Feijoada

Ingredients

• 500 g dried black beans, soaked overnight in cold water
• The compango — tough cuts
• 300 g salted pork ribs (costela salgada), soaked overnight in cold water, water changed twice
• 300 g carne seca (dried salted beef), soaked overnight in cold water, water changed twice
• 250 g pig's ears, cleaned, cut into pieces
• 250 g pig's feet, split
• The compango — final hour
• 200 g linguiça, sliced into rounds
• 200 g chouriço, sliced into rounds
• 200 g smoked sausage (paio or smoked linguiça), sliced into rounds
• 200 g smoked pork loin, cut into 3 cm pieces
• To serve
• 4 oranges, peeled and sliced into rounds
• 400 g white long-grain rice, cooked separately
• To serve — couve refogada
• 400 g collard greens (couve), stems removed, leaves very finely shredded
• 2 tbsp olive oil or lard
• 3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• To serve — farofa
• 250 g farinha de mandioca (coarse cassava flour), toasted in a dry pan until golden

Method

1. 1
   The night before, place the salted pork ribs and carne seca in separate bowls of cold water. Soak overnight, changing the water twice. Drain and rinse before use. Separately, cover the dried black beans in cold water and soak overnight. Drain before use. The beans should have swelled to roughly double their original volume and show no shrivelled skins.
2. 2
   Place the drained beans in a large, heavy pot — a cast-iron or enamelled pot of at least 8 litres is appropriate. Cover generously with fresh cold water. Add the desalted pork ribs, carne seca, pig's ears, and pig's feet. Bring to a boil over high heat, skimming the grey foam that rises to the surface until the liquid runs clear. Reduce to a low simmer. The liquid should move with a lazy, even bubble — never a rolling boil.
3. 3
   Simmer the beans and tough cuts together, partially covered, for approximately 2 to 3 hours, adding hot water as needed to keep the meats submerged. The pig's ears and feet should begin to yield when pressed; the carne seca should be flaking at the edges. The beans should be tender through to the centre but not yet collapsed.
4. 4
   This is where the dish lives or dies. Remove approximately 250 ml (roughly 1 cup) of the cooked beans with a ladle, taking mostly beans and little liquid. Mash them to a smooth paste with a fork or the back of a spoon, then stir the paste back into the pot. This self-thickening technique — the starch of the beans binding their own cooking liquid — is the mechanism that produces the dark, unctuous, coating sauce that defines feijoada. A sauce that coats the back of a spoon and falls in slow ribbons has reached the correct consistency.
5. 5
   Add the linguiça, chouriço, smoked sausage, and smoked pork loin. Simmer uncovered for a final 45 minutes to 1 hour. The sausages should be cooked through but hold their shape. Taste the pot now for salt — with the accumulated seasoning from multiple cured meats, additional salt is rarely required.
6. 6
   For the couve refogada: heat the oil or lard in a wide frying pan over high heat. Add the sliced garlic and cook until fragrant and beginning to colour, about 30 seconds. Add the finely shredded collard greens all at once and toss constantly for 2 to 3 minutes. The greens should be wilted but retain a vivid, deep green — they must not soften to an olive drab.
7. 7
   Toast the farinha de mandioca in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring continuously, until it turns a uniform pale gold and smells of warm, toasted grain. Remove from the heat immediately; it will continue to colour in the residual heat of the pan.
8. 8
   Serve the feijoada directly from the pot alongside white rice, couve refogada, farofa, and the orange slices arranged on a separate plate. The orange is not garnish: its acid is structural, cutting through the accumulated pork fat and resetting the palate between portions.