Pheasant Pies/Empadas de Faisão

“Empadas” (pies) are a common snack in cafes all over Portugal and part of portuguese culinary tradition for centuries (royal chef Domingos Rodrigues dedicates 41 recipes to empadas in his “Arte de Cozinha” from 1680, the first Portuguese cookbook). Today, you are mostly likely to find them filled with chicken, roast piglet or perhaps salted cod. This is a recipe that takes advantage of the dense taste of pheasant to provide an absolutely moorish filing for this exquisite finger food. Shortcrust pastry is ideal for this as it is light enough to let the filling shine but you could experiment with puff pastry as well. Perfect as a snack, light lunch or for a picnic. Can be served hot or cold but much, much better hot out of the oven…

Roast Pork Shoulder/Pá de Porco Assada

This recipe is based on the standard Portuguese way of roasting pork with a marinade of roasted red pepper paste, garlic, red wine vinegar and white wine. Relatively cheap cuts such as shoulder work particularly well. Although somewhat fatty they hold imense flavour and make for a fantastic slow roast with rich and deep-flavored juices.

Roast Pork Shoulder