Its better with the pig

Many recipes are improved by the addition of a pork product. That rash statement out of the way, the inimitable chouriço sausage can bring something extra to a salad.I decided recently to play with the composition of a classic bacon and spinach salad and give it an Iberian update, bringing to it some lovely warm southern Spanish flavours.It was all a bit 70´s when there was a fashion for raw spinach leaves in such establishments as Joe Allen´s. So out went the bacon, mushrooms and hard-boiled eggs and in came chouriço sausage, pequillo peppers avocado and orange. What have we got, chic modern Spanish salad......

Spinach and avocado salad
with a warm chouriço, pequillo and orange dressing

1 large ripe avocado cut into chunks
500g washed baby spinach leaves or pousse
250g  Chouriço corrente (semi cured cooking chouriço) skin discarded and then diced
4 tablespoons of good quality sherry vinegar
1 tin or jar of Pequillo peppers 185g ( approximately 6 peppers)cut into strips
zest and juice of 1 Navel Orange
handful of chopped pistachios for garnish

Remove the skin from the chouriço and dice the meat, fry in a small frying pan with a glug of olive oil until the fat runs out and the chouriço is nicely coloured and cooked.Set the pan aside and cool for a minute.Introduce the sherry vinegar and juice from the orange.Stir to mix well then add the strips of pequillo pepper.Season well.
In a salad bowl mix the spinach leaves with the orange zest.Chop the avocado into chunks and when ready to serve arrange the spinach, orange zest and avocado chunks on plates and pour over the warm chouriço orange and pepper dressing.


A simple Chouriço dressing

• olive oil
• 100g chouriço sausage, chopped into small pieces
• a sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely grated
• extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• juice of 1 lemon
Heat a frying pan with a couple of glugs of olive oil. Fry the chouriço until the fat renders out, add the rosemary and garlic, toss and take off the heat after 30 seconds. Add the balsamic vinegar and half the lemon juice to the pan, mix and put to one side.

Memories of a childhood summer

My father as a child in 1906. So thats where i got my culinary influence?

Another July, another year older.I feel nostalgic for my culinary childhood.
From an early age, although my mother never ruled sugar out of our diets, when we asked for sweets or chocolate, she would dangle a raw carrot in front of us instead. My adolescence of culinary adventure blossomed even further with two and a half acres of garden, orchard and vegetable beds to explore. For the most part the vegetable garden was my fathers domain.It consisted mostly of summer cropping. Rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, lettuce, plums, carrots, runner beans and potatoes all were his pride and joy. Jerusalem artichokes he grew in quantity and sold to the local green grocer. I remember having my very first vine ripened tomato, from his modest little greenhouse.He pressed it to my nose, leaving an indelible impression on me of what real freshness was about.This was a time when seasons still dictated what we ate.A tomato still warm from the sun gave one a fragrant indication that it was the height of summer, and the citrusy aroma of tangerine, satsuma and clementine peel told us it was Christmas.

A great game was to climb the greengage tree or one of the plum trees in the orchard and pass down to my father below some fruit, ripe  varieties of Little River or  Victoria plums. Playing hide and seek amid the tall stems of the jerusalem artichoke plot, looking forward to the piping hot gratin of the same that my mother would serve up before bedtime. Hot sunny July afternoons scrabbling under the strawberry and raspberry nets  eating the luscious fresh fruit as I gathered punnets for our supper. My favourite stop on the way back down the garden path was the gooseberry bush.And back indoors I would find my mother making her home-made cream to pour over the plentiful strawberries.Alas time for bed."Don´t pull that face or the wind will change and you will be stuck with it for the rest of your life", my mother would say. It must be something about growing up and the strong winds in East Lothian, Scotland. So that explains what happened to Subo!!! Sigh, why did I ever want to grow up?

Duas empregadas pequenas da escola

Mop and bucket

Two little maids from school are we.Irony finds us so appropriately the proprietors of a boarding house that was once the old girls school "freed from its tutelary" in Castro Marim."Two little maids in attendance come" as we climb the stairs with our mops and buckets, dusters and brooms or carry freshly ironed and pressed linen from the linen cupboard to the bedrooms. I feel not as much a maid as an "old girl."

I am the mistress of the floors upstairs and the Mrs Bridges of the kitchen downstairs. He is my Mr Hudson that charms the pants off the guests in the parlour and sees that all is up to colour and up to style in the guests rooms,gives them a warm hand on their entrance and bids them a fond farewell, a hope to see you again and a pleasant onward journey when they have paid their dues, and passed comment in the visitors book.

"OHHH Ruby you Stooooopid girl" You are so slow-witted".

