These two lambs were born just before Christmas – here they are 10 minutes old being cleaned by their mother. Now they are 6 weeks old and losing their black colouring. Nature in #alentejo is extreme and these two show the soft side. They are protected from the wild boar that arrive every night by a shed and fencing; not to mention our two dogs barking madly most nights.

Hunters – we have caught them on our land, dressed in full camouflage with their dogs and that is just to hunt rabbits………… they are a miserable bunch. Being a city girl at heart I enjoy a lie in on Sunday – no chance most of the time, the hunters are out there again at 6 am. More dog barking to make sure we are awake!

However these are small things to put up with compared to the days in January and February when we have blue skies and can walk for miles, up and down hills, in peace. Can anyone resist a dog looking at you in the morning asking for a walk?

Well, it’s raining and the only way they can see us is by sitting on the table and looking through the window!

It has been a while since I used this blog – let’s see how I go from here!

We had a gift from the local goat man – white truffles from our land!  They are huge (like most veg in Portugal…. for example, courgettes (zucchini) are the size of marrows.

Question :  what do I do with them?  They have minimal flavour!  I will research the internet.

Just bought a mini-hot smoker from the UK – Cameron – so another first, smoking fish.  Easy to buy really fresh mackerel, the smoker came with sample wood chips, so sprinkle the mackerel with salt for 8 minutes, rinse, put in the smoker, set over heat and smoke for 20 minutes.  It worked but the only problem was the lid wouldn’t seal – I solved this by reading the instructions and bending the lid a little to seal so next time the flavour will be smokier.  These were tasty and moist, just a little lacking in colour.

Last night was smoked mackerel on toasted seed bread, tonight smoked mackerel pate – just whisk the mackerel, some yoghurt, lemon juice, horseradish and Tabasco together, quantities to suit amount and your taste.  Serve with raw veg, breadsticks, pitta, anything you like.  Perfect snack.

I couldn’t be bothered to queue at the butcher’s counter on a busy Saturday, but it didn’t seem to matter as on the shelves was what appeared to be high quality, locally produced, certificated minced beef.  The fresh meat inside looked excellent quality.

All the right labels…, so I buy it.  Today it’s time to cook ragu bolognese for the kids.  One look at the back of the packet and the list of ingredients – wait, I thought this was 100% beef.  Oh no, only 82.5% beef, then water, breadcrumbs, yeast, salt, corn starch, antioxidants and conservatives.  They got me, I must now check packaged fresh meat to see if it is 100% meat….  Thank you Continente.

I made the bolognese, adding no salt, to Rick Stein’s excellent recipe – the end result is not the same.  The sauce is too glossy as if flour has been mixed in and even without the addition of salt it is saltier than usual, plus the texture of the meat is not there plus more liquid than usual.

The moral to this story is not to be in too much of a hurry – get your butcher to mince the meat you choose, which is normal in Portugal.

Sausages – there is a huge assortment to buy in Portugal of various sausages from virtually every country in Europe; except for the English ‘banger’.  The Portuguese sausages are not too our taste – either being made of strange parts of the animal or with a much too smokey flavour or full of ‘gristle’.  Spanish sausages are best cold as chorizo, German wursts are dull and pre-packaged.  We have brought sausages over from the UK but the last lot, as high quality as you can get, tasted too salty and synthetic….  Time to try a new cooking skill – sausage making.

I ordered the hog skins from the UK (natural sausage skins) online and delivered direct to Portugal.  I have recently bought a Kenwood mincer which has a sausage filling attachment.  Then it was to the butcher for an entremeada de porco (belly of pork) – can’t beat Portuguese pork for quality and cost – Euros 7 for 2.5 kg.

This is how my first attempt turned out – not bad….

Firstly, coarsely mince the pork, then add the flavourings – I used salt, fresh sage, ground nutmeg, ground coriander, ground mace, freshly ground black pepper and oatmeal – and mix together well.  A good tip I found was to check the flavourings at this stage by frying a small patty – they can then be adjusted before it is too late.  Secondly, mince the pork and flavourings with a finer plate.  Set up the sausage skins on the sausage filler machine, put in the pork, turn on and fill the skin with one long sausage – it really was much easier than I expected!  Finally, pinch and twist to make sausages the size you like – mine were big…

And look, the sausage skins come with trays to wrap and freeze.  Or to start your own cottage industry and sell at the local farmers’ market?

The proof is in the tasting – they were delicious, the correct flavour but none of the saltiness or preservatives found in shop bought sausages – and I know where the meat came from.

Next stop, Amazon, to find a sausage recipe book and experiment!

It was a beautiful Sunday in February and we enjoyed a relaxing lunch, outside in the sun – not bad for Portugal at this time of year!  Salmon, two ways, accompanied by pink Portuguese espumante – as good as any French variety.

My old favourite, in a circle, is raw salmon and smoked salmon, about 75gr of each, mixed with a little chopped onion and yoghurt to bind, plus a splash of lime or lemon juice, dill and salt and pepper to taste.  Then quickly salt some cucumber slices, rinse and lay at the bottom of a round mould, put the salmon mixture on top – and enjoy!  Serve with a blini or melba toast.

And I decided to try a new recipe, the salmon and sweetcorn mix courtesy of Chef Kiko, his book ‘Jantaradas Hoje e ca em Casa’, try his Lisbon restaurants……..  I decided to wrap the salmon in seaweed, but need a little more practice in the art of wrapping!

• 150 gr fresh salmon, skinned and bone free
• 1/2 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• half a handful of freshly chopped coriander

Slice the salmon then cut into tiny cubes.  Put in a bowl and mix in the ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce and coriander.  Mix well.  Now make the salad.

