I had the opportunity recently to hang out with my friend Kym and her daughter Caroline and we had a fun day at home making Portuguese food. Caroline traveled to Portugal last summer and really enjoyed the trip. She is such an impressive young woman – working in the healthcare arena and making her own adventures. She fills me with so much hope for the future – a total rock star!
As for myself, I traveled to Lisbon several years ago and I really enjoyed my visit. I was fairly unfamiliar with the food, although I knew that like my mom’s Sicilian family, there is an emphasis on bacalhau (salt cod) and pork, which of course I was very enthusiastic about. But what is really fascinating is that the cuisine is heavily influenced by the Age of Discovery—when explorers like Vasco de Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral set sail for the New World. There is also the matter of Portugal’s beautiful 1,115 miles of Atlantic coastline which contributes mightily to many of the wonderful dishes with a great deal of seafood and fish.
I remember on that trip to Lisbon, going to the Torre de Belem, which sits on the Tagus River and recalls Portugal’s seafaring past. It is also the birthplace of the pastel de nata (custard tart) usually dusted with cinnamon. Of course, I was all in for that! I was completely entranced by the people of the country and their bravery centuries ago as explorers. They were the first to set sail in the Atlantic Ocean, colonizing the Azores and other nearby islands, then braving the west coast of Africa. Their reach is still apparent today with colonies in Brazil, Macau and Goa, India.
But back to the food! I visited a grocery store when I was in Lisbon and marveled at the huge display for the salt cod, which is given a special place of honor similar to how we might present seafood and meat in the U.S. It was in most of my meals as fritters, mashed potatoes, and many other preparations. When I visit my sister who lives in New England, I always try to make it up to Fall River, so I can go to Portugalia, a mega store for Portuguese cuisine. The city has one of the largest populations of people of Portuguese descent in the nation and it is wonderful to explore the restaurants and enjoy traditional foods. I am a fan of Emeril Lagasse and knew he was originally from this area and was keen to see the area where he grew up. I was not disappointed.
For the meal that Kym, Caroline, and I prepared, we focused on the cataplana, which Caroline enjoyed on her trip. It is a dish named for the "cataplana" the spherical pot it is cooked and served in. This pork and seafood stew is found in the Algarve a region of Portugal. For our version, I looked to David Leite’s food blog where he had a version that combined chourico and clams. My sister had recently visited and dropped off the traditional chourico, so I had that fortunately, but I needed fresh littleneck clams and for that ingredient I needed to go to Whole Foods, since the seafood market up the street closed during the pandemic, which I am still sad about.
We had so much fun making the food! I’m hoping Kym and Caroline, and I can take the trip to either return to Portugal or up to see my sister for a long weekend to enjoy New England seafood and the heritage of the people of this wonderful country in the U.S.
By land or sea, Portuguese food has a number of classic dishes with Mediterranean foundations but is peppered with portions of African, Brazilian, and some far away spices that bring the food a great deal of pizzazz. For our menu, we had the following items:
Menu
Cherry tomatoes stuffed with smoked oysters/spicy smoked oysters and crackers
Green olives
Potato chips
Cataplana with Portuguese bread rolls
Pasteis de Nata
Everything was very easy to throw together. I found piri piri sauce at my local Trader Joe’s and all I did was marinate the shrimp and my husband John threw them on the grill threaded with lemons. The culture of Portugal is heavily weighted towards tinned fish, which I love, so we opened some cans of smoked oysters and stuffed them in cherry tomatoes as my aunt used to do for an appetizer. We rounded out our pre dinner snacks with common tapas including potato chips and olives.
The cataplana itself was very easy to make and required good quality canned tomatoes, authentic chourico, littleneck clams and Vinho Verde, which I served as an aperitivo. The young green wine is very refreshing and affordable and was a perfect complement to the meal. I cheated a little and ordered the bread rolls (pao D’Avo) and Pasteis de Nata from Portugalia, which shipped everything over dry ice. They were wonderful and easy to heat in the oven!
Overall, it was a lot of fun! I’m hoping to have another themed meal soon with friends and family!
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