"The lady in Room 1 would like to go off piste and have a soft boiled egg with her breakfast this morning"."Very good Mr Hudson.

...and Lady Bellamy  has informed me that she and her husband would like to partake of afternoon tea in the garden this afternoon"."Thank you Mrs Bridges"

...and the two hirsute gentlemen in room two would like you to call O Senor Valentim for a carriage to take them to Vila Real."I will see to it right away Mrs Bridges".

Mr and Mrs van Groeben will be checking in to room 3 for two nights in October and will require early breakfasts on both mornings due to their golfing commitments.

Upstairs...

"ohh I don´t know about that Mr Hudson I´ll have a lot on my plate"

Such is the fictitious familiarity of a daily
scenario, but not far from the truth.Who would have thought 

it- eh?

THE TRUTH AS IT HAPPENS
Casa Rosada,by all accounts a great place to stay

....and downstairs

Perk up a peanut

Last year I perked up a pequillo, for my next turn I am going to perk up a peanut.Pick up an aperitif and to accompany it- a perked up peanut. Bring on Casa Rosada´s new pan cooked petisco( Portuguese snack).

Rosemary and sugar coated peanuts

2 cups roasted salted peanuts

1/8 cup golden sugar

3 tablespoons fresh rosemary

Finely chop rosemary and add with sugar to saucepan. Add enough water to make a wet sand texture. Simmer on low heat until mixture is just starting to turn beige. Turn off heat. Add peanuts to saucepan and stir rapidly until syrup coats peanuts evenly. Cool peanuts before serving to allow the syrup to harden.Pour your guests an early evening tipple and serve with a bowl of Rosemary and sugar coated peanuts.

Dressed to impress

In Italian a puttanesca is a `lady of the night´ and in Portugal a puta is a whore. Spaghetti Putanesca is literally tart´s spaghetti. In keeping with the general gist of this I have prostituted the recipe, and the bastard child I have produced is son of puta, a risotto-esque cake, a teasingly provocative appetizer or starter that presents itself as a perfect Portuguese petisco. This tarty little pasta item dressed up and made to look attractive, provides a sexy starter and will bring repute to any house, giving your summer dinner a bootylicious kick start.

Bolinha Puta Portuguesa

Serves 4

200g Pontinha,  risone or other rice shaped pasta

Extra virgine olive oil

200g fresh chopped tomato

20g chopped capers

40g chopped black olives

20g fresh oregano

1 tablespoon concentrated tomato paste

1 piri piri pepper or malagueta

Flor de sal aromatica

Cook the rice shaped pasta, following the method for a risotto. Warm the olive oil in a pan add the rice pasta and stir to coat in the olive oil.gradually add a boiling organic vegetable bouillon, preferably Marigold until the pasta is cooked. remove from the heat and, while still hot stir in the chopped fresh tomato, capers, olives, fresh oregano, tomato paste and chilli. Season with the flor de sal, Spread the resulting mix into a pre-oiled shallow tray lined with cling film and leave to set. Keep in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight until set firm. Turn the tray over and carefully peel away the cling film.Cut into small circular pieces with a pastry cutter.

Amazing grains

An idea inspired by Rachel Kelly alias Marmaduke Scarlet

My challenge is to emulate a supermarket ready meal at home. I have always had a desire to do this. In those dark unhealthy days when I used to work in an office in the big smoke and inevitably lunch at one´s desk came from M and S or Cullens. Who remembers good old Cullens?-Swallowed up by greedy Tesco's £54m purchase of Europa Foods, Harts and the former Cullens convenience store chain, all much needed quality corner shop institutions,that left the British high street awash with Tesco Metros and Sainsbury Locals.Anyway, so.
The core ingredient here is mograbiah or moghrabbiyeh. This is also known as Lebanese, pearl or Israeli couscous.Rachel´s word to describe it, was fat couscous; and it shall always be fat couscous to me.Step aside big fat gypsies and enter big fat cous cous
Here is my Lusitanian interpretation of the Sainsbury´s Taste the Difference giant Cous Cous and Feta salad pot that Rachel purchased and enjoyed.I used a bit of artistic licence I have to admit.

Mediterranean cous cous
The cooking method for Mograbiah is slightly different to normal cous cous and is boiled for 15 minutes as opposed to being steeped in hot water or stock. Please refer to Rachel´s post
for more specific cooking instructions and to see her own take on this.
Serves 4 
200g Mograbiah, Lebanese pearl or Israeli cous cous 
200g Cherry tomatoes
2 Medium avocados cut into small chunks
200g Feta cheese crumbled
Abundant torn basil leaves

TO MAKE THE DRESSING
5 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
Stir the dressing into the cous cous, mix in the tomatoes, feta and avocados.
Serve with rocket

Variation:
For meat lovers substitute the feta for shredded cooked chicken breast and toss in the dressing.Kepping the avocado and cherry tomatoes is up to you. The chicken herbs and mograbiah is delicious on its own- just up the quantities of basil and rocket.

