Eat SmartPortuguese cuisine

08-04-2023

1 - Mediterranean influences

 

• Despite being relatively restricted to an Atlantic sustenance, Portuguese cuisine has a lot of Mediterranean influences, with wide variety of spices (piri piri, black pepper, cinnamon, vanilla and saffron), also garlic is widely used, as are herbs such as coriander and parsley.

• Olive oil is one of the bases of Portuguese cuisine both for cooking and flavouring meals.

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2 - Breakfast

• Portuguese breakfasts often consist of fresh bread, with butter, ham, cheese or fruit preserves, accompanied with coffee, milk, coffee with milk, tea or hot chocolate.

• Sweet pastries are also very popular, as well as breakfast cereal, mixed with milk or yogurt and fruit.

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3 – Main meals• Lunch, often lasting over an hour is served

between noon and 2 o'clock.

• Dinner, generally served late, around or after 8 o'clock.

• Lunch and dinner usually includes soup and dessert.

• A common soup is caldo verde with potato, shredded kale, and chunks of chouriço (a kind of sausage).

• The most typical desserts are rice pudding (decorated with cinnamon) and caramel custard.

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4 – Traditional mealsGrilled Sardines (Sardinhas Assadas)

• Sardinhas Assadas are a traditional meal on the St John’s Day (Dia de S. João).

• São João is Porto’s largest saint’s festival, taking place on the evening of the 23rd of June, carrying over to the 24th of June.

• It is an extremely popular street celebration, probably one of the most important social events in Portugal.

• During the entire month of June the smell of sardines fill the air, so it's a great time to be in the city and try out these fishy goodies that go really well with a nice cold bear on a hot summer day.

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• Cozido à Portuguesa is a stew made from every imaginable Portuguese meats including beef, pork, and sausages (including blood sausage!), mixed with all sorts of boiled veggies and potatoes. It's usually served topped with olive oil and at least one copo de vinho (glass of wine).

4 – Traditional mealsPortuguese Stew (Cozido à Portuguesa)

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4 – Traditional mealsCod Stew (Bacalhau Cozido)• Portugal has Europe's highest fish

consumption per capita. Fish is served grilled, boiled, fried or deep-fried, stewed (often in clay pot cooking) or even roasted.

• Bacalhau (cod), dry and salty, is the type of fish most consumed in Portugal. It is often cooked on social occasions and is the Portuguese traditional Christmas and Easter dinner in some parts of Portugal.

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4 – Traditional mealsTripe, Porto Style (Tripas à moda do Porto)

• Oporto is know for its repertoire of tripe dishes, and for centuries the locals have been called tripeiros, a name that, according to legend, was born out of war.

• During the fifteenth century battle of Ceuta in North Africa, Henry the Navigator commandeered the best of Oporto's provisions, including the finest beef, to feed his troops. He left the tripe behind, and the rest is culinary history.

• It has since become one of the city’s most famous dishes.

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5 – The use of vegetables• Portuguese cookery include a large

amount of tomatoes, cabbage, and onions.

• There are many traditional dishes based on vegetables like feijoada (a rich bean stew) and açorda (a thick bread-based casserole generally flavoured with garlic and coriander or seafood).

• Many dishes are served with salad usually made of tomato, lettuce, and onion flavoured with olive oil and vinegar.

• Potatoes and rice are also extremely common in Portuguese cuisine.

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6 – Portuguese soups

• Soups made from a variety of vegetables are commonly available.

• One of the most popular being caldo verde, made from potato purée, thinly chopped kale and slices of chouriço.

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7- Wines

• Wine (red, white and "green") is the traditional Portuguese drink.

• Vinho Verde, termed "green" wine, is not green in colour but a specific kind of wine, only produced in the northwest (Minho province), that needs to be drunk "young“ and are usually slightly sparkling.

• A "maduro" wine usually can be consumed after a period of ageing.

• Vinho do Porto (Port wine) is a fortified wine of distinct flavour produced in Douro normally served with desserts.

• Vinho da Madeira, is a regional wine produced in Madeira similar to sherry.

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8-Pastries and desserts• Many of the country's typical pastries were

created in Middle Ages monasteries by nuns and monks and sold as a means of supplementing their incomes. The main ingredient for these pastries was egg yolks.

• The names of these deserts are usually related to monastic life and to the Catholic faith. Examples are, among others, barriga de freira (nun's belly), papos de anjo (angel's chests), and toucinho do céu (bacon from heaven).

• Other common ingredients in Portuguese convent confectionery are almonds and candied egg threads called "fios de ovos”.

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8-Pastries and desserts• Rich egg-based desserts are very popular

in Portugal and are often seasoned with spices such as cinnamon and vanilla.

• The most popular are leite-creme (a dessert consisting of an egg custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel), arroz doce (a typical and popular rice pudding), and pudim flã (a caramel custard, in Brazil known as pudim de leite condensado).

• A dessert called aletria, similar to arroz doce but made with a kind of vermicelli instead of rice, is also very popular.

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8-Pastries and desserts• Cakes and pastries are also very

popular in Portugal. Most towns have a local specialty, usually egg or cream based pastry.

• Originally from Lisbon, but popular nationwide, as well as among the diaspora, are pastéis de nata. These are small, extremely rich custard tarts.

• Other very popular pastries found in most cafes, bakeries and pastry shops across the country are the Bola de Berlim, the Pão-de-Ló and the Tentúgal pastries.