Corn meal soup

Time of preparation: 35 min

2 tbspoons of oil
1 clove of garlic, chopped
left over meat
4 tbspoons of cornmeal
2l of boiling water
salt
pepper
stock cube (depending on the left over meat you are using: if its chicken, use chicken stock)
1 soup plate full of kale or collard green, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 eggs

Dissolve the cornmeal in a bit of cold water. Boil the rest of the water. Put the dissolved corn meal in the boiling water. On another pan, fry the garlic, meat left over and onion. Add to the boiling soup. Add the collard green or kale and let it boil for 10 min. Whisk the eggs slightely and put then in the soup, after turning the off the hob and mix it slowly.

Serve with toasts and cheese.

The collard greens or kale can be replaced by spinach, watercress or endives.

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

Roasted chicken stuffed with bacon farofa

Farofa is made of rough cassava/manioc flour and spices and it is what we use in Brazil to stuff chicken. So, in order to make farofa, you need to buy the cassava flour or "farinha de mandioca" as we call it in portuguese.

It is worth, though. I just made it today and people were coming back for seconds and third helpings.

Time of preparation: 2h
8 portions

1 whole chicken - the season here is optional. You can season the chicken the way you preffer.
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbspoons of chopped parsley and chives
1 tspoon of thyme
salt/pepper

Put the chicken in a bowl. Mix all the ingredients in a blender, put them on the chicken, cover it and let it absorb the flavours overnight, in the fridge.


Farofa:

1/2 cup of butter OR 1/3 cup of oil
1 onion, chopped finnely
1 clove of garlic, chopped finnely
chopped bacon (about 3) or loddon (a handful)
2 handfulls of kale
2-3 cups of cassava/manioc flour
2 boiled eggs, chopped
4 tbspoons of chopped parsley and chives
salt
pepper

optional: you can also add 3 tbspoons of sweet corn and 2 tbspoons of raisins, if you want to give it a twist every now and then.

Heat up the butter in high heat. Add the onion and garlic, mixing it thoroughly, until the onion is soft. Add the bacon and fry it untill it changes colour (brown/crisp). Add the kale and wait untill they are softer. Add the manioc flour, little by little, mixing it thoroughly. Add the eggs, and the chopped parsley and chives. If you want to add optional itens, now is the time. Check the salt and pepper.

Turn on the oven (gas mark 7). Fill up the chicken with the farofa, closing the gap by stitching it or with toothpicks. Put the chicken on a baking tray and cover it with aluminium foil. Bake it for 45 min, remove the foil and bake it for another 15 min or until golden.

Bife a cavalo (Mounted steak)

Time of preparation: 20 min
4 portions

4 steaks (top rump is the best)
salt and pepper
6 eggs
oil (enough to fry)
potato chips


Season the steaks with salt and pepper. Fry the stakes on a frying pan and let them crisp. Fry one steake each time, so they don't cook in their juices.

Fry the eggs without puncturing the yolks and put them on top of the steaks. Fry the potato chips and serve.

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.

blancmange with raisings and wine syrup

For the recipe of blancmange, click here

Syrup

100g of raisins
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of dry red wine
1 tbspoon of cornflour, dissolved in a bit of water

Mix the sugar, water and wine. Let it boil for some minutes. Add the raisings and let it cook for another few minutes. Add the cornflour and stirr it throrougly. Let it cook for 2-3 min. Put it on top of the blancmange.

Coconut blancmange

time of preparation: 30 min
6 portions

200ml of coconut milk
4 cups of milk
5 tbspoons of cornflour
10 tbsppons of sugar

In a pan, mix the milk, cornflour and sugar. Turn on the cooker and stirr it thoroughly. When it begins to boil, lower the heat and stirr it for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and add the coconut milk, stirring it. Put it in a wet tray. After cold, remove it from the tray and put a syrup on top (see next posts).