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.

Roast chicken thighs - portuguese style

I cooked this for lunch today and it's soooo easy and delicious we had to repeat. As with most of the posts in this blog, the pic is not mine, I found it on google images, but mine looked just like it. Besides, most times there is no time to take pictures because we just devour it all...And I'm not that good in decorating anyway. There are much more talented people around.

4-6 garden variety potatoes, peeled and in quarters
2 tomatos, in quarters
1/2 lime, divided in 4 pieces (or 1 lime in quarters)
6 garlics WITH their skins (but you can mash them with your hands a bit)
olive oil
rock salt
4-6 chicken thighs (but I used drumsticks too and it's also good)
black olives

Spread the potatoes in an oven proof tray (better if it's a pretty one, for it can be served just like that when done) and do the same to the tomatos. Put each piece of lime in the corners of the tray and spread the garlic around too. Place the chicken pieces in the tray, in a very spread fashion, so that you have chicken...potatoes...chicken...potatoes.
Give it all a good wash with olive oil (remember, portuguese style - the more, the merrier) some pepper if you want and spread rock salt on top of it all.
Roast it all in 180-190 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove it and spread the olives on top of it (I use a handfull and give it another drizzle of olive oil). Roast for another 10-15 minutes.

Serve with some salad

Pork with chestnuts

If you speak portuguese, I found this recipe here.

In Portugal, the 11th of November is S. Martinho day (Saint Martin's). The legend tells us that a roman knight was on patrol when he saw an old beggar, hungry and cold for he was almost naked. It was a rainny and cold day and the old man was soaking wet.

The knight, called Martinho (Martin) was kind and liked to help the poor. When he saw that beggar, he pitied him and cut his own thick cape in half, with his sword and giving one to the old man, leaving him. After his kind act, the rain stopped and a beautiful sunny day replaced it.

In Portugal they say that around Sao Martinhos day there is a veranico ("small summer) when autumn is not as harsh and the weather gets warmer. Around this time of the year they also celebrate the Magusto.

The Magusto is a popular party that changes from region to region. Generally people gather around a bonfire where they roast chestnuts and drink new wine. People paint each other with the ashes and sing old traditional songs. Apparently some people consider the Magusto as the remains of an old pagan sacrifice to the dead (just like other popular traditions happening the around the same time all over Europe), since it was tradition to prepare some chestnuts to the family's deads and serve them at midnight (and no one would eat them).

All that is an introduction to one of the best recipes to try this time of year (this and the punpkin risotto!)


Pork (shoulder, legs, whatever)

Chestnuts
Salt and pepper
Red/gree pepper, mashed together
white wine
chopped bacon or loddon
piri-piri
garlic
laurel
onion
olive oil
Start by seasoning the pork (preferably on the previous day) with a cream made of salt, garlic, mashed pepper, pepper and piri-piri.
Cut the meat in cubes (If its not already in steaks, then its ok) and put the wine to make kind of a broth.
Cover  with a tin foil and roast/cook it in a hot (180-200'C) oven).

Meanwhile prepare the chestnuts: Boil water in a pan and add the chestnuts. Let them boil for 5 min, remove and peel them.

On a pan, heat up olive oil and the bacon cubes/loddon. Fry 1 onion chopped finnely, garlic and laurel and add the peeled chestnuts, Add sal and pepper, put the lid on  and let it cook in low heat (if necesary add a bit of water or wine).

When the meat is almost done (30-40 min), depending on the oven and the meat, add the chestnuts to it and let it all golden a bit for 10 min (withouth the tin foil).

Serve it hot with migas de broa (soon I'll post the recipe), cowpea and grelos or an apple mash.

Chicken and chorizo rice

Time of preparation: 1h30min

1 chicken carcass
1 chorizo
bacon
3 tbspoons of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves
pepper
salt
1 carrot
parsley
long grain rice
3 cloves of garlic

Cook the chiken, the chorizo and the bacon in salt water. When it boils, add the onion, cloves, carrot, pepper and parsley. Let it cook slowly (about 45 min).
Remove the chicken and remove all the meat from it. Slice the carrot and the chorizo. Chop the bacon.

