Niébé

Simmered together it is baião de dois in miniature, the base of half the region's plates.

Squeaky cheese stirred through the pot is what the classic dish is actually named for.

Simmered in coconut milk it turns from a plain bean into a properly Northeastern stew.

Rendered fat and smoke against a bean mild enough to take on whatever cooks with it.

A sofrito base keeps a very mild fresh bean from tasting like plain starch.

Heat against a bean with almost no character of its own until it is seasoned.

Warm earthy spice does for cowpea what it does for every other pale legume on the plate.

A Northeastern seafood habit: a handful of dried shrimp turns the pot savoury without meat.

Ground peanut thickens the pot the way West African cooking treats the same bean, an ocean away.