Here’s a real life example of an basic Brazilian lunch, even though we had it for dinner this time around. This is something pretty typical, which I would have eaten on any given day with my host family as an exchange student or at meals with church members when I was a missionary. The only thing missing was an ice cold guarana.

This is part 3 of a series on Brazilian cooking. Several more articles are scheduled for the next two weeks. Part 1 of the series was Cooking Brazilian Beans, part 2 was Cooking Brazilian Rice.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of a nicely made up plate from this meal. The pictures here are from cleanup time. We had friends over that night and were too busy socializing to stop and take pictures.

The night before we had picked our rhubarb chard, the remaining beet tops and a generous helping of green beans. Most of our beets were all greens and no beet. I have planted another crop of them and I pledge to do a better job thinning them early on so they will grow better.

An Awesome Brazilian Lunch

Here’s what you get:

• Beans and Rice
• Breaded fried chicken breast
• Steamed chard and beet tops
• Steamed green beans
• Tomato, cucumber and zucchini vinagarette salad
• Farofa (lightly fried corn meal with rasins, well-cooked bacon and spices)

We had pudim (flan) for desert.

Putting it all Together

In case you’re not familiar with typical Brazilian lunches, put the rice in a pile in the middle of the plate, and heap the beans on top of that. Think mashed potatoes with gravy — that’s the kind of rice to beans ratio you’re going for. The farofa is sprinkled on top of the beans, the meat and vegetables will be placed around and on the rice and beans.

Making The Dishes

Rice

Cooked exactly as outlines in Cooking Brazilian Rice.

Beans with Zucchini

Make Brazilian beans as outlined in this post (LINK) but add 1/2 of a medium zucchini, sliced into bite-sized pieces. I let the beans rest overnight after cooking and they turned out fantastic. The zucchini pretty much disolved into the beans adding a hint of sweetness that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

Breaded Fried Chicken Breast

• Thin cut chicken breasts
• flour
• parsley
• rosemary

I cut the chicken breasts thin (1/2 inch to an inch). Caroline made a breading by mixing flour, parsley and rosemary. I’m not sure the proportions of the ingredients. After rolling the chicken in the breading, I fried the chicken in about 1/2 of an inch of oil until they were cooked all the way through.

Steamed Chard and Beet Tops

In Brazil the standard cooked green would be collard greens, but these had a very similar flavor. By itself collard greens (or chard/beet tops) don’t taste very good to me. Their bitterness pairs nicely with the slightly sweet beans and rice though and goes down nice and smoothly.

Bunch the leaves up tight and slice into thin strips. Steam the chopped greens in a steamer on the stove or in the microwave until they are soft, wet and have turned a uniform dark green color.

Steamed Green Beans

Cut the ends off and steam them, of course. Add butter, salt and pepper to taste

Vinaigrette Salad

• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini

Thinly slice tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. Add white vinegar and olive oil to taste. Salt if desired. For best flavor let the salad stand in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more. The time lets the vegetables soak up the vinegar better.

For two medium tomatoes, 1/2 of one cucumber and 1/2 of one zucchini I used about 1/2 cup of vinegar and 3 tbsp of olive oil.

Farofa

The Farofa I make is pretty basic, but I really like it.

• 1/2 cup well cooked bacon, chopped (bacon should be very crunch, but not burnt)
  • Oil to fry the farofa in (you can use the leftover bacon grease)
• 2 cups corn meal
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 tbsp Garlic powder
• 1 tsp Sage
• Whatever else you want to add (onions, olives, other herbs…)

When you fry the farofa, it will soak up all of the oil you use. You want to use enough oil to make it slightly cohesive and to bind the spices to the corn meal, but not so much that you’re eating soggy corn meal.

Using either the leftover bacon grease or vegetable oil I coat the bottom of the frying pan with just enough oil so that it runs from side to side, but not so much that it looks like a puddle.

Once the oil is hot add everything to the pan and fry it stirring frequently.  As you cook it, the corn meal will turn from blond to golden yellow.  The corn meal may go through a slightly sticky phase between when it soaks up the oil and when it is actually fried. Keep cooking until it crumbles again. It should be hot all the way through.

Brazilian Beans

Lunch in Brazil is typically centered around a plate of delicious rice and beans. A pile of white non-sticky rick with a s generous helping of soft beans in their own sauce (their starch thickens up the cooking water forming something like a gravy). Next week’s article will explore lunch more fully — for today, let’s focus on the beans.

Beans for lunch every day may sound monotonous, but it grows on you. I grew to love them so much when I was an exchange student that the first thing I bought when I returned to Brazil two years later the first thing I bought was a pressure cooker. I still consider that pressure cooker to be one of my best purchases ever.

There is some disagreement amongst Brazilians about which type of beans should be used for rice and beans. In Minas and São Paulo it was mainly brown beans with the occasional appearance of black or red beans. Here in the USA I use dried pinto beans or black beans. I am growing some Italian Rose and Purple King beans in my garden this year to use as well.

With my first host family, my host father and mother would sit at the kitchen table each evening to pick the rocks out of the beans while talking about the day and drinking. Most people I knew didn’t pick out rocks, I think they are screened better today than they used to be.

Ingredients

• Pressure Cooker
• 2 cups dried beans
• 4 cups water
• Spices to taste
  • Oregano
  • Garlic
  • Other (?) — less common options include cumin and rosemary
• Salt
• Meat (optional)

Instructions

Throw everything into the pressure cooker. The best tasting beans will have a piece of salty flavorful meat cooked with them. Bacon is a good choice, as is good sausage or a piece of fatty pork. I’m somewhat partial to pork products it seems. Beef works well too, but chicken will need a little bit of chicken bullion added to make up for the weak flavor.

Close the pressure cooker and put it on high until it reaches pressure, then turn it down so that it just keeps the pressure up. After 45 minutes (35 for black beans) cool the pan so you can open it then see how soft the beans are.

Bean Doneness

Bean doneness is mostly a matter of personal preference. If you are making soup or salad with them, stop cooking when you can press them with a fork, but they are still firm and pasty.

For refried beans, stop when they mash easily with a fork and have a creamy texture.

For Rice and Beans, you need to stop somewhere in the middle. Ideally you will still have liquid in with the beans. Press several spoonfulls of beans against the side of the pressure cooker and then simmer to help thicken the liquid. You should end up with beans that are extremely soft and creamy but not falling apart in a tasty bean gravy.

Two Day Beans

Some of my most successful times cooking beans have been leftovers.

I stop cooking them when they were still more firm then you want them. They should still be edible and soft enough that you can mash them, but firm enough that you have to do so intentionally.

I let the beans cool down on the stove instead of putting them right in the refrigerator. The next day the liquid had thickened up, the beans had continued to cook as the pan cooled down, and the flavor from the sausage had permeated the beans more thoroughly.

Unfortunately this requires more planning than making beans the same day you want to eat them.

Variations

Once you can cook beans in a pressure cooker a world of options opens up. Add cumin, stewed tomatoes, onions and ground beef for chili. Drain the beans while firm for use in salads and soups. Keep cooking them till they’re mushy, add sour cream, chives and cilantro for a fantastic bean dip. Cook your pork or chicken in with the beans and get juicy fall-apart mean with great tasting beans. Enjoy!