Favada, cousin of feijoada, is comfort food from the sertão – 08/14/2023 – Recipes by Marcão

I’ve been going to the Mocotó restaurant, in Vila Medeiros, since the beginning of the century. It was the time when Rodrigo Oliveira had just taken over the reins of his father’s business, then a house in the north, and started to change the menu.

I don’t remember if the tapioca dadinhos were already served. The flagship, at the time, was still the mocotó broth that baptized the restaurant. I, however, liked another broth better: favada, one of the most comforting foods I know, which is still on the menu.

Favada, in an imprecise comparison, is a feijoada made with broad beans instead of black beans. Broad beans, for those who don’t know them, are giant beans.

An ancestor of favada from the Pernambuco hinterland is fabada asturiana, from northern Spain – which is made with white beans, not fava beans.

In terms of seasoning, Brazilian favada is curiously reminiscent of the chili con carne of the southwestern United States. Blame coriander and cumin, which come in abundance.

The trio of spices is completed by paprika, which makes the broth reddish. Paprika is made from annatto, but the powder sold at the fair is mostly cornmeal. I extracted annatto seed tincture in oil. Just heat them up and wait half an hour.

Fava beans, white or burst, take a while to become soft. This time is reduced if you let them soak between 12 and 36 hours in the refrigerator.

Cooking under pressure speeds things up a lot, but there’s a downside: you don’t control the cooking point well. One falter and the beans fall apart. It’s not what we want here.

I prefer to cook it in a regular pan, over low heat, until the beans are creamy inside, but still whole. It requires patience, it can take a couple of hours (depending on whether the grains are new or old). Go testing while cooking.

Some favada recipes are equivalent to a complete feijoada: they have mocotó (some call it mocofava), tripe, ribs, pig’s feet and such. I made a simplified version, just with bacon, smoked sausage and beef jerky.

Cabbage? Orange? No, they don’t match. Rice? It goes well, but it certainly doesn’t need it. Favada is a broth to drink with a spoon, with a little flour and pepper.

And a white cachaça to beat.

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FAVADA

Performance: 4 servings
Difficulty: average

Ingredients

250 g of dried broad beans
100 g of dried meat
1 tablespoon of annatto seeds
50 ml of oil
100 g of chopped bacon
4 minced garlic cloves
1 large chopped onion
3 bay leaves
150 sliced ​​smoked sausage
1 tablespoon cumin
1 cup chopped cilantro
salt to taste

Way of doing

1. Soak the broad beans for at least 12 hours.
2. Chop the dried meat into 2 cm cubes and boil them for 5 minutes in plenty of water. Repeat the operation twice, changing the water. Run and book.
3. Heat the oil with the annatto and set aside for at least half an hour.
4. In a pan, strain the annatto oil and melt the bacon. Sauté garlic and onion.
5. Add the fava beans (discard the soaking water) and the bay leaf. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and add the cumin, dried meat and sausage.
6. Cook the fava beans until soft. Adjust the salt, turn off the heat and stir in the green cilantro.

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