Original sin

A naked woman reclines comfortably on a bough while an admiring male and a mischievous looking snake survey the scene from nearby. A classical painterly image of biblical temptation. Temptation being an apt metaphor, since the fig is an alluring fruit with a stunning shape and smooth, velvety flesh that when penetrated gives way to an interior filled with a texture and seeds that seem almost like ground nuts.

According to Genesis, after Adam and Eve had consumed the forbidden fruit ( an apple) , their eyes were opened and they realized their nakedness.  They covered themselves by sewing fig leaves together and making aprons. Thus,from an Old Testament point of view, figs have been in existence since the inception of the world. Secularly speaking, figs were possibly one of the first fruits cultivated by man.  There is archeological evidence over 11,000 years old from the Jordan Valley suggesting that agriculture began with the fig.

Figs are employed in multifilarious savoury and sweet dishes including jams, tarts, mousses, salads, purees and stuffings.In Europe, roasted figs are used to flavour coffee. The Arabs ferment them into a spirit.  And in many cultures they are still relied on for sundry medicinal purposes.

When you have a fruit as beautiful as this, and one that´s at its peak of perfection this time of year little is required to create a sensual and satisfying dish. The question is should it be simply taken in hand and devoured voraciously or exalted by cooking. Whichever you choose paradise is just around the corner.

Baked figs with Orange Licore and whipped cream

Serves 6

12 fresh figs
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon orange flavoured licore such as Grand Marnier*
1cup chilled thick cream

Pre-heat oven to 300F
Prick bottom of each fig several times and stand them in a buttered 24cm flameproof gratin dish.Sprinkle figs with 1/3 cup sugar, then add water to the dish.
Bake the figs in middle of the oven, basting twice with pan juices, until tender. About 30 minutes.Transfer dish to stove top, then add 1/4 cup orange licore and bring to aboil over a moderately high heat.remove from the heat and carefully ignite the pan juices. After the flames subside, the juices should be syrupy.if they are too thin, transfer the figs to a shallow serving bowl, then boil the juices until reduced and syrupy, 3-5 minutes, then por over the figs.
beat the cream with the remaining two tablespoons sugar and a tablespoon of using an electric mixer until you obtain soft peaks.
Serve figs in your very own Garden of Eden, warm or at room temperature, with syrup and cream, not resisting temptation.

*Grand Marnier is a liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is made from Cognac flavored with the peel of bitter Haitian oranges, spices, and vanilla.

The label said not....

                   ...But the fruit said yellow. 

Last year I bought a peach tree from what I thought to be a reputable garden centre in near neighbouring Andalucia. The variety of peach was supposed to be The Paraguayo variety. I duly planted and waited, but a year down the line what came to maturity was an Amarelo ( yellow fleshed) peach. How disappointing. The paraguyo does not usually grow in the Algarve so Portuguese garden centres do not normally carry stock of them. I was so excited to be a potential Portuguese grower of the paraguayo, but alas, at the end of the day  can you trust a label?

The yellow flesh peaches tend to have a more Acidic tang than the white flesh peaches.

For a fresh salad idea, combine sliced peaches with shredded barbequed chicken, baby Asian salad greens, sliced avocado and camembert cheese. Drizzle with a mixture of olive oil and lime juice.

For a fresh breakfast, peel peaches and remove stones. Puree the flesh until smooth then swirl through natural yoghurt. Serve over fruit salad or cereal.

Corks -a-poppin

Fight back against synthetics and screw caps! Corks are poppin, business is boomin! Good old-fashioned cork is making a comeback.Portugal’s cork industry is celebrating the return of the cork wine stopper.  A few years ago the world’s greatest experts had forecast its imminent demise with absolute certainty. It was a thing of the past, they said; a gift from Mother Nature destined to be overtaken by man-made materials*. I have always been in favour of the cork - it adds to the mysticism of opening and enjoying wine/champagne and It has been argued that there is a component of ageing wines that favours corks over other materials.Many wine producers turned away from the cork oak forests of the Iberian Peninsula in the 1990s, after studies showed that up to 7 per cent of bottles sealed in traditional fashion were “corked” — the term that describes wine affected by a contaminated cork. Did we know however, that when we visit a department store,just  how many varied products are cork related. Obviously on the wine shelves there will be cork stoppers, but in the food hall there will be olive oil, salt and spices all found in containers sealed with cork. Moving on to items for the house we find floor and wall tiles, and in the bathroom showroom sinks moulded from cork are available.Furniture manufactured in cork is becoming fashionable. If we are looking for a new pair of shoes cork is again a possibility. Among the accesories and gifts we now find cork wallets, purses, bags, belts and would you believe it umbrellas.

