Impressions from the Feira de San Cristobal and recipe for Baiao de Dois (beans and rice)

Last weekend we visited the Feira de San Cristobal – a large open air permanent fair, presenting all things typical from the northeast of Brazil – food, artwork and music.

Here some very hot chili sauce in beautiful bottles:

Or for the more adventurous once, cachaça with seafood!

Patriotism clearly ranks high at the fair:

No fair visit with indulging into some typical brazilian food. This rice dish was a new try:

Recipe for Baião de dois – a beans and rice one-pot meal from the north-east of Brazil, great to combine leftovers of rice and/or beans 1/2 kilo of brown or black beans, soaked overnight 1 sliced chorizo 1 onion finely chopped 3 clove garlic pressed 1 green pepper finely chopped olive oil 1 bunch chopped coriander 300g of rice 150g cheese cut into cubes (e.g. halloumi cheese, mozzarella, feta whatever you prefer) salt and pepper Cook the beans for about 1,5 hours until al dente.  Drain the beans and set the cooking liquid aside using it to cook the rice. In a large pan heat the olive oil and fry the onion, garlic, pepper and chorizo. Add the cooked rice and beans and some of the cooking liquid. Season with salt and pepper and mix in the coriander and the cheese to allow to melt. Serve with grilled beef. Here you can see the large amount of meats served at the market, the rice and beans in the background with fried manioc and a tomato salsa. Not to forget the yellow manioc flour rounding up any traditional brazilian feast.