Portuguese cuisine was first recorded in the seventeenth century, with regional recipes establishing themselves in the nineteenth century. Culinária Portuguesa, by António-Maria De Oliveira Bello, better known as Olleboma; was the first ‘Portuguese-only’ recipe book published in 1936.
These spices include piri piri (small, fiery chili peppers), white pepper, black pepper, paprika, clove, allspice, cumin and nutmeg are used in meat, fish or multiple savoury dishes from Continental Portugal, the Azores and Madeira islands. Cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, aniseed, clove and allspice are used in many traditional desserts and sometimes in savoury dishes.
Garlic and onions are widely used, as are herbs, such as bay leaf, parsley, oregano, thyme, mint, marjoram, rosemary and coriander being the most prevalent. Olive oil is one of the bases of Portuguese cuisine, which is used both for cooking and flavouring raw meals.
Portuguese dishes include meats (pork, beef, poultry mainly also game (hunting) and others), seafood (fish, crustaceans such as lobster, crab, shrimps, prawns, octopus, and molluscs such as scallops, clams and barnacles), vegetables and legumes (a variety of soups) and desserts (cakes being the most numerous). Portuguese often consume bread with their meals and there are numerous varieties of traditional fresh breads like broa.
MEAL
Breakfast
A Portuguese breakfast often consists of fresh bread, with butter, ham, cheese or jam, accompanied by coffee, milk, tea or hot chocolate. A small espresso coffee (sometimes called a bica after the spout of the coffee machine, or Cimbalino after the Italian coffee machine La Cimbali) is a very popular beverage had during breakfast or after lunch, which is enjoyed at home or at the many cafés in towns and cities throughout Portugal. Sweet pastries are also very popular, as well as breakfast cereal, mixed with milk or yogurt and fruit.
Lunch,
often lasting over an hour, is served between noon and 2 o’clock, typically around 1 o’clock and dinner is generally served around 8 o’clock. There are three main courses, with lunch and dinner usually including a soup. A common Portuguese soup is caldo verde, which consists of a base of cooked, then pureed, potato, onion and garlic, to which shredded collard greens are then added. Slices of chouriço (a smoked or spicy Portuguese sausage) are often added as well, but may be omitted, thereby making the soup fully vegan.
Among fish recipes, salted cod (bacalhau) dishes are pervasive. The most typical desserts are arroz doce (rice pudding decorated with cinnamon) and caramel custard, known as pudim de ovos or flã de caramelo. There is also a wide variety of cheeses made from the milk of sheep, goats or cows. These cheeses can also contain a mixture of different kinds of milk. The most famous are queijo da serra from the region of Serra da Estrela, Queijo São Jorge from the island of São Jorge, and Requeijão.[10] A popular pastry is the pastel de nata, a small custard tart often sprinkled with cinnamon.
Fish and seafood
Fish is served grilled, boiled (including poached and simmered), fried or deep-fried, stewed (often in clay pot cooking), roasted, or even steamed. Foremost amongst these is bacalhau (cod), which is the type of fish most consumed in Portugal.
Other popular seafoods includes fresh sardines (especially as sardinhas assadas),[13] sea bass, snapper, swordfish, mackerel, sole, brill, halibut, John Dory, octopus, squid, cuttlefish, crabs, shrimp and prawns, lobster, spiny lobster, and many other crustaceans, such as barnacles, hake, horse mackerel (scad), scabbard (especially in Madeira), and a great variety of other fish and shellfish, as well as molluscs, such as clams, mussels, oysters, scallops and periwinkles.
Ray fish is dried in the sun in Northern Portugal. Canned tuna is widely available in Continental Portugal.
Vegetables:
Vegetables that are popular in Portuguese cookery include numerous cabbage and collard varieties, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers. There are many starchy dishes, such as feijoada, a rich black bean stew with beef and pork, and açorda, a Portuguese bread soup; ’’cozido’’ stews with kale, white beans, red beans, Catarino and Bragançano, fava beans, black eyed beans; pumpkins like menina and porqueira
Fuits:
seasonal fruits, nuts and berries such as pears, apples, table grapes, plums, peaches, cherries, sour cherries melons, watermelons, citrus, figs, pomegranates, apricots, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, hazelnuts, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, redcurrant and blueberries are part of the Portuguese diet. These are consumed naturally or used as desserts, marmalades, compotes, jellies and liqueurs.
POPULAR DISHES
- Leitão à Bairrada: roasted suckling pig is a piglet fed on its mother’s milk. In culinary contexts, a suckling pig is slaughtered between the ages of two and six weeks. It is traditionally cooked whole, often roasted, in various cuisines. It is usually prepared for special occasions and gatherings.
- Chanfana: goat slowly cooked in red wine, paprika and white pepper
- Carne de porco à alentejana: is one of the most traditional and popular pork dishes of Portuguese cuisine. It is a combination of pork and clams, with potatoes and coriander. Usually, about 800 g of pork are marinated for some time in white wine, paprika, red pepper paste, chopped garlic, coriander, bay leaf, and salt and white pepper. Cumin is often added in northern Portugal as well. It is then fried until golden brown, when clams are added and cooked. Traditionally, this dish is served with cubed potato fries or baked potatoes.
- Alcatra: beef marinatedin red wine, garlic and spices like cloves and whole allspice, then roasted in a clay pot
- Bife: is a slice of fried beef or pork marinated in spices and served in a wine-based sauce with fried potatoes, rice, or salad.
- Espetada:(meat on a skewer) is very popular in the island of Madeira.
- Alheira: a yellowish sausage from Trás-os-Montes, traditionally served with fried potatoes and a fried egg.
- Farinheira:is another Portuguese smoked sausage, which uses wheat flour as base ingredient.
- Arroz de Pato: Duck rice
- Queijo São Jorge: is a type of cheese made from cow’s milk with a spicy taste.
- Pão de ló: sponge cake
- Barriga de freir: a pastry means(nun’s belly).
- Toucinho do céu: a Pastry means bacon from heaven.
- Caldeirada:is a stew consisting of a variety of fish and shellfish with potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, parsley, garlic and onions.