Opinion – Recipes from Marcão: Bean salad is the ideal companion for barbecues in the summer

The World Cup is out, summer is in Marcão’s Recipes.

In the last two years, I had the privilege of returning to Bahia a few times, which I spent too long without visiting. The food there is crazy, both the sea and oil palm classics (moqueca, bobó, etc.) as well as the less obvious things in the daily diet of Bahians.

Something that always wins me over in Bahia is the bean salad, which accompanies everything that is served in bars in Salvador.

They serve the beans cold — usually black-eyed peas — in a kind of well-seasoned vinaigrette filled with cilantro. At Bar da Mônica, on the shores of Todos os Santos bay under the Gamboa community, she comes with sun-dried meat, fried fish, farofa and cold beer.

Speaking of Bahia and beer, I decided to make a bean salad in the heat of the heat that hit São Paulo last weekend. It accompanied a very special souvenir that I brought from my last trip to Bahia: carne de fumeiro, a type of smoked pork traditional from the Recôncavo.

This is very difficult to find outside Bahia, but the salad does not need the smokehouse. You can serve it with any type of meat or fish. You can eat it as a main course, depending on your desire and the heat.

I made my salad with green string beans, which I found for sale in the grocery store near the house. It cooks really fast, in a matter of 15 minutes, and it doesn’t make a broth.

The recipe also works with any type of green bean, sold in the pod at street markets, or with black-eyed peas.

To increase the recipe, to give it a little more sustenance, I also added some boiled quail eggs. I’m terrified of peeling these eggs, so I bought them ready-made, peeled and canned: the vinegary broth leaves the eggs with an acidity that goes very well with the salad.

Green bean salad with quail egg

Yield: 2 to 3 servings

Difficulty: easy

INGREDIENTS

500g green string beans, in the pod

1 red onion in slices

¼ chopped red bell pepper

1 chili pepper, chopped (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 tomato, seeded, chopped

12 boiled quail eggs

2 tablespoons chopped chives

2 tablespoons chopped coriander

salt to taste

PREPARATION

1. Threshing, sorting and washing the beans. Cook in salted water for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and let cool.
2. While the beans are cooling, let the onion, bell pepper and pepper enjoy with salt, vinegar and oil. Thus, its taste will be less aggressive.
3. Stir in the cold beans, herbs and eggs. Adjust the salt. Allow to set for 1 hour or refrigerate up to 1 day before serving.