You eat this slowly, in a bowl, in winter: beans, smoked ribs, chouriço, bacon, cabbage wilted into the smoke. Broa for tearing. A hard red from the same mountains. It will not be rushed, and you should not try.
Trás-os-Montes — behind the mountains — is cold, high, and serious about smoke. The Portuguese pot of beans and pig is a dish of the interior. The cabbage goes in last, so it still has a little structure.
Simmer until the beans are tender and the meats have given themselves up. Slice the meats and return them, so every bowl gets a little of each. Mash a few beans against the side if the broth looks thin.
Method
- 01
Put the soaked beans in a pot with the smoked pork ribs, the chouriço, the bacon, the onion, the garlic, and the bay leaf. Cover with fresh water and bring to a simmer. Cook 1.5 to 2 hours, until the beans are tender and the meats have given themselves up. The kitchen should smell of smoke and winter; add water if the pot looks dry, for the beans must stay submerged.
- 02
Stir in the sliced cabbage for the last 20 minutes of cooking. It should wilt into the pot and take the smoke, but still have a little structure — not the khaki of a long boil. Taste the broth and add pepper; the meats have brought the salt. If the stew looks thin, mash a few beans against the side of the pot to thicken it.
- 03
Lift out the meats, slice them, and return them to the pot so every bowl will get a little of each. The ribs, the chouriço, the bacon — they should be distributed, not hiding in a heap. Give the stew a gentle stir. Look at it: beans, cabbage, smoke — that is Trás-os-Montes in a pot.
- 04
Ladle the feijoada into bowls, making sure each one has beans, cabbage, and a piece of each meat. Set broa — the corn bread of the north — on the table, for tearing and dipping. Eat it slowly; this is a winter dish and it will not be rushed. A hard red from the same mountains is the right glass.