Sieve the broth and remove a bit of the fat. On another pan, add the olive oil and fry the garlic. Add the rice. Add the broth from the chicken (must be double the amount of the rice). Let it boil. When the rice has absorbed most of the water, but is not entirely cooked, remove it from the hob and put it in an oven proof dish. Put half the rice, add the chicken and then the rest of the rice. On top, decorate with the chorizo, bacon and the carrot.
Bake it untill cooked. Serve it with salad

Tomato rice (Arroz de tomate)

This is a portuguese recipe, and mostly I saw it served with fried fish, but I serve it with steaks too.

300g of long grain rice
chives
1 clove of garlic
2 tbspoons of olive oil
250g of chopped tomatoes
1 leaf of laurel (or bayleaf)
salt
pepper

Fry the chives and garlic on the olive oil. Add the tomatoes and bay leaf. Add the water (2 1/2 times the volume of rice), add salt and pepper and let it boil. Add the rice. Let it boil, put the lid on (on an angle, not to cover completely) and let it boil for 20 min.

Caldo verde (green broth)

4 portions
30 min

750g of peeled potatoes
2 littres of water, boiling
250 of green collard, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 tbspoons of olive oil
salt

for serving: 2 tbspoons of olive oil

In a pan, add the boiling water with salt. Add the potatoes and let them cook. Remove them, mash and add them to the water again. Let it boil and add the other ingredients, cook for 3-5 min. When it's time to serve, add the 2 tbspoons of olive oil.

Optional: you can add chopped calabrese to the soup.

Coriander Açorda

Açorda (pronounced a sor da) is a traditional portuguese dish that is very creamy and goes well with fish, mushrooms, etc.

time of preparation: 30 min

350g of old loaf (2 days old)
4 cloves of garlic, crushed with salt
1/2 bunch of coriander, chopped
salt
olive oil
hot water
1 egg, whisked

Slice the loaf in thin slices. In a big pan, add olive oil and fry the crushed garlic. Add the slices of bread and mix them well in the mixture of garlic and olive oil. Add half the coriander and little by little add hot water, to soften the bread. Mix it all with a wood spoon creating a cream, that can't be too solid or too liquid.
When the acorda is ready, check the spices and , without stop mixing, add the egg. Sprinkle with the rest of the coriander and serve it hot.

Duck with olives

Time of preparation: 1h 30m
4 portions

1 duck (1.2 to 1.5kg)
300g of green olives, seedless
3 tbspoons of butter
1 onion, grated
2 tbspoons of flour
2 cubes of chicken stock
1 cup of dry red wine
ground pepper

Put the olives in a small container with cool water. In a frying pan, melt 1 tbspoon of butter and fry the duck (washed and with no spices), letting it golden all around.

In another pan (a big deep one, to cook the duck later), melt the rest of the butter and fry the onion. Add the flour and mix it until it is homogeneous. Add the chicken stock dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water, the wine and the ground pepper. Reduce the heat and let it boil. Last time we cooked it, the sauce was too thick so we added a bit more water until it was more liquid (that's to taste). When the duck is ready, drain it and add it to the boiling sauce. Let it cook slowly in low heat, with the lid on for 45min to 1h. 15 min before serving, add the drained olives and let them cook with the duck.

Serve it with white rice and chilled dry rose wine

Portuguese spinach (Esparregado de Espinafre)

This one I learned to eat while living in Portugal. It goes really well with meat, but most of the time I'd just eat it by itself. In Portugal you can find esparregados frozen and ready to eat.
Enjoy!

Time of preparation: 20 min

1 bag of spinach
3 tbspoons of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
salt
1/2 cup of milk
1 tspoon of flour


Cook the spinach in water, following the instructions (3 min in 3 tbspoons of water). Drain it and squeeze it well. Slice it or blend it.
In a frying pan, heat up the olive oil in medium heat and add the garlic. When the garlic begins to get golden, add the spinach and mix it well.
Mix the milk and the flour until the latter has dissolved. Add the mixture to the pan and lower the heat. Mix it well untill it gets thicker.

Rapini rice

When I lived in Portugal, I fell in love with the cuisine and I miss it a lot. Here's a simple recepi of rice with rapini. If you don't know what rapini is, click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapini

2 cups of long grain rice
3 tbsponn of olive oil
1/2 shoot of rapini
4 cups of water
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
salt

Fry the onion and the garlic in the olive oil. Add the rapini (we only use the pointed leaves). Add water and season with salt and pepper. When it boils, add the rice, lower the heat and let it cook for 20 minutes.