this coming Friday: feijoada and moqueca

My final office cooking project, before I buckle down and get serious about the walk, will take place this coming Friday, when I plan on bringing in two Brazilian specialties: feijoada and moqueca. The former is a meat-and-bean stew that is hailed as Brazil's national dish, but which can be made in different ways, with different ingredients (see here and here for an idea of how ingredients and methods can vary); the latter is a seafood stew about which I've heard many, many good things. I plan to serve both of these lovely dishes atop rice and/or with some sort of lovely bread on Friday. This ought to be amazing.

I am, in fact, impatient to make the feijoada tonight, as I have all the ingredients. The moqueca (see a recipe here) will wait until Thursday night because it makes little sense to craft a seafood stew and then wait several days to serve it: seafood, especially shellfish, doesn't tolerate reheating very well, and flavor-marriage is less of an issue with seafood stews than it is with stews made with terrestrial meat.

So expect some interesting photos this coming Friday or Saturday. It'll be sad to stop cooking for my boss and coworker, but the special meals will continue once I'm done with the walk.

Pronunciation:

feijoada = "fey-ZHWAH-dah"
moqueca = "moh-KECK-ah" (or "moh-KEH-kah," if you please)