Feijoada Paulistana com Bisteca

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •6-liter pressure cooker or heavy 6-liter pot
• •Wide heavy skillet for bistecas
• •Medium skillet for bananas and eggs
• •Small skillet for couve
• •Wooden spoon
• •Ladle

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the beans

   Put the black beans in a large bowl and cover with plenty of water by at least 3 fingers. Leave them 8 to 12 hours, then drain and rinse. Soaking isn't decoration. It helps the beans cook evenly and sit easier after dinner, which matters unless you enjoy arguing with your stomach at 10 p.m.

2. 2

   Cook the beans

   Put the soaked beans in a pressure cooker with 6 cups water and the bay leaves. Lock the lid, bring to pressure, then cook 25 minutes and let the pressure come down naturally for 10 minutes before opening. The beans should crush easily between your fingers but still look like beans. If they're firm, simmer uncovered a little longer. The clock gives you a direction; the bean gives you the answer.

   No pressure cooker? Use a heavy pot with 8 cups water and simmer 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding hot water as needed. It takes longer, but it works.
3. 3

   Start the refogado

   Warm 2 tablespoons oil or pork fat in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it goes soft, sweet, and see-through, about 6 minutes. Add 4 minced garlic cloves and stir for 1 minute, just until you smell it. This is the flavor floor. Burn the garlic and bitterness follows the whole pot like gossip.

4. 4

   Brown the smoked pork

   Add the sausage and optional smoked pork to the refogado and cook until the edges darken and the fat shines in the pan, about 5 minutes. Dourar means build color, not just warm it up. That browned edge gives the beans depth without any packet pretending to be dinner.

5. 5

   Thicken the caldo

   Ladle 1 cup cooked beans with some liquid into the refogado and mash them hard with a spoon until they look rough and creamy. Stir in the rest of the beans and enough cooking liquid to make a loose stew. The mashed beans are what make the caldo thick and glossy instead of watery. Anota aí: the bean thickens the bean.

   If the pot gets too thick, add hot water 1/2 cup at a time. Cold water drops the simmer and makes the beans sulk before coming back.
6. 6

   Simmer and season

   Add 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and the black pepper. Simmer uncovered 20 to 25 minutes, stirring now and then, until the caldo coats a spoon and settles slowly when you drag the spoon through it. Taste before adding more salt, because smoked pork and sausage bring their own. The pot should taste deep, salty enough, and unmistakably like feijão, not like smoke wearing a costume.

7. 7

   Season the bistecas

   Pat the pork chops dry, then season with salt, the remaining 1 minced garlic clove, lime juice, and a little black pepper. Let them sit 10 minutes while the beans simmer. Dry meat browns better. Wet meat hits the pan and starts boiling itself, and nobody came here for grey bisteca.

8. 8

   Brown the bistecas

   Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wide skillet over medium-high heat until it looks thin and shiny. Add the bistecas in one layer, cooking in batches if needed, and brown 3 to 4 minutes per side until the edges are deeply golden and the meat is just cooked through. Don't crowd the pan. Crowd it and the temperature drops, the meat releases water, and you steam instead of sear.

9. 9

   Fry the bananas

   Dip each banana half in flour, then beaten egg, then breadcrumbs. Heat 1/2 cup oil in a skillet over medium heat and fry the bananas until golden on both sides, about 1 to 2 minutes per side. They should be crisp outside and soft inside. Use ripe but firm bananas, because a very soft one collapses in the pan and then we all pretend it was intentional.

10. 10

    Sauté the couve

    Warm 1 tablespoon oil in a clean skillet over medium-high heat. Add the thinly sliced couve with a pinch of salt and toss for 1 to 2 minutes, just until it turns bright green and softens. Stop there. Couve is best quick, still alive in color, because the plate already has beans and pork doing the heavy work.

11. 11

    Fry the eggs

    Fry the 4 eggs however your pan behaves best, leaving the yolks soft if you like the boteco version. The whites should be set and the yolks still glossy. That yolk runs into the rice and beans and turns the plate into a small São Paulo argument in your favor.

12. 12

    Build the plate

    Spoon rice onto each plate, ladle the feijoada beside it, and add one bisteca, couve, farofa, banana frita, a soft egg, and orange wedges. Keep the orange on the plate, not as decoration but as balance. Squeeze it over a bite of beans and pork and you'll understand why Brazil didn't forget it.

Chef Tips

• •Buy black beans from a store that sells through them quickly. Old beans can stay stubborn no matter how kindly you speak to them, and then you'll blame your hands instead of the bag.
• •The honest Tuesday shortcut is using good cooked black beans you made and froze earlier. Use about 5 cups cooked beans with their liquid, then start at the refogado. The cost is that you needed to be kind to your future self last week.
• •Canned black beans can save a night, yes. Rinse only half of them and keep the liquid from the rest, because that liquid helps the caldo. It won't taste as deep as beans cooked from dry, but it will still be dinner. The seasoning packet stays out.
• •Make the rice plain and soltinho. This plate is loud enough already. Rice that separates, beans that are creamy, couve that is bright: that's the pê-efe doing its quiet arithmetic.
• •If bananas aren't good where you are today, skip banana frita and serve orange, farofa, and couve properly. Buy what's good today, not what yesterday's list bullied you into.
• •Leftover feijoada thickens in the fridge. Reheat with a splash of water over low heat, stirring until the caldo loosens and shines again.

Advance Preparation

• •Soak the beans 8 to 12 hours before cooking. This is the only part that needs yesterday's brain.
• •Cook the beans up to 3 days ahead and refrigerate them in their liquid, or freeze cooked beans in 2-cup portions for up to 3 months.
• •Slice the couve and bread the bananas up to 2 hours ahead. Keep the breaded bananas chilled in a single layer so the coating stays put.
• •Make arroz branco soltinho before you finish the bistecas, so the plate comes together hot and calm instead of chaotic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 950g)