Welcome to the world of Amorim, this is Madeleine speaking, I'm over by the elevadores between the wine emporium and the war paint ( makeup (usually burnt cork) used by a performer in order to imitate a Negro). Fatima and myself are just about to give a demonstration of the new Autumn range of war paint and accessories.We have a special offer on special offer. A free gift coming to you free with any purchase worth £36 or more. A free gift comprising cork effect "pochette" packed to the drawstring with handy sized oddments. Total in-mouth blot, eye wipe and shimmering cleavage enhancer...If any lady wants a special LUUUUK perhaps for a night out with the latest in cork adornment or just for the sheer heck of it then please come up to the counter, yes thats between the wine emporium and the war paint  and immerse yourself in the wonderful world of.... Amorim. 

                                                

Harvesting cork

Amorim, the world’s largest producer of natural wine corks, registered record sales of 3.2 billion stoppers last year.Its business in Britain rose by 50 per cent, and António Amorim, the chief executive, predicted that even Australia, which led the move towards man made stoppers, would return to the bark of the cork oak.The comeback of the cork is an enormous relief for many environmentalists, who had feared that the rise of the screw cap would lead to the destruction of Portugal’s cork oak forests, which are home to endangered species such as the Iberian lynx, Barbary deer and the Imperial Iberian eagle. Mr. Aracil said: “The environmental issue has been very important in the revival. It is a key argument.”   

      

Cork is environmentally friendly.

Stoppers account for 70% of the cork industry´s turnover.

Portugal is the leading world producer and exporter of cork.

Cork´s range of uses goes from stoppers to aeronautical or pharmaceutical applications.

Stoppers are a major cork product.

All the single ladies wear a cork on it.....

 A Portuguese wedding dress made of cork

*Carbon footprint studies commissioned by Corticeira Amorim, Oeneo Bouchage of France and the Cork Supply Group of Portugal concluded that cork is the most environmentally friendly wine stopper in comparison to other alternatives. The Corticeira Amorim’s study, in particular ("Analysis of the life cycle of Cork, Aluminum and Plastic Wine Closures"), developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Results concluded that, concerning the emission of greenhouse gases, each plastic stopper released 10 times more CO2, whilst an aluminium stopper releases 26 times more CO2 than  a cork stopper.

Naughty but NICE

" What crimes have been committed in the name of this pure fresh salad...!"

Everybody knows Salad Nicoise. So they think they do?- a bit of lettuce, a couple of tomatoes, some French beans and potatoes, soft boiled eggs, a few olives, a tin of tuna et Robert est son oncle. Robert may be, but Jacques isn´t, Jacques Medecin that is, one time mayor of Nice, wrote La cuisine du compte de Nice, a compilation of recipes based on his grandmother´s coooking. He violently disagrees with having cooked vegetables in his "authentic" Salade Nicoise, so out go the beans and spuds. In their place however is a positive riot of raw ones.Escoffier´s recipe for salade Nicoise, written 50 years earlier is simply:"Tunny fish(Tuna) in oil, tomato, anchovy fillets cut into cubes, mixed with chervil and chives. A little mustard may be added.
Here are two versions with very different effects.

Salad Nicoise (authentic)

Very bold and very Portuguese in its ingredients
even though its French

Note the omission of tuna

6 large tomatoes peeled and quartered

6 hard boiled eggs quartered

1 cucumber peeled and sliced

2 green peppers sliced in very thin rings

500g broad beans peeled

100g silver anchovy fillets

100g black olives

50g radishes

olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic,

basil, salt and pepper

Rub a big salad bowl with a clove of garlic and arrange the ingredients in the order given .

Sprinkle with vinegar, salt and pepper and anoint in copious amounts with good olive oil.

Toss well at the table before serving.

Salad Nicoise (bogus)

"Oh you are awful but I like you".

2 round lettuces,oak leaf, baby gems or mixed leaves

(leaves separated and washed)

6 large tomatoes, peeled and quartered

6 hard boiled eggs, halved

400g baby new potatoes, scraped boiled and halved

400g french beans topped tailed and boiled al dente

(I substitute runner beans which are more readily available here in the Algarve)

250g good quality canned tuna such as Ortiz

100g black olives

Vinaigrette

In a bowl arrange the ingredients around and over the salad leaves in a high pile. Make a vinaigrette and pour over the salad. Toss the salad at the table before serving.