Maris took us through her impressions of the Gaucho churrasco. My introduction to Brazilian cuisine was in London many years ago, when I first met my husband. He is half-English, and he was spending his early 20s in the vibrant UK capital, having a wild time and experiencing life outside of Rio Grande do Sul.
His big sister lived there also, and on Sundays we would make our way across the river for some family time and a feast like I had never seen before. The smell in her flat was incredible. ‘What IS it??’ I cried, when I first opened the pot and saw the velvetly black beans and chunks of meat and sausage. Her English boyfriend proudly told me that it had been cooking all day and I was in for a treat. He was so right.
They explained the ritual. The rice, the greens, the farofa, the oranges. Oranges? Why oranges? Apparently the vitamin C complements the iron…or something like that…but mainly because it just tastes good. I was in heaven. And of course I ate WAY too much… I think I could actually feel each one of those beans expanding in my stomach for the rest of the day!
Churrasco may be the pride of RS, but I think feijoada is the unofficial Brazilian dish. I’ve been told that it was traditionally a slave meal. Random discarded bits of the pig—ears, tail, snout, etc-- were cooked all day to produce the delicious stew, but it also may have originated from the Portuguese cozidos.
I joke that the main reason I agreed to come and live here was for the feijoada alone! When I lived in Australia it was difficult to get black beans, and I went a little crazy having them here in Porto Alegre when I first arrived. But now I skip them when I go to the buffets. I want to make sure that when I have the opportunity to tuck into a real home-cooked feijoada, I am ready to savour every mouthful.
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