Characteristic products
In Portugal, we eat a lot of fish and seafood and the Alentejo is no exception. We find mackerel, grouper, conger eel, swordfish, sea bream, snapper, hake, monkfish and of course sardines. On the seafood side, you can enjoy clams, mussels, oysters, razor clams, squid, octopus and various crustaceans such as spider crabs or shrimps. The strange barnacles(percebes) have a kind of fleshy foot topped by a conical shell. Limited to a small coastal fringe in Brittany and Morocco, this mollusk - highly prized - is unfortunately threatened.
But the king fish in Portugal is of course the cod or bacalhau. Salted and dried cod, fished since the Middle Ages in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, it served as a staple food for sailors during their distant sea voyages. From this emblematic fish, Portugal would have invented more than a thousand recipes. It is also the main dish of the Christmas meal.
The Alentejo, with its vast pastures, is famous for its meats: pork, lamb, kid, rabbit and game. Cured meats - made from black pigs feasting on acorns - are very present with chouriço and presunto (cured ham). The chouriço assado (grilled) is delicious.
The cheeses(queijos) of the Alentejo come from the three regions of production: Nisa, Serpa and Évora. They are cheeses made from sheep's or goat's milk and can be dry, semi-dry or creamy. The Serpa cheese is quite unique because instead of using rennet to curdle the milk, thistle flower juice is used, which has the same effect. The cheeses are more or less matured and can be very full-bodied.
Rice is widely consumed in Portugal and in the Alentejo region; it is produced mainly around the estuary of the River Sado, near Alcácer do Sal. It is produced mainly around the estuary of the River Sado, around Alcácer do Sal, and includes the varieties carolino (round grains) and agulha (long grains). As in France, bread is part of everyday life here. Examples include pão alentejano, a rustic loaf of bread made from wheat flour, and broa, a corn bread.
The essentials of Portuguese cuisine
If everyone knows the Spanish tapas, in Portugal these small bites are called "petiscos". You will find many seafood products such as pataniscas de bacalhau (cod croquettes with herbs), salada de polvo (marinated octopus salad) as well as berbigão (cockles) or amêijoas (clams) simply cooked with a little garlic and olive oil. Toasted bread is served with a pasta de sardinhas or sardine mousse.
On the land side, moelas à portuguesa are poultry gizzards in a thick tomato sauce that is eaten with bread. Caracóis à portuguesa are snails with garlic and chili. Figado de porco grelhado are simply small cubes of grilled pork liver. Peixinhos da horta, which could be translated as "little fish from the garden", do not contain a gram of fish and are actually green bean fritters. Bolinhos de chouriço are small cakes with chorizo, very popular.
A meal in Portugal often begins with a soup. The very rustic sopa da pedra (coconut beans, chorizo, bacon and pig's ears) is a classic, but one should not forget the sopa de camarão (shrimp soup), sopa de grão (chickpea soup), sopa de purê de feijão (red bean soup) also very popular.
The main cod dishes are bacalhau com natas (the famous cod brandade au gratin), bacalhau à brás (crumbled cod with mashed potatoes, onions, parsley, scrambled eggs and black olives) or bacalhau à Gomes de Sá (a cod and potato salad with hard-boiled eggs) Other dishes include arroz de tamboril (rice with monkfish and tomato), peixe à escabeche (slices of fish in escabeche) or caldeirada (stewed fish with shellfish). As for seafood, try the choco frito (fried cuttlefish), lulas com camarão (squid and shrimp in tomato sauce), favas com chocos (cuttlefish with beans) or lingueirão à bulhão pato (razor clams with garlic and coriander).
Meat, however, is still very popular with dishes such as lebre à portuguesa (Portuguese hare stew),ensopado do cabrito (kid stew), frango assado (grilled chicken with paprika) or arroz de pato (a kind of duck paella with chouriço). Common in bistros, the bitoque is a complete plate of steak, fried egg, French fries and salad. The leitão (baked suckling pig) is prepared for special occasions. Finally, the feijoada is a kind of cassoulet of black or white beans with pork and smoked sausage.
Specialties of the Alentejo
While these dishes are common throughout the country, there are of course many specialties unique to Alentejo. A complete dish par excellence, cozido de grão in Alentejana is the local version of the Portuguese dish - also found in Spain under the name "cocido" - made with chickpeas, carrots, potatoes, bacon, sausages(chouriça, morcela, farinheira) and a good dose of fresh mint. This winter recipe is served hot with bread.
