Um Jantar Brasileiro

Maybe there are some benefits of my fiance' going to Brasil after all...

On Wednesday night, Justin decided to make me an awesome authentic Brasilian supper. I will no longer complain about him leaving the country without me if he comes back preparing meals like this one!

He used his handy soapstone cookwear from Brasil to sear calabresa (Brasilian sausage), peppers, and onions for the feijoada. Feijoada is the national dish of Brasil that is cooked with black beans, meat, vegetables (usually peppers and onions), and special seasonings.

The feijoada was served on top of rice that had grilled pineapples mixed in! Oh my goodness. I was a little hesitant at first, not really knowing how the pineapple was going to taste when eaten at the same time as rice and beans, but it smelled so good I was more than willing to try it! The entire dish was topped with farofa, a coarse flour made from yucca root.

To accompany our dinner, Justin invented a new kind of drink: jabuticabarinha. It is made similiarly to the caipirinhas, which is the national drink of Brasil. However, a caipirinha contains crushed lime, sugar, and cachaca, but he substituted jabuticaba and white wine for the cachaca.

To add an interesting fact, jabuticaba is a tree native to the Atlantic rainforest that produces a large, sweet fruit that resembles a muscadine. (Cool, huh?)

A couple things we learned from cooking this dinner:

• We could totally use a bigger soapstone skillet!
• American food tastes bland after being exposed to Brasilian food!