FEIJOADA

BEANS
2 (16OZ) Bags of Black Beans
2 Packages of precooked smoked sausage (the U shaped ones)
1 Package of pork baby back ribs (no more than 2 inches in length, have butcher cut them)
1 Package of bacon
1 Garlic clove minced
1 Small onion, chopped into small pieces
¼ Cup of Olive oil
Salt, Garlic Powder
In a large bowl, pour warm water over the beans. Make sure the amount of water is double that of the beans. Do this the night before you wish to make Feijoada. Leave it over night.
In the morning, drain water from beans and cook beans by placing them in a crock pot with double the water again. Cook for at least 5-6 hours on high. When done, beans should be soft. If you have a pressure cooker, cook beans with the water in it for about 45 to 60 minutes on medium heat. (Or you could cook beans in regular pan for 2 ½ to 3 hours, but make sure you watch and check water level, because this method makes the water evaporate quickly).
Towards the end of cooking the beans, rub the garlic powder and salt onto the pork ribs. Cut them between every bone, and put them onto shallow pan and broil until ribs are nicely browned. (About 15 minutes or so and be generous with the garlic powder).
While beans and ribs are cooking, chop all of the bacon and brown/cook bacon on skillet with about half of the chopped onion. While all of this is cooking, slice sausages to a fairly thin ring size or into cubes, your choice. (It is better to have everything chopped and ready to go before you start cooking. Most of the items can be cut the day before if you wish and stored in the fridge).
After beans are cooked, do not drain water. Mix in ¾ of bacon mixture, sausages, ribs, garlic, the rest of the onion, some salt and olive oil with the beans. You will have to split it into 2 large pans. Let it all cook for about an hour, or until sauce is thicker.

RICE
Make as much white rice as you think your family will eat. For a family of four, I usually do either 2 or 3 cups. Regular white rice tastes better than minute rice, but you do which ever you like best.

MOLINHO (Salsa-like mixture)
2-3 Roma tomatoes
½ Small onion, chopped
2 Stalks of green onions, finely chopped
¼ Cup of parsley, finely chopped
½ Cup of water
¼ Cup of red wine vinegar
Salt

After everything is chopped, mix all together in small bowl. Add 1 tsp of salt. You will want to have enough liquid in mixture so it’s more of a loose mixture. So adjust water/vinegar to accomplish this, but make sure the taste is not overwhelmed by the vinegar.

COLLARD GREENS
Slice entire head of collard greens so pieces are about 2-3 inches long. (Remove thicker stem parts). Slice ¼ of a package of bacon and a bit of onion, then brown bacon with onion. (Bacon is optional, but tastes really good with it). Once that is done, mix in collard green slices. Stir often and they are done once they are soft and look wilted.

FAROFA (Bread crumb mixture)
Mix the last ¼ of bacon in with 2 cups of seasoned bread crumbs.

PUTTING EVERYTHING TOGETHER
Assemble all on top of each other on your plate. You don’t have to go in order, but it makes it easier if you stack it all like this: Rice, Beans, Collard Greens, Molinho and lastly, top it off with Farofa. If there is something your family doesn’t eat, you can leave it out. (Especially the collard greens, since most people don’t eat that all the time). All the different tastes are what make the Feijoada have a unique flavoring.
Freeze whatever beans your family doesn’t eat. Make sure you remove the bones from the meat before freezing or bone will give it a weird flavor after it’s defrosted. This way, next time you want to eat feijoada, all you have to do is make the rice, molinho, collard greens and farofa. (Which are all easy