Mainland Brazil · Volume 42, The Court and the Clay Pot
Caldinho de feijão
Rio de Janeiro
Illustration
- Researched
- 6 sources cited
Not a dish with a fixed recipe of its own so much as a boteco's use for what a feijoada or a plain black bean pot already produces, served scalding hot in small cups at the counter to accompany beer rather than as a meal in itself. Two competing origin stories circulate; neither is documented history, and a third, tracing it to sixteenth century slave quarters, is unverifiable folklore this chapter does not repeat as fact.
As tradition built it
Quantity as available, from a feijoada or bean pot already on hand.
Ingredients
- as available, from a feijoada or bean pot cooked black beans, with their own broth
- 1 tbsp a spoonful of rendered meat fat, from the same pot
- a little, to thin hot water or stock, to thin
- to taste salt, to taste
- a dash a dash of hot sauce
Method
- Purée the cooked beans with their own broth and a spoonful of the rendered meat fat until smooth.
- Thin with a little hot water or stock to a consistency that pours freely from a small cup rather than sits on a spoon.
- Season with salt and a dash of hot sauce.
- Serve scalding hot in small cups at the bar counter.
Notes
Two competing origin stories circulate: that a bar near UERJ began serving small portions because students preferred spending on beer over a full plate, coining “feijão amigo,” and that it began simply as a way to stretch feijoada leftovers thinner; neither is documented history.
What a modern chef changes
A genuinely silkier cup, with a cleaner top note of heat
Ingredients
- malagueta chilli oil, infused in a neutral oil rather than bottled hot sauce
Method
- Pass the puréed broth through a chinois for a genuinely silkier cup than a blender alone gives.
- Finish each serving with a few drops of chilli oil made by infusing malagueta in a neutral oil rather than a bottled hot sauce, so the heat sits as a clean top note rather than a vinegar-forward one.
- Serve in small espresso cups rather than the traditional plastic shot cup, the better to hold the heat through a proper boteco-style standing service.