Culinary Globe Trotting - Feijoada

I like to think I have eaten some dish from most corners of the globe but I've hardly touched on South American food. Mexican doesn't count as South American.
This dish is what's on offer this weekend at the Mouse Cafe. It has the ingredients that my nephew loves. He is a finnicky eater, hates colourful vegetables and gets more and more like my sister when she was a toddler.
My 4 year old niece eats anything. She will have a tendency to put on weight unless she's able to get interested in sport to the point where she just loves taking part and doesn't notice the effort required. At the moment she panics when the swimming pool heater is turned off and refuses to go swimming for weeks until a bribe is part of the bargain. It used to be sweets but now the fair price are Barbie dolls and I'm not sure which is worse.

From Tom Van Vleck's blog
Feijoada (Brazil's national dish)

1 lb black beans
1/4 lb salt pork, diced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 lg cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 bay leaves
1 tsp ground cumin
2 ts chopped fresh parsley
1 lb corned beef uncooked
4 hot spicy sausages
4 mild sweet sausages
4 smoked pork chops
Optional additional meats: ham, canadian bacon, smoked pork hocks
ribs, feet, ears, tails, fresh or salt beef, tongue (traditional)

Prepare the beans: either soak overnight or boil 2 mins and soak an hour. About 2 in of water above the beans. Use plenty else it dries out later. This stuff freezes beautifully and is even better after reheating. (Keep a block of it in the freezer, and just chip off a hunk and eat it with minute rice.)

Brown the salt pork & onion & garlic. Add them to the beans. Add the corned beef (big chunks). Add bay leaves, cumin, parsley. Bring all to a boil, cut back to simmer, let it cook 2 hrs. Meanwhile brown sausages, etc in skillet.

Cook beans until skin splits when you blow on them. Overcooking ok. Stir so bottom doesn't burn. It looks very watery at first but will thicken up. Dip up a cup of beans & juice, mash with a fork & dump back in. Add sausages, pre-cooked meat, etc. Simmer for another hour or so. Or longer, adding water and stirring to keep the beans from burning.
Salad sauce

2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
4 scallions, chopped fine
1 large clove garlic, pressed or crushed
1 green pepper, diced
1 small red or white onion, chopped fine
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup salad oil
2 tsp vinegar

mix, salt, pepper.
Serving
Serve with rice & orange slices & beer. Farinha de mandinoca is traditional, use cream of wheat if you can't find any. Tabasco on the side or other peppers. To eat: take some rice, some feijoada, some farinha-de-mandinoca, some sauce.

Back to me blogging:
Brazilians would have less meat and more beans in the recipe. I would tend to keep to the meat amounts but double the quantities of onion, herbs and spices and garlic, if you like garlic.