Pork and Black Bean Stew

For a rotation group dinner last night (18 May 20130, I made a pork and black bean stew (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pork-and-black-bean-stew/) for our Brazil food theme:

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 large onion, chopped
1 (12 ounce) pork tenderloin, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 (19 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
3 chorizo sausages, cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat, stir in garlic and onion, and cook a few minutes until the onion softens and turns translucent. Remove the onion, and place into a saucepan. Pour the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil into the skillet, and place over medium-high heat. Add cubed pork, and cook until well browned.

Meanwhile, pour 3/4 of the black beans along with 1/4 cup water into the bowl of a blender, and pulse until finely chopped, but not quite smooth. Pour whole beans and bean puree into saucepan along with pork cubes, chicken stock, chorizo, and bay leaves.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.

My adjustments:

I skipped the 1/4 cup of water and added a splash of white wine

I used one can of chicken stock.

After the pork was cooked (used about 20 oz), I removed it and browned the chorizo (5 links) for a few minutes.

After bringing all ingredients to a high heat, I placed everything into a crockpot and cooked on high for 2 hours and then low for 2 hours.

My comments:

This came out well and everyone enjoyed it, but it’s definitely not a colorful dish. If I make this again, I'll add some red bell peppers to brighten it up. I was glad I added the white wine, as it made it more flavorful. 

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Brazilian black beans with pork

My friend Debbi, who hosted this dinner, also made this traditional Brazillian dish.

(Ingredients and directions provided; for full information see: http://www.cookbrasil.com/feijoada.htm)

Ingredients

1 lb of varied pork sausages (prefer smoked sausages)

1 lb of pork tenderloin

some slices of bacon

1 can of black beans (15.5Oz)

2 tbs vegetable oil

salt, garlic, chopped onions and bay leaves (bay leaves give a special taste to feijoada)

Directions

Add black beans to a medium-sized pot with 2 tbs oil, salt, garlic, chopped onions and about 6 bay leaves.

Cook for about 15 minutes in med heat and set aside.

In a separated panfry, cook cubes of pork tenderloin and slices of bacon with salt, garlic.

Add all the sausages sliced and stir medium-heat until dry all the water.

Add the cooked meat to the pan with the black beans and your feijoada is ready!

Cook your feijoada more 10 minutes to meat soak in the black beans. You can add some pepper sauce to your feijoada at this point.

Hint: to make the feijoada creamy, liquefy 1/2 cup of black beans in the blender and add to the feijoada

Serves 6

Debbi’s notes: I started by cooking the onions and garlic in the oil and once they were soft, added the beans. The meat portion I used about 4-5 slices of bacon and 1 lb. of Hillshire Smoked sausage and then the pork tenderloin. Some of the ingredients don't have a quantity, I just used my judgement on the amount.  I didn't add any hot sauce to this recipe.