Another classic, carne de porco in Alentejana, is made of pork with potatoes and clams, seasoned with paprika and coriander. This dish is said to have been created in the Middle Ages to judge the sincerity of Portuguese Jews who converted to Catholicism, as pork and seafood were forbidden in Judaism. Bacalhau com broa in Alentejana is a recipe for baked cod with a corn bread and chouriço crust served with potatoes.
Ensopado de borrego is a lamb stew slowly simmered with a dash of cider vinegar, coriander, bay leaf, parsley, cloves, garlic and onion. It is always served - especially in winter - with bread. Another dish in sauce, coelho à caçador or "rabbit hunter" is a rabbit stew with white wine, red wine, tomato, onion and garlic. A rural dish par excellence, migas in Alentejana is a kind of salty pudding made with bread flavored with garlic and olive oil and served with pork and bacon.
Soups are obviously legion. The most famous is theaçorda, a peasant soup made of breadcrumbs in a broth flavored with garlic, coriander and olive oil. It is served with a poached egg. There are as many variations of this recipe as there are families in Portugal. The sopa de cação is a soup of dogfish (small shark) with sweet pepper, coriander, garlic and bay leaf. The sopa de tomate alentejana is a broth with tomato and potato served on bread with poached eggs. Sometimes it also contains bacon(toucinho).
Doces e café
As in Spain, many Portuguese pastries were created in convents by nuns under the name of doces conventuais, with egg yolks as the main ingredient. In fact, since the Middle Ages, egg whites were used in the production of white wine to purify the wine and filter out any suspended particles. The winemakers were left with a huge surplus of egg yolks which they donated to the nuns.
In Évora, you can taste the pão de rala (pie with fios de ovos or angel hair, made with egg yolks), the toucinho-do-céu (egg flan) or the queijadas (tarts with fresh cheese and cinnamon). The specialty of Alcácer do Sal is the pinhoada (nougat with honey and pine nuts). In Beja, you will find trouxas de ovos (sweet rolls with egg yolks). In Elvas, discover the sericaia, a pie-shaped flan generously sprinkled with cinnamon. The tecolameco is a thick, moist almond cake that is found throughout the region.
It is impossible to mention Portuguese pastries without mentioning the famous pastéis de nata. These small pastry flans are made of a crispy puff pastry shell filled with an egg cream, flavored with vanilla, lemon or cinnamon. Other desserts include bolo de arroz (a light rice flour cake), pudim (an egg custard with caramel) and torta de laranja (an orange roll cake).
While tea is popular in the country, the Portuguese are most fond of coffee, which they sometimes call bica, especially for espresso. Brazil has long supplied coffee to Portugal, of which it is a former colony, and is now the world's largest producer. Coffee shops still play an important social role in everyday life.
Alentejo: land of wine and cork
The Alentejo is a region rich in wines that have received several international awards and that have nothing to envy to port or Madeira. The vineyards enjoy a high level of sunshine, which is why these wines have a high alcohol content and intense aromas. There are more than 250 producers in the region, with 22,000 hectares of vineyards. There are red and white wines, but it is above all the red wines that make the reputation of the local grape varieties with many DOCs, the Portuguese equivalent of the AOC. For the record, Portugal produces nearly half of the cork distributed in the world, and a very large part of it comes from Alentejo. This industry - which employs nearly 60,000 workers in the country - is still largely manual, no machine has yet been more efficient than a simple axe to remove the cork.
Alentejano regional wine is produced throughout the region, while Alentejo DOC wine comes only from 8 areas, such as Portalegre, Borba, Redondo and Evora. The so-called "Reserva" wine, known for its high quality, can come from both regional and DOC wines. The Vinhos Do Alentejo association offers different road-trips for wine lovers. In November, you can attend the Festival of the Vine and Wine in Borba, while in December the towns of Cabeção and Vila de Frades organize the tasting of new wine.
As for beer, you can order an "imperial". This term refers to a half of draught beer, whose name comes from the Germânia brewery known for its logo, a German imperial eagle. With the First World War, the brewery takes the name of Portugália, not to be associated with Germany, enemy of the Allies, but the term "imperial" remained. Super Bock (1927) and Sagres (1940) are the two most popular Portuguese beers. The first one comes from Porto and the second from Lisbon. If there is only one liquor in the region, it would be licor poejo, made since the Middle Ages from spearmint.
