Brazilian Style Beans
Back in 2022, we hosted an Au Pair from Brazil. An Au Pair is a nanny who comes from another country other than your own and she helps out with child care needs, but there’s more to it than that. It was a cultural exchange on top of that. As a host family, we showed our Au Pair American culture, and some Russian culture since my wife is from Russia. In exchange, she taught us many things about her culture, including very tasty meals and yummy dishes.
Brazil is famous for many things, one thing they are really known for is delicious food. Have you eaten at a Brazilian Steakhouse? That’s your first assignment. Brazilian Steakhouses serve churrasco, which is their version of barbeque meat. It is probably some of the best tasting meat you will ever have. They can compete against some of the best American Barbeque including Texas barbeque in taste and quality. Don’t believe me? Go to a Brazilian Steak House, almost all medium to large size cities in America have them. I just checked online now. Little Rock, AR has one, and major cities don’t get smaller than that. So do a Google search in your city, if you don’t find one, then do a Google Search in neighboring cities and even your closest big city, I bet you will find one.
Every great main course needs a great side dish, wouldn’t you agree? Brazilian side dishes are super tasty as well. Here we introduce Brazilian beans. Now back to our Au Pair, when she was living with us, she prepared chicken breast with a side of Brazilian beans and rice. The chicken was delicious, and the beans were super tasty too. You might be thinking, beans? Those aren’t super exciting to eat, right? Wrong! Yes, when Americans prepare beans, they usually “okay”, much like a middle school marching band. Brazilian beans are at the level of a professional symphony if we are to make a comparison. Brazilian beans can be made from black beans or pinto beans. This recipe I’m giving you today uses pinto beans.
Dry Beans or Canned Beans?
Some of you may question why we are using dry beans instead of already pre-cooked canned beans. Using canned beans will be a lot faster, won’t it? Yes it would and you may even crank out a pretty tasty bean dish using it, but going back to comparing a middle school marching band to a professional symphony, cooking this recipe with canned beans will likely only get you to a High School band, or if you’re really good, maybe a community college band. If you want to reach the level of a professional symphony, you will want to use dry beans. Here’s why:
When you cook dry beans, you will either be cooking them in a crock pot or a pressure cooker such as the Instant Pot. I’ve done it both ways, the end result is beyond delicious either way. The instant pot will just take a lot less time than the crock pot. In a crock pot, you’ll cook the beans for 8 hours, in the instant pot you’ll cook them for 15 minutes plus the warm up time. About 30 minutes total. It’s fairly easy preparation, just make sure to soak your beans in water at least 8 hours before cooking them in the instant pot.
Some may say or you may read online that you don’t have to soak beans before cooking them in the instant pot, but your results will vary each time and you can’t predict whether you will need to cook them longer or shorter time to accommodate the differences in each batch of beans, so just soak them. Set it in the morning and forget it until cooking time.
Below is the recipe, I hope you enjoy.
Ingredients
- 3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
- 1 Large Onion finely chopped in food processor
- 7 garlic cloves minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 7 cups of water
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 1/4 cup bacon grease
- 3 to 4 strips of cooked bacon chopped (optional)
- Farofa (for sprinkling on top) buy at local Brazilian Market or on Amazon
Instructions
- Rinse dry pinto beans in water, discard of broken beans and rocks
- Soak pinto beans in cold/cool water for at least 8 hours, top of water should be 2 inches or more above beans
- Strain beans and add to pressure cooker
- Add chopped onions, garlic, and bay leaves to pressure cooker
- Add 7 cups of water to pressure cooker
- Stir all ingredients and seal off pressure cooker with switched on “seal”
- Press “beans” and “pressure cook” and set time for 15 minute on high pressure
- Release pressure when 15 minute timer goes off
- Add bean mixture from pressure cooker to pot
- Bring to a boil over medium high heat
- Remove excess liquid from beans to your desire
- Add 1/2 tbsp salt to mixture, add additional salt to taste
- Add 1/4 cup of bacon grease
- Once boiling, bring heat to medium low
- Squish “some” of the beans against the side of the pot to thicken the beans
- Simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally
- Serve on plate with Brazlian Rice and a cut of any meat. Goes really well with churrasco.
Enjoy!