Brazil: Pão, pão, queijo, queijo
Hello and welcome back for another epic meal time with Kryddhyllan! This week’s guest hails from the largest country on its continent, and the world’s fifth largest country by population and geographical area. Another hint: It’s the only country on its continent that boasts Portugese as a national language. Have you guessed yet? That’s right! This week, we’re shining a spotlight on Brazil (and more specifically, it's absolutely delicious cuisine - Pão de Queijo, we’re looking at you, as just one mouth-watering example).
For this Brazilian eve of tastiness, we of course took it upon ourselves to try and recreate one of Brazil’s most famous national dishes: Feijoada, a traditional black bean and meat stew that serves up quite a bit of history alongside it. It is conventional wisdom that this dish originated from the country’s long history with slavery. This bean stew was developed by slaves during colonial times, using the parts of meat that slave owners didn’t want, including “cheaper cuts” such as pig tails, feet, and ears, as well as beef tongue. And while the original continues to be enjoyed today, the version we made used more “mainstream” meat cuts and sausages that are a bit easier to find and order at a butcher without raising too many eyebrows. As so eloquently put by wonderful host Tomas: “We’re gonna need bacon everywhere”, this meaty dish is enjoyed with a diverse array of equally delicious sides, and is a hearty meal that will quite literally stick to your ribs.
Feijoada (Brazilian black bean stew)
Enjoy with: we sipped on some Caipirinhas: a Brazilian classic cocktail made from muddled lime, raw sugar and Cachaça, a distilled spirit made from fermented sugar cane juice. If you’re not up for cocktail hour, a light lager would do, like a Skol. If alcohol is really not your thing, why not wash it down with the “national” soda Guarana Antarctica
Listen to: Our chef not only provided us with food, but had already curated a playlist of Brazil’s best sounds, which you can find here. For a more classic take you can start off with Brazil Pandeiro with Novos Baianos and see where the night takes you.
Serves 8-10 people, takes about 3,5 hours (excluding soaking the beans overnight)
Ingredients
Feijoada stew
4 smoked meat sausages (about 300g)
300 g bacon
500 g pork ribs
400 g carne seca (a form of dried beef)
3 medium yellow onions, chopped
8 garlic cloves, crushed
6 bay leaves
500 g of black beans (soak overnight)
Olive oil
Green side with kale
2-3 bags of green kale
2 bags of spinach
Serve with:
Basmati style rice
6 oranges, sliced
Farofa
Instructions
As mentioned, put the beans in water the night before to soften. Put water well above the level of the beans since they will grow
Cut the meat into smaller pieces (min 4x4 cm) and cook the different types separately and set aside
Cook about half of the bacon in a pan and set it aside. The other half will be used for the green sides
Start cooking the beans in a large pot on low heat, let it simmer and cook according to instructions. Add in the bay leaves.
When the beans start to be tender (after an hour or so) take out a few ladles of them and put into a pan. Add in the garlic, onion and bacon and sauté. Use a fork to mush everything together.
Add the mushed beans back into the large pot and now add in the cooked meats and let sit.
Green side:
Take the kale and cut off the stems, and slice into thin slivers. In a large pot, or wok, add in the kale and spinach with some olive oil and stir fry until the greens shrink significantly, almost to a wilted stage. Add in the bacon
Stir until all the greens are wilted (you might need to add them in gradually to have it fit into the pan)
You can also add in some onion and garlic into this mix if you want
Rice:
Cook the rice according to instructions. To speed up the cooking time you can let the rice soak while you are preparing everything else.
Serve with:
Slice all the oranges into round slices and serve on top
Fry the farofa in a large pan with a bit of butter and then sprinkle on top
Obrigada and goodnight!
Interview Time
Kryddhyllan: Ok! So, the first question is… what is your favourite food from home and why?
Tomas: Oh wow… I mean I guess I would have to say that it’s feijoada, which is what we’re having today, because I like to mix a lot of different foods and I would say that this is one of the foods where do, where you have lots of different sides – you have the kale, you have the farofa, you have the beans, and you get this really full flavour experience. And then there’s the historical background as well, it was created by the slaves in Brazil – it has a lot of history and soul to the dish. But yeah, it is definitely a lot of work right, we were cooking for three hours today and I actually started yesterday – but it’s worth it!
Kryddhyllan: Definitely. And what brought you to Sweden?
Tomas: I got a scholarship actually from the Swedish Institute, and then I started studying here 6 years ago. Before that I had no idea about Sweden, and now I know all about ABBA and IKEA and – we don’t even have IKEA in Brazil actually, so sad. We have our own version and protect it from the external competition.
Kryddhyllan: IKEA’s not allowed in! But cool, had you applied for scholarships in other countries and it just happened to be Sweden?
Tomas: Yeah, I applied everywhere – South Korea, Singapore, France. But Sweden was the most generous one, and I couldn’t afford to study abroad otherwise. Here I got housing and tuition covered, which was super nice.
