Bulho com Casulas

Soak the pods in water overnight. Cook the meat in water seasoned with salt, some peppercorns and bay leaves. Once cooked, remove them and reserve the meat.

Then cook the pods in the same pot with the water used to cook the meat, until they are soft. Drain it and place them on a platter.Cut the butel, ear, rib and sausage into pieces, arrange them on the platter and serve. You can sprinkle the shells/casulases with a drizzle of oil and accompany them with boiled potatoes in the cooking broth.

This is a dish present in any home in the Planalto Mirandês region.

It is traditionally consumed on Sunday and Shrovetide day. Butelo (also known as “bullo”, “palaio” or “bone sausage”) is the inseparable companion of the pods, an essential link in the history of the stew. Butelo is a pork sausage, made in the animal's belly (stomach) and stuffed with bones and cartilage from the vertebrae and ribs and some meat.The pods (also called "casulas", "husks" or "dried pods") are a bean that is harvested while still in the pod when the bean is well formed but not yet dry. The pods are broken into pieces and spread out on a blanket/cloth, or straw, until they dry. The origin of this recipe is said to be the scarcity of resources, which forced the use of all edible goods, transforming the pig's shells and backbone, often down to the tip of the tail, to create this very energetic and splendid-tasting dish.