Soups are the essence of family meals. Seasonal, sustainable, using what’s around, celebrating what the land brings. Like in many cultures, soups in Portugal are a reliable source of nourishment, somtimes generic but often highly specific, always depended on region and season. You might wander into a restaurant and be greeted with the soup of the day, usually a soup base made of  blended seasonal vegetables with garlic, onion, seasonal fresh vegetables and finished with olive oil. This recipe is concerned with a rather special mix consisting a a flavourful blend of autumn pumpkin, onion, garlic  as the base. We add fresh spinach  towards the end for colour, taste and texture, all with a good dose of good olive oil. The soup base should have a creamy texture and beautiful orange colour. Pumpkins vary immensely in taste and consistency. A small green skin and orange firm flesh pumpkin is ideal.

Ingredients

8 cups of chopped pumpkin (peeled, seeded and chopped roughly)
8 cups of chopped spinach
1 onion (sliced)
4 cloves of garlic
4 tbsp of olive oil
Salt and (white and black) pepper
1.8L Water
Serves 6 to 8

1. Cook the onion in 2 tbsp of olive oil for a couple of minutes at medium heat stirring throughout, add the garlic and cook for another minute or two until you can smell fragrance coming through.
2. Add 1.8L of water, salt and pepper. Bring to boil and add the pumpkin. Cook for 30 minutes, siring occasionally, then blend.
3. Bring to boil and add the chopped spinach. Cook  for 2 – 4 minutes depending on the spinach. Keep it green and with a bit of texture.
4. Add 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil correct seasoning and stir for another couple of minutes.
5. Serve hot with a drizzle of good olive oil.

Like in many cuisines around the world, bread is an absolute staple food in Portugal. So widespread and yet so diverse in shape, size and quality. The Portuguese “pão” derives from the latin ‘pane’ meaning neutral. Açorda is a way of creating a rich flavourful broth based on the ever reliant “neutral” bread. The word Açorda itself comes from the Arab ath-thorda, a flavourful soup made of bread, olive oil, garlic and other ingredients. By the way, I considered translating Açorda into breadsoup but that doesn’t sound right and it is important to recognise the relationship between words and our experience of a thing (pastel de nata = custard tart ???…).

Back to Açorda. Needless to say, the better the bread the better the açorda. This is about the art of re-using and making the most out of good quality ingredients. This is an essential skill in all societies, being resourceful in making food last and avoiding food waste. A good sourdough might be on the go for a few days and will happily end up in an açorda.

Like many Portuguese traditional recipes, the regional variation is considerable. From the rich textures combining bread and broth of the north and centre of the country to the more subtle light broth and slice of bread found in Alentejo. This recipe is a a classic seafood version in which we aim for a rich mouthful texture to match the rich flavours of seafood. A good stock base is essential here. You can make a traditional seafood stock, my favourite shrimp shell stock or go for the simple concentrated mussel juice described below.

Ingredients

500gr good quality stale bread

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion (small dice)

10-12 raw peeled and deveined shrimp, lightly salted while you prepare everything else

500gr fresh mussels

2 peeled and de-seeded fresh ripe tomatoes (tinned tomatoes is really not a suitable replacement here)

3 cloves garlic (diced)

3 cloves garlic (crushed skin on)

1 red chilli (deseeded and deveined)

1 small bunch of freshly chopped coriander

4 tbsp olive oil

Salt

Serves 4

1. Cook the mussels. Make sure mussels are clean (vigorous wash through several passes of fresh cold water) and de-beard if needed. In a large pot, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil with 3 crushed garlic cloves (skin on) and roughly chopped red chilli, cook and stir for a couple of minutes until you can smell the aroma. Add the mussels, close the lid and cook on moderate heat until the shells open, shaking occasionally (3-5 minutes). Once shells are open, open the lid and turn off heat and let cool down.
2. Cut or rip the bread in small chunks. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes or until bread begins to soften. Break apart with your hands.
3. In a medium pot, gently fry the onion on 2 tbsp of olive oil. Once soft and translucent, add garlic, cook for another minute then add the tomatoes. Cook for another couple of minutes.
4. Strain the juice from the mussels with a sieve being careful not to add any small shell debris and add to the pot with the onions.
5. Drain the bread from the water using your hands (leaving some moisture) and add to the pot. Keep the water and add to the pot if you need more liquid. Cook a low heat stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.
6. Remove mussels from shell, keeping some in the shell for serving
7. Add shrimps to the pot cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once shrimps begin to turn red, add the mussel meat and the chopped coriander.
8. Mix and serve… Dash of Tabasco optional but recommended…

The anticipation for the mushroom season is felt as early as August. My grandfather used to rejoice August rain as that would mean lots of ‘míscaros’…

This recipe is a simple stew with potatoes, a welcome variation on the rice based mushroom dishes. The dish can range from vegan to meat based and you can add small cut pork ribs for a real meaty add on.

Tip: Include some dried mushrooms (porcini or shitake) and use some of the liquid in the stew.

For a vegetarian version, instead of the chouriço, add smoked paprika, a little chilli powder and ground cumin.

