begin. At first it's just a soup suggestion here, a dessert idea there. Before we know it, the emails are flying fast and furious. "Help me choose one of these seven recipes for green bean casserole." Or "Do you guys want cranberry jelly, sauce, or chutney -- I've attached three recipes for each."

Sometimes egos get bruised (why don't you think I'll be able to pull this off?) and old insecurities come to the fore (you guys NEVER listen to my ideas!).

Finally, the winnowing begins. We eliminate the recipes that don't make us drool. Or we come up with a theme "International twist on the classics" or "Classics with the volume turned up" and go from there.

Ever since my sister and I got married, the logistics have become a bit more challenging. There's a little more negotiating about where to have the big meal. And more cooks who want to be in the kitchen. There are a few more dietary restrictions to deal with. And a lot more opinions to navigate. (On the other hand, there's my new baby nephew who makes everyone smile, no matter the level of tension in the kitchen.)

And some things never change. For as long as I can remember, I've been in charge of the appetizers. My dad has always made the soup. And my sister prepares dessert. My mom is everyone's sous chef, finding a serving platter here, chopping vegetables there. And over time, the newer additions to our family have claimed their territory too. My husband makes the (usually Bourbon-soaked) sweet potatoes. And my brother-in-law prepares the cranberry sauce, usually one with a spicy kick.

For this year's Thanksgiving meal, I've had a particular appetizer in mind for months. Bacon jam. Yes, that's right. Bacon jam. The food blogger who came up with this recipe, Not Quite Nigella, named her post Bacon Jam -- Your Wildest Dreams Come True. And she's not kidding.

This jam is sweet, salty, smoky, spicy and redolent of bacon. Basically everything you could possibly want in one bite. I'll be serving a dollop of the bacon jam on crostini spread with a thin layer of cheese. 

But I'd eat it on toast, on an egg sandwich, on a BLT on a burger,...Honestly, I'd be happy to eat it straight out of the jar. I think it may become a new Thanksgiving tradition.

Start with good bacon.

Cut the bacon into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Fry in a nonstick skillet until the bacon is just golden brown.

Transfer a little of the rendered bacon fat to a Dutch oven and fry the onion and garlic in the fat until translucent.

Add the bacon to the Dutch oven, along with all of the other ingredients except the water. Simmer for 2 hours over medium heat, turning down the heat to low after an hour if the bacon is starting to burn. If your mixture dries out, add 1/4 cup of water every 15 minutes or so and stir.

This is what your jam will look like after 5 minutes:

After 30 minutes:

After 1 hour:

After 1 1/2 hours:

And when it's done cooking:

Let the mixture cool for a few minutes. Then transfer to a food processor and pulse for a couple of seconds until the ingredients are chopped up, but the jam still has some texture.

Serve simply with crackers or get as imaginative as you like.

Bacon Jam

Barely adapted from a recipe by Not Quite Nigella

1 pound smoked bacon

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium onion sliced

3 Tbsp brown sugar

Tabasco sauce (according to taste; I added about 2 tsp)

1 cup coffee

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup maple syrup

Black pepper to taste

extra water

1.      Cut bacon into 1 1/2-inch pieces, the fry in a non stick pan until bacon is lightly browned and beginning to crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2.      Put 2 tablespoons of the rendered bacon fat into a heavy Dutch oven. Fry the onion and garlic in the rendered bacon fat on medium heat until translucent.

3.      Add the bacon to the onion and garlic in the Dutch oven. Then add the rest of the ingredients except for the water.

4.      Simmer for 2 hours adding 1/4 of a cup of water every 15 minutes or so and stirring. (I turned down the heat to low after 1 hour of cooking to prevent the bacon from burning.)

5.      When ready, cool for about 15-20 minutes and then place in a food processor. Pulse for 2-3 seconds so that you leave some texture to the “jam.” Or keep whizzing and make it a smoother and more paste-like.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Sizzling Spanish Shrimp and Chorizo

When my husband and I first got married, one of our favorite restaurants was a Spanish tapas place called Tapeo. It was always packed, buzzing with a lively group of people crowded around the bar, sangria in hand.

Tapeo was great year-round, but especially in the summer. My husband I would sit outside on their patio, people watching while drinking pitcher after pitcher of their ruby red sangria.

We loved to try different tapas, but the two we ordered on every visit were Gambas al Ajillo and Chorizo a la Plancha.

Gambas are shrimp. Tapeo served them in a sizzling garlic oil. The garlic permeated the shrimp and oil with the most heavenly flavor. We’d keep asking for refills of our bread until we’d soaked up every last drop of the fragrant oil.

Chorizo is a spicy Spanish pork sausage seasoned with smoked paprika and salt. At Tapeo they’d grill it to caramelize the outside and enhance its smoky flavor.

I came across a recipe the other day that combined both of these delicious tapas into one dish. The chorizo and garlic flavor the oil with a deep smokiness. And the shrimp absorbs all those flavors without losing its essential shrimp flavor. Serving this dish with a baguette to soak up all the intensely flavored oil is an absolute must.

Once you start cooking this dish, it moves along pretty fast. I’d recommend getting everything ready before turning on the stove. I started with some lovely head- and tail-on shrimp.

Peel and devein the shrimp then rinse and pat it dry. Put it back in the fridge while you prepare your other ingredients.

Prepare your chorizo. I used pork chorizo, but turkey chorizo would be fine too.

Slice up your chorizo. Look at all those lovely spices!

Also mince your garlic cloves.

Now, heat up your pan (a heavy cast-iron pan works nicely if you have one). Add several tablespoons of olive oil and let it heat through. Be generous with the oil – you’re going to want lots of it to eat with your bread.

Carefully add your chorizo to the pan. Cook for several minutes until it’s nice and golden brown on all sides. Then remove the chorizo from the pan with a slotted spoon, but leave the oil behind.

Now add the minced garlic. Cook for a minute or so until the garlic is golden yellow.

Then add the shrimp and cook for about 4 minutes, until the shrimp is just cooked.

Add the chorizo back to the pan until everything is heated through.

Serve immediately with a crusty, warm baguette.

Sizzling Spanish Shrimp and Chorizo

Recipe minimally adapted from I Will Not Eat Oysters

1 1/2 cups Spanish style chorizo, sliced into 1/4" pieces

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

4-5 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 baguette, warmed

1.      Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the chorizo and brown on both sides, about 6 minutes total. Remove the pieces of chorizo with a slotted spoon onto a plate (no paper towel) and reserve. Leave the oil in the pan.

2.      Turn heat down to medium and add the garlic into the oil. Cook for about 1 minute, until the garlic is golden.

3.      Turn the heat back up to medium-high and add the shrimp. Cook for about 4 minutes, until the shrimp are just cooked through.

4.      Add the chorizo back in and toss everything together.

Serve with a warm baguette.

Serves 8 as an appetizer or 4 as a main course.