Baião de Dois (Northeastern Rice, Beans & Curd Cheese)

Name: Baião de Dois (Northeastern Rice, Beans & Curd Cheese)
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Brazilian
Ingredients: 200 g Dried black-eyed beans (feijão-de-corda); 300 g Long-grain white rice; 150 g Smoked sausage (calabresa) or paio; 80 g Diced bacon or cured pork; 150 g Queijo coalho (curd cheese) or halloumi; 1 (150 g) Onion; 4 cloves (20 g) Garlic, minced; 40 g Spring onions, sliced; 15 g Coriander (cilantro), chopped; 30 ml (2 tbsp) Olive oil; 1 Bay leaf; 6 g Salt

The signature one-pot of Brazil's Northeast: rice and black-eyed beans cooked together with smoky sausage and salty curd cheese until every grain is seasoned. Sertão comfort food in a single pan.

Source

Recette de Northeastern Brazilian home kitchens · 🏺 Traditionnel · Sertão cooking of Ceará and the wider Nordeste

Northeastern Brazilian (Nordeste) regional — Baião de dois — literally 'two-step for two' after a Northeastern dance — is a staple of the sertão, where cooking rice and beans together in one pot with sausage and salty curd cheese stretches simple ingredients into a full meal.

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A Cozinha da Lica VIAGEM E CULINÁRIA Food Fidelity

⏱ 55 min🍽 4 portions🔥 480 kcal🇧🇷 Brésil

Étapes

Soak the black-eyed beans in plenty of cold water for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Drain.
Put the drained beans in a pot with the bay leaf and enough fresh water to cover by 3 cm. Boil, then simmer 25–35 minutes until tender but not bursting. Drain, keeping 300 ml of the bean water.
💡 Black-eyed beans cook much faster than kidney or black beans — start checking at 25 minutes so they stay whole.
In a wide heavy pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat and fry the bacon until its fat renders and the edges crisp, about 4 minutes.
Add the sliced sausage and fry 3 minutes until browned. Lift out about a third of the sausage and cheese's worth to garnish later if you like.
Add the onion and garlic to the same pot and cook 3–4 minutes in the flavoured fat until soft.
Stir in the rinsed rice and toast it for 2 minutes, coating every grain in the fat.
Add the cooked beans, the 300 ml reserved bean water plus 300 ml fresh water, and the salt. Stir once, bring to a boil, then cover and drop to low.
💡 Using the bean water instead of plain water is the whole trick — it stains the rice and carries the flavour into every grain.
Cook covered for 15–18 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. Do not stir while it steams.
Turn off the heat, scatter the cheese cubes over the top, cover again and rest 5 minutes so they soften in the steam.
Fluff gently with a fork, fold through the spring onions and coriander, and serve topped with the reserved sausage.

💡 Astuces

Traditionally the beans and rice are cooked in the same pot from the start, but cooking the beans first gives a beginner far more control over both textures.
Queijo coalho is the authentic cheese; halloumi behaves almost identically. In a pinch, a firm mozzarella or a mild feta added off the heat also works.
Great the next day: loosen with a splash of water and reheat gently, or press into a hot oiled pan for a crisp-bottomed cake.