Soups are the essence of family meals. Seasonal, sustainable, using what’s around, celebrating what the land brings. Like in many cultures, soups in Portugal are a reliable source of nourishment, somtimes generic but often highly specific, always depended on region and season. You might wander into a restaurant and be greeted with the soup of the day, usually a soup base made of blended seasonal vegetables with garlic, onion, seasonal fresh vegetables and finished with olive oil. This recipe is concerned with a rather special mix consisting a a flavourful blend of autumn pumpkin, onion, garlic as the base. We add fresh spinach towards the end for colour, taste and texture, all with a good dose of good olive oil. The soup base should have a creamy texture and beautiful orange colour. Pumpkins vary immensely in taste and consistency. A small green skin and orange firm flesh pumpkin is ideal.
Ingredients
8 cups of chopped pumpkin (peeled, seeded and chopped roughly) 8 cups of chopped spinach 1 onion (sliced) 4 cloves of garlic 4 tbsp of olive oil Salt and (white and black) pepper 1.8L Water Serves 6 to 8
Cook the onion in 2 tbsp of olive oil for a couple of minutes at medium heat stirring throughout, add the garlic and cook for another minute or two until you can smell fragrance coming through.
Add 1.8L of water, salt and pepper. Bring to boil and add the pumpkin. Cook for 30 minutes, siring occasionally, then blend.
Bring to boil and add the chopped spinach. Cook for 2 – 4 minutes depending on the spinach. Keep it green and with a bit of texture.
Add 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil correct seasoning and stir for another couple of minutes.
Like in many cuisines around the world, bread is an absolute staple food in Portugal. So widespread and yet so diverse in shape, size and quality. The Portuguese “pão” derives from the latin ‘pane’ meaning neutral. Açorda is a way of creating a rich flavourful broth based on the ever reliant “neutral” bread. The word Açorda itself comes from the Arab ath-thorda, a flavourful soup made of bread, olive oil, garlic and other ingredients. By the way, I considered translating Açorda into breadsoup but that doesn’t sound right and it is important to recognise the relationship between words and our experience of a thing (pastel de nata = custard tart ???…).
Back to Açorda. Needless to say, the better the bread the better the açorda. This is about the art of re-using and making the most out of good quality ingredients. This is an essential skill in all societies, being resourceful in making food last and avoiding food waste. A good sourdough might be on the go for a few days and will happily end up in an açorda.
Like many Portuguese traditional recipes, the regional variation is considerable. From the rich textures combining bread and broth of the north and centre of the country to the more subtle light broth and slice of bread found in Alentejo. This recipe is a a classic seafood version in which we aim for a rich mouthful texture to match the rich flavours of seafood. A good stock base is essential here. You can make a traditional seafood stock, my favourite shrimp shell stock or go for the simple concentrated mussel juice described below.
Ingredients
500gr good quality stale bread
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion (small dice)
10-12 raw peeled and deveined shrimp, lightly salted while you prepare everything else
500gr fresh mussels
2 peeled and de-seeded fresh ripe tomatoes (tinned tomatoes is really not a suitable replacement here)
3 cloves garlic (diced)
3 cloves garlic (crushed skin on)
1 red chilli (deseeded and deveined)
1 small bunch of freshly chopped coriander
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Serves 4
Cook the mussels. Make sure mussels are clean (vigorous wash through several passes of fresh cold water) and de-beard if needed. In a large pot, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil with 3 crushed garlic cloves (skin on) and roughly chopped red chilli, cook and stir for a couple of minutes until you can smell the aroma. Add the mussels, close the lid and cook on moderate heat until the shells open, shaking occasionally (3-5 minutes). Once shells are open, open the lid and turn off heat and let cool down.
Cut or rip the bread in small chunks. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes or until bread begins to soften. Break apart with your hands.
In a medium pot, gently fry the onion on 2 tbsp of olive oil. Once soft and translucent, add garlic, cook for another minute then add the tomatoes. Cook for another couple of minutes.
Strain the juice from the mussels with a sieve being careful not to add any small shell debris and add to the pot with the onions.
