Join twowildtides on the country challenge. Each week, we’re going to be heading to a new country (in spirit). Primarily, we’ll be cooking a meal from each country; but we’ll also be watching travel documentaries, reading travel blogs, and listening to music. During the global pandemic, travel is largely inaccessible. We want to reignite our wanderlust, satisfy our travel bug as much as we can, and learn some new things along the way. I have a feeling our bucket list will have a number of items added to it through this experience as well. We created a simple alphabetical spreadsheet with all the countries of the world, and each week we will draw a random number that corresponds with a country on the spreadsheet.
This week we went back to South America, to the continent’s largest country, Brazil. Brazil is a massive country both geographically and population-wise and is an ultimate tourist destination with so much to offer. With stunning beaches and coastline, the Amazon Rainforest, breathtaking mountain ranges, and modern, bustling cities, Brazil is definitely near the top of my bucket list.
The national dish of Brazil is Feijoada, a bean and meat stew with rich and deep flavours. Feijoada is highlighted on many travel and culinary blogs. These posts by Culture Trip, BBC Good Food, and I Heart Brazil are great examples. We came across this great recipe from the Smithsonian Magazine that we decided to follow this week:
This recipe involves a lot of meat so Brazil week was a bit of a splurge. We picked up Chorizo sausage, pork ribs, and beef. This also means that with the beans, this is a protein-packed meal. What we’ve loved about the country challenge so far is that we aren’t cooking with processed and packaged sauces and condiments. Everything is naturally spiced and simmered to perfection. No canned or bottled food required (except for Costa Rica— that Salsa Lizana was amazing).
While our stew simmered away, we sliced oranges, wilted kale (I added some salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder for flavour), and cooked our rice.
Our Feijoada was absolutely delicious, especially with some hot sauce. Honestly, I think the flavour of the sausage is what really made it. So spicy but not too hot, the meat was perfectly tender, and the toppings of kale and oranges really made the dish dynamic. We would absolutely cook Feijoada again!
Let us know what you think!