A Taste of Brazil: Feijoada

Brazil is a large and diverse country in South America where people can visit the Amazon rain forest, eat different kinds of tasty meats, listen to samba, participate in the huge celebration Carnival, and do many other fun things. Brazil grew in ethnic diversity after the colonial period when Native Americans, Portuguese, and Africans mixed together and later branched to other European races such as Italian, German, Spanish, etc. Today, Brazil's main language is Portuguese, which is a country ruled over Brazil for more than 3 centuries. Most popular pastimes in Brazil are playing soccer or volleyball and listening to samba (similar to jazz music), hip hop, frevo (fast tempo music), or classical. When it comes to food, Brazil has various regional differences from north to northeast and central west to southeast. The North, which has a more Native American population uses more vegetables (yams, okra, tomato) in their cooking while in Central-West uses more fish because of the abundant rivers. One popular national dish is feijoada, which is a delicious blend of beans, pork, and spices that is usually eaten for lunch. In the past, slaves use to make feijoada with pork ears, snouts, or tails, but today Brazilian cooks use the more tasty parts of pork.
Here is a recipe to make feijoada:

Ingredients

16 oz. Canned black beans
1 lb. bacon (cut into squares)
1 lb. smoked pork sausage (sliced thick)
1 lb. pork sirloin (cubed)
2 onions (diced)
4 garlic cloves (crushed or finely diced)
4 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tbsp. black pepper
hot pepper sauce (optional)
4 tsp. light oil

Heat the beans in a pot along with the salt, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tsp. oil and the bay leaves. In a separate pan add 2 tsp. Oil sautéing the onions with 2 cloves of garlic. Once the onions are clear drain the pan and reserve the onions. Cook the bacon, sausage and sirloin in the same pan adding back the onions once meats are near completion. Add meats and onions to the beans and cook an additional 10 minutes. Add pepper sauce if desired, remove bay leaves and serve with rice. Enjoy!!!

sources: http://www.braziltravelvacation.com/food-recipes.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Brazil