Ingredients:
6 medium size waxy potatoes, cut in to small cubes
300g mixed mushroom (shitake, chanterelle, porcini, chestnut…), chopped to bite size
1 onion (small diced)
2 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
1 bay leaf
1 cup chopped Portuguese chouriço
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Serves 4

1. In a medium pot, heat up the olive oil, add onion and cook until soft, add garlic and cook for another minute then add chouriço, let cook for a couple of minutes.
2. Add mushrooms, cover and cook for 5 minutes then add potatoes and a little mushroom soaking liquid. Season with salt and pepper and mix together.
3. Cook for 20 minutes, until potatoes are cooked and serve with some dried oregano.

8 medium sized cuttle fish (with ink)
1 onion
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of chopped coriander
1 lemon
3 cloves of garlic (peeled and thinly sliced)
course sea salt
serves four

1. Once the cuttle fish are clean open them in half, keeping the tentacles. Although you can grill them whole it is easier to do this flat on the griddle. Sprinkle with sea salt. Keep the ink to the side.
2. Grill on hot grid (charcoal preferably), make sure tentacles are well grilled and crispy.
3. While the cuttle fish is cooking make the dressing. Warm up the olive oil with the garlic to infuse then mix in the ink. Serve with the coriander and lemon. Great with boiled baby potatoes and some greens.
   
   

During the Christmas season there is nothing like going to your favourite pastelaria and arriving home with a beautifully fresh bolo rei in a box. The cake is a fruit cake flavoured with Port wine and other alcoholic drinks, topped with nuts, fruits and sugar.

In the days before obsessive health and safety laws, bolo rei had two hidden surprises inside… a gift (“brinde”) (small toy, metal figure or sometimes a gold coin) and a dried fava bean. Getting one or the other in your slice of bolo rei was seen as an omen of luck (if you got the brinde) or lack of it if you got the fava bean as you’d be expected to buy the next bolo rei!

Even without these surprises, bolo rei making is surrounded with mystique and secrecy as each maker developed their own recipe and keeps it like a precious secret. We were lucky to be let into some of these secrets when we visited Capuchinha in Viseu. This pastelaria, a stone’s throw from Rossio, the main plaza in Viseu, has become renowned for having the best bolo rei and its fame now extends well beyond Viseu!

We tasted the magic combination of flavourful drinks that goes into the dough and even tried to roll our own dough using the traditional elbow technique to shape the whole in the middle. We had modest results and decided to hand over to owner Dona Teresa and the 15 specialists who work in Capuchinha to produce over 100 kg of bolo rei (and bolo rainha, a version without fruit toppings) every single day!

1 bunch of runner beans split in half lengthways
2 tbsp of peanuts with soft skin (untreated nor flavoured)
2tbsp chopped parsley
1 cup of finely sliced shitake (or miscaros)
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp grated cured queijo da serra or parmesan
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper

1. Boil the runner beans in salted water and add bicarb soda after you put the beans in and the water comes back to the boil. Cook until tender but do not overcook (5 minutes should do it).
2. While the beans are cooking , toast the peanuts on a shallow frying pan
3. Rinse the beans in cold water in a colander to stop overcooking.
4. In a mortal and pestle grind the garlic with a little salt, peanuts, parsley and grated cheese.
5. Shallow fry the mushrooms in the olive oil on high heat, add salt and pepper when they start browning.
6. Add the butter to the mushrooms, add the runner beans and two thirds of the mortar and pestle mixture, warm through.
7. Serve with the rest of the mortar and pestle mix on top, shaved cheese. black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Serves 1

200gr green beans or runner beans
1 cup of light olive oil for frying

For the batter
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of tapioca flour
2 tbsp water
1 egg
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 tsp turmeric
Pinch of Salt and white pepper

1. Remove the bone from the bacalhau to make four boneless pieces. Place in ziplock bag with a little olive oil. Set the Anova to 55º and cook for 30 minutes.
2. Cook the leeks in low heat with the butter and a little salt. Soak the wakame in hot water for 10 minutes. To serve mix the leeks and the seaweed to make a bed for the cod.
3. Make the celeriac purée by blending together with almond milk and gently warming up just a few minutes before the cod is ready.
4. Make the parsley and garlic oil by blending all ingredients with a hand blender.
5. If making the foam use concentrated mussel juice, add soy lecithin (0.5% the weight of the liquid) and use a hand blender to foam. The foam (or air) is spooned out to the plate.
6. Plate by placing a layer of the celeriac purée, a bed of leek and wakame and the sous vide cod. Spoon a little parsley and garlic oil and foam if using and serve immediately.

1. Make sure your fish is cleaned and properly scaled (ask your fishmonger), salt it liberally with coarse sea salt (inside and out).
2. Line a baking tray big enough for the fish with slices of onion, red peppers, add the fish and all other ingredients rubbing all parts of the fish including cavity (where you can put your bunch of parsley)
3. Cook in a hot oven for about 45m (depending on the size of the fish), checking occasionally and adding more white wine or water if necessary. The onions should contribute some moisture and help make a flavourful sauce.
4. Serve immediately with some roast potatoes and greens. If you have a large enough tray you can roast some potatoes at the same time, just add a little water to the mix, allow them to cook for about 20 minutes before you add the fish.

1. Once everything is finely chopped, mix well together, taste for seasoning and put into ramekin or small tart dish
2. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes (and up to a couple of days). When ready to serve, place on a plate and drizzle with some olive oil.