• 1/2 can sweet corn
• 1/8th finely chopped red onion
• 1/8th avocado pear in cubes
• Juice of half a lime
• 1/2 handful of freshly chopped coriander
• 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt to taste

Mix all together and season with salt to taste.  Chef Kiko suggests serving on lettuce leaves – equally delicious!

 

February sun – just for one day – time to grab some Vitamin D and a pastry!

And to create a southern European meal for tonight.  I will use the Iberian pork loin which I bought a couple of weeks ago in Setubal market – living here it is important to stock up the freezer with quality meat but remember to use it, preferably, within a month of freezing.  I tried this Iberico pork fillet marinated with pimenton and accompanied by sauté potatoes out on a friend a couple of weeks ago and it was a great success.  The vital ingredient is that the pork, whether loin or fillet, comes from the Iberian black pig which is fed on acorns – this is not in any way similar to the white pig of northern Europe and, I feel, it is unfair to even call it by the same name!

Here is mine, in the marinade – look at the marbling and deep colour…..  This recipe is inspired by Jose Pizarro

• 1 x 500gr Iberian pork loin or 2 x pork fillets
• for the marinade
• 1 tsp pimenton (Spanish sweet paprika)
• 1 sprig fresh oregano – leaves chopped
• 1 garlic clove chopped (if using Portuguese ones, make this 1/2 clove)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin

Mix together all the marinade ingredients and marinate for at least 12 hours – however, if you have a vacuum marinator (as I do) the time can be cut to 1 – 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Take the pork from the marinade and rub with olive oil. Heat an ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, brown the pork on each side for 1 – 2 minutes.  Put the pan in the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes (for loin) and 15 minutes (for fillet).  With Iberian pork, it does not matter if it is slightly pink, in fact it should be but this is a matter of taste.  Leave to rest for 5 minutes and keep the pan juices.

• 500 gr waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 8mm thick slices
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 small onion finely sliced
• 1 garlic clove finely sliced
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
• salt & freshly ground black pepper

Boil the potato slices in salted water for 1 – 2 minutes until just tender.  Drain.  Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the potatoes for 2 – 3 minutes until just coloured.  Add the onion and garlic and fry for 1 to 2 minutes until golden brown.  Season to taste.

To serve, divide the potato between the plates, carve the fillet into slices and arrange on top.  Drizzle the pan juices over and add a splash of olive oil around the edge of each plate.  Garnish with thyme leaves.

And, if you like, add an English touch with a light cauliflower cheese – cook cauliflower until just tender, make a small amount of béchamel sauce flavoured with English mustard powder, pour the sauce over the cauliflower, sprinkle grated Cheddar cheese (or Parmesan or any hard cheese you fancy) over and pop in the oven until browned.

After a day out in Lisbon, the last thing I feel like doing is cooking a meal.  The restaurants in the village all offer a ‘takeaway’ service, i.e. you choose a dish from their menu and they will pack it up to takeaway but for the time it takes, you might as well eat there.  I could order in advance, but I’m not that organised……  Takeaway lunches are easy – piripiri chicken, chips and salad from the little restaurant next to the petrol station.

So, we went to Martim Moniz – Lisbon’s Chinatown area – where there are several Chinese food shops, plus one Indian I know of, Popat Store,  which is very quirky selling the most old fashioned of English condiments amongst the spices, chillis and oriental vegetables.

My favourite is Supermercado Hua Ta Li, on the north side of Praca Martim Moniz.  It is full of all the fresh vegetables used in Chinese cooking at prices and quality that beat any supermarket, plus freezers full of Chinese delicacies and aromatics, including frozen lime leaves, galangal and coconut.  Of course it is also full of all the jars of Chinese spices, dried Chinese spices, an Aladdins cave of interesting ingredients.  Best of all they have cooked Chinese food – I admit that most of these are too ‘Chinese’ for my European palate (chicken feet etc.) but they sell crispy duck plus pork and vegetable dumplings.  Add these to Peking pancakes from the freezer and cucumber/spring onions from the fridge and I have a delicious Chinese takeaway!

Mustn’t forget Supermercado Chen, on Rua Palma – probably the most famous of Lisbon’s Chinese food shops – full of more delicacies.  What you can’t find at Hua Ta Li will be here.

It’s a grey, damp and windy day here – feeling right at home to make the annual batch of pancakes.  My recipe is for French crepes, light and buttery, not heavy English style pancakes – accompanied by lemon, sugar and, maybe, strawberry jam….  Lemons come straight from our trees, unwaxed, organic and extremely juicy.

This recipe is inspired by @AnneWillan, French Cookery School and makes approximately 18 pancakes :

125 gr flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
250 ml milk (make sure to get the fresh milk in Portugal, not long life)
3 eggs
2 tablespoon melted butter
100 gr clarified butter for frying

Sift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the centre and add the salt and half 
the milk.  Whisk in the flour to make a smooth batter.  Whisk in the eggs (do not beat the batter too much at this stage or the crepe will become tough).  Stir in 
the melted butter (but if resting the batter for any length of time, it is better to add this just before cooking) with half the remaining milk and let it stand for 1 - 2 hours.

Just before using, add enough milk to make a batter the consistency of thin cream (note for those in Portugal, the flour is not the same strength as in the UK and I always find much less milk is needed – be careful). Add the melted butter if not already done. Then, just a little butter brushed in a crepe pan, add 2 -3 tablespoons of batter and cook over fairly high heat until browned and turn the pancake. The crepes are so buttery that you do not need to grease the pan before each one, just when they start to stick.

The best crepe pan I had was from E. Dehillerin in Paris, brilliant. cast iron, but it has disappeared and I have had to revert to a non-stick version which is nowhere near as good.  Just seen they have an online shop E. Dehillerin – maybe they can deliver to Portugal?