Brazilian Pork — Black Bean Stew — The January Meal, The Honest One

The first full week of the new year, and January in Charleston is the Lowcountry's most honest season — stripped of the holiday decorations, the tourist crowds, the festive camouflage that makes every other month look like a postcard. January is gray and cool and truthful, and I respect the truth even when it is not beautiful, because beauty will return in March with the azaleas, and the waiting is not hardship but anticipation.

James has returned to classes for his second semester with the particular energy of a student who has survived the first semester and now knows the terrain. He has added a literature elective — American literature, from the Puritans to the present — and I am quietly thrilled, because the law will teach him to argue, but literature will teach him to listen, and listening is the more important skill, though you will never hear a lawyer say so.

Mama has settled into a January rhythm that is quieter than December's. The holidays animate her — the rituals, the cooking, the presence of the family around the table — but January offers no such scaffolding, and without the scaffolding she is quieter, more inward, spending long hours in the armchair by the window looking at the garden that Robert planted and that winter has reduced to a study in patience. She hums less. She speaks less. The silence is not alarming — Dr. Okonkwo says fluctuation is expected — but it is noticeable, the way a missing instrument in an orchestra is noticeable even if you can't name which one stopped playing.

I visited Joy on Saturday. She and Diane were doing a puzzle — a hundred pieces, a beach scene — and the two of them were working with the dedicated patience of women who understand that the picture emerges slowly and that the slow emergence is the point. Joy held up a piece — blue, undifferentiated — and said, "This is the sky," and she was right, and the rightness was a small triumph that she celebrated by clapping, and Diane clapped too, and the clapping was a celebration of a single correct piece in a hundred-piece puzzle, which is, when you think about it, the correct ratio of celebration to accomplishment in a life.

I made collard greens and cornbread — the January meal, the meal of simplicity, the meal that says: the holidays are over and the real work begins and the real work requires fuel, not finery. The greens simmered with a ham hock and vinegar and patience, and the cornbread was Mama's recipe, baked in the cast-iron skillet, and the combination was dinner and it was comfort and it was January in the Lowcountry, which is the same as saying it was honest.

The collard greens and cornbread were Mama’s, and I will not share what is hers to give. But the spirit of that meal — something slow and honest and built from humble things — is what led me back to this stew the following night, when the leftovers were gone and the January quiet had settled back in and I needed something that asked patience of me, the way the puzzle asked patience of Joy and Diane, the way the garden asks patience of everyone who looks at it in winter. Pork and black beans, coaxed low and slow, do not pretend to be anything other than what they are, and in January, that is exactly right.

Brazilian Pork & Black Bean Stew

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 20 min | Total Time: 1 hr 40 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 oz smoked sausage or chorizo, sliced into rounds
• 2 cans (15 oz each) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, with juices
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, for garnish
• Cooked white rice, for serving

Instructions

1. Brown the pork. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season pork cubes with salt and pepper. Working in batches, sear pork on all sides until deep golden brown, about 3–4 minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
2. Cook the sausage and aromatics. Add the sliced sausage to the same pot and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
3. Build the stew. Return the browned pork to the pot. Add the diced tomatoes with their juices and the chicken broth, stirring to combine and scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
4. Add the beans and simmer. Stir in the black beans. Bring the stew to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the pork is tender and the broth has thickened slightly.
5. Finish and adjust. Stir in the orange juice. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes as needed. If the stew is thicker than you like, add a splash of broth or water to loosen it.
6. Serve. Ladle over cooked white rice and garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 35g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 9g | Sodium: 580mg