An Introduction to Portuguese Cuisine
Rebecca Brayton: The food from this country is rich and full of flavor. Hi, I'm Rebecca Brayton and welcome watchmojo.com and today we’re learning more about Portuguese cuisine from Chef Luis Americo of Portugal’s Mesa.
If you could characterize Portuguese in one sentence, how would you describe it?
Luis Americo: It’s made of very simple products and that’s the evolution of a cuisine based on the imagination of the poor people.
Rebecca Brayton: What are some of the main ingredients of flavors that we often see?
Luis Americo: Our cuisine is mostly based on bay leaf oil, onions, garlic, laurel, it’s very common and peppers. And because old Portugal is facing the sea, we have a strong connection with fish.
Rebecca Brayton: What will we see you preparing today?
Luis Americo: We can try to plate one of—a cold tomato soup, that’s also something we do a lot during the summer. We got crab breads too. It’s one of the basics of Portuguese cuisine because after two or three days, the bread was hard so they have to find a way not to waste the bread but to cook the bread in a way that it would be a meal and I mix with the nice snow crab which gives a gourmet feeling of that simple thing.
Also I bring the squid that is tough with a special sausage that we have in Portugal that’s called—
This is the first dish we are serving on the menu. This is the bread stew. Cut slowly. So we make a fresh tomato soup, a little bit of chorizo. There will be tough, smoky pork loin. There will be tough egg whites. I stir it. Lemon juice, olive oil, a little bit of—right.
This is our crab breads with a nice tomato soup/. Now we’re going to grill the squid. And I will fry the legs. So you put some flower on the legs to make it crispy and nice. And then I will be eating a little bit of the carrot puree. We boiled the carrots then we put a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of garlic and oregano and then we blend it, very, very smooth. And then we go on like the final dish, stuffed squid, carrot puree, the last, olive oil. That’s it, our stuffed squid with carrot puree, very simple.
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