Week 6: Feijoada (Brazilian Black Bean Stew)

Wassup fellow foodeaters! :D Sorry I went out for a week- I actually made this recipe last week, but failed to update until right now :( I finished this week's food, as well, so I'll probably make a post about that one tomorrow :) but for now, lets focus on Feijoada!

I was debating between this dish and Fajitas... fajitas are a LOT easier to make, super quick, and yummy :) a perfect dish for a college student! But, me being the overachieving Asian that I am (sometimes overachieving... mostly underachieving), I decided to challenge myself and make the black bean stew instead. After finishing this recipe, let me just say I wish I made the fajitas T_T;;

Here's the linkage:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Feijoada-Brazilian-Black-Bean-Stew/Detail.aspx

And the quick review:
Rating: 2/5
Cost: less than ~$20 bucksss
Difficulty: not that difficult, but takes patience T_T
Eat it again?: nope. :(
Allergies: nuffing I don't think... but there is pork, religious people!! Watch yoself~

I made quite a few changes to this recipe, which may have been the reason it didn't turn out as well as it should have, but whatever. For the soaked overnight black beans, I just bought a can of black beans lol. I'm not gonna soak beans overnight, are you kidding me? And also, I could not find ham hocks for the life of me. Ham hocks are apparently the ankle of the ham. I think something like that would be sold in a specialty store, not a Safeway. :( so I bought porkchops (with bone attached, not smoked). I also used smoked ham instead of regular ham (to make up for the lack of smoked ham hocks) and smoked turkey bacon, not thick-cut regular bacon. I realize this could seriously change the flavor of the recipe, but I'm really not a bacon person, so I took the chance.

Even though I made all these ingredient changes, I followed the recipe instructions on how to cook it. I still reduced (to simmer for a long time to thicken something and "reduce" the volume) the soup for two hours, and I cooked the pork chops for an hour. I used three regular sized pork chops, so I probably got a lot more meat than a ham hock would have given me. This recipe was annoying because the wait was so long, and while I was cooking, the food really didn't look that appealing. Or smell that appealing haha. But whatever, I stuck with it.

One change I did make to the instructions on how to make it was how long I cooked the bacon ham mixture for. I put it in the oven for about 10 minutes longer than suggested so that it could really make things crispy. Make sure to dispose of the oil and junk at the bottom of your pan afterward! You don't want that nasty in your soup >_<;;

My boyfriend ate it and said that it was good, but it wasn't his favorite. Personally, I didn't liek this recipe at all. I thought the flavors were boring and predicable, it had way too much meat in it (which I guess was my fault for adding so much derp), and it was too thick to really call a stew. I had to actually add water to it to make it bearable. And even then it was very thick. If I had to eat it by itself, I would dislike it a lot. Thank god for rice. I swear to god rice just makes everything better.

This recipe is definitely not for the average college kid. As much as I wish it was, the trouble it took to make and the outcome just made it a silly recipe. I am disappoint. :(

Overall, I wouldn't make this recipe again. Even though I challenged myself, the outcome was less than I expected. The soup was not really my thing. :(

Here's the fajita recipe I was GOING to do, but decided against (you should probably just do this one instead XD):

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pollo-Fajitas/Detail.aspx