Feijoada

Feijoada, Brazil's national dish, is a stew loaded with black beans and meats of every description: smoked pork loin, bacon and sausage such as chorizo. Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner of Manhattan's famed Le Bernardin, learned to make this recipe from Maria Auxiliadora Etheve, owner of the restaurant Cacau in the Brazilian beach town of Trancoso. To make the base, Etheve sweats garlic and onion in oil in a cast-iron pot, then adds the black beans and water and cooks them until the beans are almost tender. Then she adds all the meats and a whole hot chile to the pot and simmer the mixture some more. Once it's finished, the stew is so murky it's almost pitch-black, and deeply flavorful. The dish is traditionally served with sweet, cool orange wedges on the side, and with toasted manioc flour for sprinkling over the feijoada, adding substance and crunch.