Drain the bread from the water using your hands (leaving some moisture) and add to the pot. Keep the water and add to the pot if you need more liquid. Cook a low heat stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.
Remove mussels from shell, keeping some in the shell for serving
Add shrimps to the pot cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once shrimps begin to turn red, add the mussel meat and the chopped coriander.
Mix and serve… Dash of Tabasco optional but recommended…
This a classic autumnal dish based on seasonal mushrooms. Like in many other countries there are great myths and traditions around mushrooms. In Portugal, the most precious is the ‘míscaro’. An illusive term which seems to mean something different depending on who you talk to or the region. Possibly a porcini variety… more on this on a future post.
The anticipation for the mushroom season is felt as early as August. My grandfather used to rejoice August rain as that would mean lots of ‘míscaros’…
This recipe is a simple stew with potatoes, a welcome variation on the rice based mushroom dishes. The dish can range from vegan to meat based and you can add small cut pork ribs for a real meaty add on.
Tip: Include some dried mushrooms (porcini or shitake) and use some of the liquid in the stew.
For a vegetarian version, instead of the chouriço, add smoked paprika, a little chilli powder and ground cumin.
Ingredients: 6 medium size waxy potatoes, cut in to small cubes 300g mixed mushroom (shitake, chanterelle, porcini, chestnut…), chopped to bite size 1 onion (small diced) 2 cloves garlic (chopped finely) 1 bay leaf 1 cup chopped Portuguese chouriço Salt and pepper 2 tbsp olive oil
Serves 4
In a medium pot, heat up the olive oil, add onion and cook until soft, add garlic and cook for another minute then add chouriço, let cook for a couple of minutes.
Add mushrooms, cover and cook for 5 minutes then add potatoes and a little mushroom soaking liquid. Season with salt and pepper and mix together.
Cook for 20 minutes, until potatoes are cooked and serve with some dried oregano.
This traditional Portuguese way of preparing cuttle fish is common throughout the coast. Deceivingly simple, it’s a recipe that requires some skill in preparing the cuttlefish, cleaning them and keeping the ink to enrich an olive oil and garlic sauce. Why can’t we get them clean from the fish shop you may ask? It’s something you have to go through yourself to understand (and most fishmongers don’t like doing it and they won’t be subtle telling you how much they don’t like it). There are plenty of videos online on how to prepare the cuttle fish for grilling so I won’t go into this.
8 medium sized cuttle fish (with ink) 1 onion 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 cup of chopped coriander 1 lemon 3 cloves of garlic (peeled and thinly sliced) course sea salt serves four
Once the cuttle fish are clean open them in half, keeping the tentacles. Although you can grill them whole it is easier to do this flat on the griddle. Sprinkle with sea salt. Keep the ink to the side.
Grill on hot grid (charcoal preferably), make sure tentacles are well grilled and crispy.
While the cuttle fish is cooking make the dressing. Warm up the olive oil with the garlic to infuse then mix in the ink. Serve with the coriander and lemon. Great with boiled baby potatoes and some greens.
Introduced to Portugal by the Confeitaria Nacional in Lisbon in the 19th century, bolo rei has become synonymous with Christmas and is Portugal’s answer to the German stolen or the Italian Panettone.
During the Christmas season there is nothing like going to your favourite pastelaria and arriving home with a beautifully fresh bolo rei in a box. The cake is a fruit cake flavoured with Port wine and other alcoholic drinks, topped with nuts, fruits and sugar.
In the days before obsessive health and safety laws, bolo rei had two hidden surprises inside… a gift (“brinde”) (small toy, metal figure or sometimes a gold coin) and a dried fava bean. Getting one or the other in your slice of bolo rei was seen as an omen of luck (if you got the brinde) or lack of it if you got the fava bean as you’d be expected to buy the next bolo rei!
Even without these surprises, bolo rei making is surrounded with mystique and secrecy as each maker developed their own recipe and keeps it like a precious secret. We were lucky to be let into some of these secrets when we visited Capuchinha in Viseu. This pastelaria, a stone’s throw from Rossio, the main plaza in Viseu, has become renowned for having the best bolo rei and its fame now extends well beyond Viseu!
