Sardines pate

When I lived in Portugal I loved the little tuna and sardine pates that were served with a bunch of olives and a basket of bread as soon as you sat in a restaurant. I've been trying to find a good recipe and this one is pretty close to what I used to eat there. I think it tastes different in England because of the quality of the sardines that we find here (not as good as portuguese ones).

serves 4
1 can of sardines (in oil)
2 boiled eggs, peeled
1 tbspoon of softened butter
3 tbspoons of finnely chopped parsley
1 pinch of paprika
1 small onion, finnely chopped
sweet mustard (as much as you like)
piri-piri sauce

Drain the sardines, chopp the eggs and put them in a bowl. With a fork, shred the sardines with the eggs, butter, onion, parsley, paprika, mustard and a few drops of piri-piri.
Put it all in a food mixer and let it chopp it all until you obtain a thick cream (not liquid) - check the pic. Put it in serving bowls and cover with plastic film. Leave it in the fridge until it's time to serve. Serve it with bread, toasts, olives and cucumber pickles.
Original recipe and picture: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kSv05jSv-xg/Rp-n5JmmC0I/AAAAAAAAAPQ/-qp_PDcASc0/s400/pate-sardinha.jpg

Easy quindao

Quindao is a brazilian dessert with portuguese roots. Therefore it takes a huge amount of sugar and eggs (the original recipe takes 12 yolks!). With the pregnancy advancing, I started to crave sugary foods and I wanted quindao. I checked my fridge and I only had 8 eggs (damn!).
Luckly I found this recipe which is much easier to prepare. It is not as good as the real thing (nor as caloric) but it will do for someone who has never had quindao before and wants to give it a try but is not confident enough to cook 12 yolks in one go. It is really delicious.

Time of preparation: 45 min
easy

5 eggs
3 cups of sugar
100g of grated coconut
1 cup of warm milk
1 tbspoon of butter

Blend it all, grease a flute tube tray with butter and sugar and pour it in. Bake it in medium heat oven (around 180C) in a tray full of water for 30-45 min (or until you stick a toothpick on it and it comes off clean).

Let it cool down and take it of the tray while still warm. Keep it in the fridge until serving.

Duck rice

This is a very traditional portuguese dish and I remember that whenever this was on the menu that's all my portuguese colleagues would eat. It's very similar (in the preparation) to the chicken and chorizo rice

Serves 4 people
easy

1 Duck (I used the left overs of the duck I roasted sunday. If it's just for two people, it's more then enough)
400g of rice
250g of ham
1 chorizo
1 onion
olive oil
salt and pepper
Cook the duck, ham, onion and chorizo in salted water. Add pepper to taste. When cooked (or in my case, softned - took about 25-30 min for the carcass to be soft), drain the meat and put aside the broth. Cut the duck in pieces, slice the chorizo and the ham. Remove the bones from the duck. Cook the rice on the water you used to cook the duck.
After cooked, put half the rice in a oven proof dish greased with a bit of butter, cover it with the duck, chorizo and ham pieces and cover it all with the rest of the rice. Sprinkle some of the duck water on top of it all and put it in the oven or grill to golden it.

Serve hot.

Sophie Grigson's crisp slow-roast duck

I bought a duck crown around new year (couldn't let the offers go by) and I've been looking for a good roast duck recipe. My husband has never been a big fan of roast duck because most of the time they taste greasy and slimy, not crispy.

I found this one and decided to give it a try for lunch today and Oh my God! It was delicious. Athough I used duck crown instead of the duckling suggested and that the duck crown was supposed to serve 4 it only served the both of us because we kept coming for seconds and thirds. We have to admit this was the best roast duck we both had.

Here's the recipe.

1 duckling, around 2.3-2.7kg (5-6lb)

500g (1lb 2oz) turnips (we used potatoes, which we roasted on the duck fat with parsnips and carrots)
Salt and pepper

Sauce

1 large carrot, diced
1 onion, chopped
2 sticks celery, diced
1 bottle fruity red wine
1 bouquet garni ( a few stalks of parsley, 2 good sprigs of thyme, 2 bay leaves, 1 small sprig sage tied together with string)
750ml (1 1/4pts) duck stock or chicken stock
2tbsp redcurrant jelly (I didn't have any so I skiped this step)

1.Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7. Wipe the duck dry with kitchen paper. Prick the skin all over with a skewer, or a fork if the tines are sharp, so the fat can run out more easily as it cooks. Season generously with salt and pepper. Sit the duck on a rack over a roasting tin and slide it into the oven. Turn the heat down to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and leave it to cook for 2 1/2hrs.

2.During that time, all you need to do, whenever you feel like it, is drain off the fat that's gathered in the roasting tin (it's brilliant stuff for sautéing potatoes).

3.Once you've got your first crop of fat, take 1tbsp of it and heat in a frying pan. Add the carrot, onion and celery and sauté until the vegetables are tender and lightly browned. Now add the wine and the herb bundle.

4.Bring to the boil, stirring thoroughly, then boil hard until reduced by half. Add the stock and boil again until reduced by about a third to a half, giving a syrupy sauce. Stir in the redcurrant jelly until it has melted, then strain into a small pan. Add a little salt and pepper and simmer for about 2 mins. Taste and adjust seasoning. Re-heat when needed.

5.Peel the turnips (or in my case the potatoes, parsnips and carrots), cut into 2cm (3/4in) cubes and blanch in boiling water for three mins. Drain and run under the cold tap. Leave to drain thoroughly.

6.About 40 mins before the duck is done, drain off most of the fat, leaving a bit in the tin. Add the turnips and turn them in the fat, then leave to roast with the duck.

7.When the duck and turnips are cooked turn off the oven and leave the door open. Let them rest like this for about 15 mins.

8.Using a sharp knife or poultry shears, cut the duck into four pieces, cutting first from head to tail end, along the breastbone and through the backbone to give two halves, then dividing each half in two.

9.Serve quickly while still warm with the roast turnips and reheated sauce.

Chicken rice, Minas Gerais style (Galinhada mineira)

Time of preparation: 2h

This is a big recipe for a gathering, for example.. for just my small family I reduce it by half.

5 cups of long grain rice (I use just 2)
800 g of chicken breast (I use just 150-200g)
800g of chicken parts (wings, thighs, drumstick, etc)  - I use parts of 1 chicken only or even half that

4 tomatoes
3 onions
parsley and chives
3 limes
olive oil
pepper
salt
Prepare the beans as normal, cooking it and put aside. Slice the sausage , fry it and put aside.
Cut the chiken in pieces (about 1-2cm) and season them with salt and garlic. In medium heat, heat up the oil in a sauce pan and fry 2 chopped onions. Add the chicken, moving it constantly. When the sauce dries up and the saucepan botton starts to look dark brown add a bit of water, enough to soften this dry brown sauce and continue to mix it. Repeat this several times. It is important to have patience, for you need to dry it and soften it several times, until the chicken itself becomes darkened (it takes 20 min to 30 min).

Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to caramelise the chicken.

Add the rice, mix it well and cover it with boiling water up to 2cm on top of the rice line. When it boils again, lower the heat. Cover the pan and let it cook in low heat. When the rice is cooked, turn off the heat and keep the pan covered.
Slice the tomatos and the onions in small cubes. Add parsley, chives and season with lime, olive oil, black pepper, salt and a bit of water. Put it on a fridge (as if making a vinaigrette)
Serve it all with a good spicy sauce (such as tabasco sauce) on the side.