Picadinho à Brasileira

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy 4-liter pot or Dutch oven
• •Medium pot with tight-fitting lid for rice
• •Small pot for feijão
• •Wide skillet for couve
• •Wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Cut the beef

   Cut the beef into 1/2-inch cubes, then season with 1 teaspoon salt and the black pepper. Keep the pieces small and close in size. Small cubes brown fast, cook evenly, and let a cheaper cut become tender without making you wait all afternoon.

2. 2

   Brown in batches

   Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wide heavy pot over medium-high heat until it looks loose and shiny. Add half the beef in one layer and leave it alone until the underside goes deep brown, about 3 minutes, then turn and brown the other sides. Pull it out and repeat with the rest. Crowd the pan and the meat releases water, the heat drops, and you're steaming grey cubes instead of building flavor.

3. 3

   Build the refogado

   Lower the heat to medium and add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add the onion and cook, scraping the browned bits from the bottom, until the onion murcha, softens, and turns see-through, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic for 1 minute, just until you smell it. The onion sweetens the molho; the garlic perfumes it. Burn the garlic and it turns bitter, and then it follows you around the whole pot like a bad decision.

4. 4

   Toast the tomato

   Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, until it darkens slightly and sticks a little to the bottom. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they slump and release their juice, about 4 minutes. This takes the raw edge off the tomato and gives the molho body instead of that thin red water pretending to be sauce.

5. 5

   Simmer the molho

   Return the beef and its juices to the pot. Add the Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, carrot, hot water or broth, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bring to a lively bubble, then lower to a gentle simmer, lid slightly open, for 45 to 55 minutes. Stir now and then. The meat is ready when a cube gives under a spoon and the molho coats it instead of running off.

6. 6

   Make arroz soltinho

   While the picadinho simmers, rinse the rice until the water runs mostly clear and drain well. Warm 2 tablespoons oil in a pot, add 2 minced garlic cloves, and stir for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Add the rice and stir for 1 minute, until the grains look glossy, then add 4 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt. Boil until little holes appear on the surface, lower the heat, cover, and cook 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and rest 10 minutes before fluffing. Don't stir while it cooks. Stirring breaks the grains and wakes up the starch, and then arroz soltinho becomes rice paste.

7. 7

   Heat the feijão

   Warm the cooked feijão with its caldo in a small pot over medium-low heat, stirring now and then. If it's thick from the fridge, add a splash of water. If you're making beans from dried, soak them overnight first so they cook evenly and sit easier, then cook until tender. Build a refogado with onion and garlic, mash a ladle of cooked beans into it, and stir that back into the pot. That mashed ladle is what makes the caldo creamy instead of watery. No packet. The bean already knows how to be a bean.

8. 8

   Refogar the couve

   Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wide pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 minced garlic clove for 20 seconds, then add the sliced collards and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Toss until the greens turn brighter and just wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Stop there. Couve should stay green and tender, not collapse into a sad dark pile.

9. 9

   Finish the picadinho

   Stir the peas into the picadinho, if using, and cook 3 minutes, just until hot and bright. Taste the molho and adjust salt. Pull out the bay leaf and stir in the parsley. The final molho should be glossy and spoonable, thick enough to sit on rice but loose enough to soak into it.

10. 10

    Mount the pê-efe

    Spoon arroz soltinho onto each plate, ladle the picadinho and molho over part of the rice, and add feijão and couve beside it. Keep the portions honest and connected, not precious little islands. This is a prato feito: rice catching sauce, beans giving caldo, greens cutting through, dinner solved.

Chef Tips

• •Buy the cheaper beef cut and cut it small. Technique first, every time. A fancy cut cooked badly is an expensive disappointment; an ordinary cut browned and simmered properly becomes dinner.
• •Canned tomatoes are an honest Tuesday shortcut when fresh tomatoes are pale and tired. They cost you a little freshness, but they still behave like real food. Powdered beef seasoning does not get the same invitation.
• •Freeze feijão in 1-cup portions with plenty of caldo. Then a weeknight pê-efe is rice, one pan of meat, quick greens, and beans thawed like you planned your life better than you did.
• •If the molho dries before the beef softens, add hot water 1/4 cup at a time. Cold water drops the temperature and slows everything down. Hot water keeps the pot moving.
• •Picadinho is better the next day. The molho settles, the beef relaxes, and the rice forgives you if you make a fresh pot.

Advance Preparation

• •For the fastest weeknight version, cook feijão ahead and freeze it in portions for up to 3 months.
• •If starting dried beans from scratch, soak them overnight, at least 8 hours, in plenty of water before cooking.
• •The beef can be cut and seasoned up to 1 day ahead, covered in the fridge. Let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before browning so the pan doesn't lose heat.
• •Picadinho keeps 4 days in the fridge and reheats well with a splash of water to loosen the molho.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 820g)