Kryddhyllan: That’s awesome! And what’s your favourite new dish since moving to Sweden?
Tomas: Swedish dish? Oh my god, I know exactly which one! My favourite Swedish dish is also the one that has my favourite name and that is: Janssons Frestelse. I want to have a band named “Jansson’s Temptation”, I love that name and I really like the mix of weird things – it’s a bit of cinnamon taste, and a bit of this fishy taste, and a bit of potato. It’s just so unusual and I really love this.
Kryddhyllan: Ah nice, you’re probably the first of our guests with that as a favourite dish! Did you know anything about Swedish food before coming here?
Tomas: No, actually let me see… not really, I mean I had heard about Swedish meatballs but when I came here, I didn’t find that they were so different – they’re like meatballs anywhere else.
Kryddhyllan: Maybe the condiments are a bit different though…
Tomas: I guess, but there are other things that are more unique, like lussekatter, and dammsugare and chokladbollar. Those things feel more unique. Oh! I also knew about knäckebröd.
Kryddhyllan: Really?! Can you buy that in Brazil?
Tomas: No, I had it in Germany *laughs*.
Kryddhyllan: What do you think is the best and worst thing about Swedish food?
Tomas: The best thing I think about Swedish food is that the supermarket here is completely absurd, you can buy stuff from Thailand, China, there’s stuff from all over the world in almost every supermarket. There are so many options, which is really good because you can cook whatever you want, and people are always cooking these really international dishes. In Brazil if you wanted to eat international food you would go out to a restaurant. So that’s really nice here. What’s bad about Swedish food? Hmm, I don’t really have that much critique about it actually.
Kryddhyllan: Oh wow! First time for everything.
Tomas: I think it’s a lot of – yeah, I dunno I think that what’s missing in Swedish food, or maybe I just haven’t experienced it yet, is the homemade feel here. It’s a lot of oh, you’re working, and you’ll just get a salad to eat. There aren’t many of these “spend the whole Sunday” cooking type of dishes.
Kryddhyllan: That’s true… that would be nice to have. But if you had to pick one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Tomas: Oh my god, that’s a hard one.
Kryddhyllan: It’s super hard.
Tomas: Like just one food? You can’t change it at all?
Kryddhyllan: It can be a category – like sandwiches.
Tomas: Oh my god… I think, oh wow this sounds so boring but I would probably go with oatmeal because you can make it cold, you can make overnight oats, you can make it warm, you can make it with fruit or milk, with ice cream or peanut butter. You can have all these different flavours and still have a balanced meal.
Kryddhyllan: So healthy!
Tomas: I don’t think you’d get bored either. With something really tasty you’d get bored after a while, but with oatmeal…
Kryddhyllan: Which isn’t tasty, you mean?
Tomas: Yeah exactly *laughs* it’s not that interesting so you can just like, eat it and not get bored.
Kryddhyllan: It’s pretty neutral. Same question but for spices, if you could only use one spice or herb or mineral to flavour your food, what would it be?
Tomas: I mean, salt is really important. But I would say that my favourite herb is basil actually. I love it so much. Fresh basil is so good, it makes anything super tasty – with mozzarella or tomato sauce or with the balsamico dressing. It’s so good.
Kryddhyllan: Yes, basil for the win! And what is the best meal you’ve ever had? Ever! In your whole life!
Tomas: I mean, that’s such a difficult question. The thing that pops to mind, I don’t remember all the details, but we were in Spain, in Mallorca for last vacation and we went to this super-duper fancy restaurant with 7 dishes type of thing. I don’t even remember what we had exactly, but I’ve never had that kind of experience with food where you’re like wowed. Especially because I’m not really a foodie in general, but it was these soft, tender types of meat and complicated desserts. I’m not being super specific but the memory of it is just really delicious.
Kryddhyllan: Yeah, but usually the memory is what sticks with you! Just a nice experience.
Tomas: Yeah, and I never really thought you could spend that much money on food, and it would ever be worth it, but that time I was like “no this is awesome, and totally worth it”.
Kryddhyllan: That’s so nice. Do you have any favourite restaurants at the moment?
Tomas: In Stockholm?
Kryddhyllan: Could be anywhere!
Tomas: Gosh, I don’t know I don’t eat out so much…. Hmm, oh I know! There’s a really good Indian place between Skanstull and Medborgarplatsen, maybe it’s called Indian Garden or something? They do small dishes and you can choose lots of different ones. It’s so good and I love Indian food.
Kryddhyllan: Indian Garden like the chain? Or Shanti?
Tomas: No…. I can look it up. It’s more on the fancier side. Maybe it is Indian Garden. Herman’s is good as well.
Kryddhyllan: Nice! Well, thank you for a great interview! You’ve passed!
Tomas: Phew!