We tasted the magic combination of flavourful drinks that goes into the dough and even tried to roll our own dough using the traditional elbow technique to shape the whole in the middle. We had modest results and decided to hand over to owner Dona Teresa and the 15 specialists who work in Capuchinha to produce over 100 kg of bolo rei (and bolo rainha, a version without fruit toppings) every single day!
If you struggle to see the Portuguese connection in this recipe let me explain… This recipe is admittedly a hybrid with Portuguese and Italian influence but it does go back to using nuts, specifically chestnuts in season in the Autumn to provide substance, flavour and overall goodness to meats and vegetables. Here, chestnuts are replaced by peanuts with soft shell (it’s all about the shell!). If in Portugal use cured Queijo da Serra but Parmesan is a good substitute (with apologies to all the goof folks from Parma, Reggio Emilia). If in season use ‘miscaros” instead of Shitake mushrooms.
1 bunch of runner beans split in half lengthways
2 tbsp of peanuts with soft skin (untreated nor flavoured)
2tbsp chopped parsley
1 cup of finely sliced shitake (or miscaros)
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp grated cured queijo da serra or parmesan
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
Boil the runner beans in salted water and add bicarb soda after you put the beans in and the water comes back to the boil. Cook until tender but do not overcook (5 minutes should do it).
While the beans are cooking , toast the peanuts on a shallow frying pan
Rinse the beans in cold water in a colander to stop overcooking.
In a mortal and pestle grind the garlic with a little salt, peanuts, parsley and grated cheese.
Shallow fry the mushrooms in the olive oil on high heat, add salt and pepper when they start browning.
Add the butter to the mushrooms, add the runner beans and two thirds of the mortar and pestle mixture, warm through.
Serve with the rest of the mortar and pestle mix on top, shaved cheese. black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Literally translated as ‘small fish from the garden’ these unassuming delicacies have a bit of a world history. Portuguese missionaries traveling to Japan in the 16th century shared the practice of frying green beans in a light batter. The Japanese loved it so much that the practice became widespread and tempura (related to the Portuguese word tempero) became famous the world over. This recipe spreads the global reach of these ‘vegetable fish’ by using tapioca flour from Brazil. Tapioca is a gluten free flour made from casava and makes for an excellent alternative to wheat flour. The search for the perfect batter is a life-time quest and at the moment we think this one is the winner. Although this is a fried food, the wheat free flour and the fact we fry in olive oil makes it guilt free and a healthy starter or side dish.
If you know anything about Portuguese cuisine you will know that bacalhau (salted cod) is an obsession. We believe there are thousands of ways of preparing this delicious cured fish which is as close as one can get to a national dish. Here, we combine the flavourful bacalhau with a sweet roast celeriac puree and stewed leek and seaweed mix. This recipe uses the sous vide technique to highlight bacalhau’s soft and creamy texture. We prepare this recipe using the Anova but it will work with any sous vide machinery. Picture show an (optional) foam made of mussel juice and soy lecithin.
Sometimes you go to the market and a large fish is just saying ‘take me’! It’s hard to resist a good size, fresh local fish which you know will be just perfect for your dinner party! As always look out for signs of freshness (avoid dull eyes, go for bright red gills and a firm touch of the flesh). This is a simple recipe involving little work and is a great change from a meat-based roast. It features all staple Portuguese ‘temperos’ with bay leave, garlic, white wine and ‘colorau’ giving the fish a unique taste. Thanks for the Quasars for allowing me to cook this at their wonderful home in Montreal and asking for the recipe!!!
Octopus is a real Portuguese favourite. The two traditional ways of preparing this versatile and delicious mollusc are in a flavourful rice or grilled with olive oil and garlic. In any case the octopus is always boiled before any further preparation. Frozen octopus is much more reliable than fresh, in terms of ensuring the meat is tender. There are a number of methods (and myths) for boiling. Our favourite one at the moment is to boil strait from frozen for about 1 hour for a 1.5-2 kg octopus. This gives it an intense red colour and helps concentrate the taste. This tartare recipe is great for leftovers and makes a delicious starter.
Pasto 