Date I made this recipe:
August 21, 2016 – closing day of the Rio Olympics
The Food of Portugal
Published by: William
Morrow and Company, Inc.
© 1986
Purchased at Bonnie
Slotnick Cookbooks, NYC
Recipe: Pork with Clams Alentejo-Style (Porco a
Alentejana)
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I sense a lot of
nose-wrinkling going on out there after reading what's in this recipe. Pork and...what? Clams?
Yes, clams. And I
hear you: when Andy and I were in Portugal and
first saw this dish on the menu, we had the same reaction. But we forged ahead into the unknown and this
dish remains one of the best things we've ever eaten. And that's saying a lot as we've traveled
through 10 European countries and most of the United States .
So let me fast forward to the end result here and tell you
that the dish I made at home was everything we remembered and more. It is just so delicious, it's scary. And since Portuguese sailors
"founded" Brazil
and Brazilians speak Portuguese instead of Spanish, I thought it fitting to end
my Olympic cooking trials with a Portuguese dish. And this is because...
... in 1993, Andy and
I went to Spain and Portugal
for vacation. We drove into Portugal after a couple of sleepless nights in Spain (when Spaniards tell you that they party
into the night, believe them) and just fell in love with the country,
especially Lisbon ,
mostly because we caught up on sleep.
(Our itinerary was a few days in Spain, starting at Madrid, then into
Portugal, then back into Spain (no sleep) and then after a refreshing and
rejuvenating trip to Gibraltar and the Rock of, back through the south of Spain
to Madrid.)
While in Portugal ,
we sampled delicious tapas (far cheaper than Spain ) and then the pork and clams
and fell so in love with this dish that we ordered it any time we could. The Portuguese dish came with lots of clams
but I erred on the side of fewer clams for my dish since clams do not reheat
well. I should not have worried as we
ate the entire dish in one sitting; it helped that I made half the recipe.
I first saw this cookbook at my public library, checked it
out so I could see if it contained my pork and clams recipe – it did - and then put it on my list of books to
buy. When I found it at one of my
favorite bookstores, Bonnie Slotnick
Cookbooks in NYC, I felt like I struck gold.
Now I knew going in that I was going to make the pork and
clams and only the pork and clams from this cookbook but you are welcome to try
other recipes in this book if you want (many include pork or other seafood). This recipe though, is the real deal and although I don't think it's the national dish
of Portugal ,
it comes close.
You should know though, that in order for this dish to work,
you must marinate it overnight in a "Massa de Pimentão" (red pepper
sauce) or you can substitute paste of
garlic, salt, paprika and olive oil.
Since I made half the recipe, the latter substitute paste made sense
(but even then, halve those ingredients).
I suspect though, that the dishes we had in Portugal were made with the
"Massa de Pimentão," which requires you to seed and then cut into
strips 8 sweet red peppers, let them sit at room temperature for 12 hours and
then roast for 2 – 2 ½ hours. Whichever
one you choose, the flavors are sensational and the pork is so tender it's ridiculous.
The biggest "hazard" with this dish was adjusting
the cooking times. The recipe said you
need 20 minutes to steam the onions and garlic but given that I made half the
recipe, I should have checked back in 10 as I nearly incinerated my mixture (I
saved it just in time). I cooked the pork
as directed for 1 ½ hours but think I could have cut that in half, and the
clams did not need the 30 minutes as directed although no harm befell the clams
for having steamed that long. My advice
for making half the recipe is to check as you go.
So thus endeth the Olympic games and our voyeuristic viewing
of all Olympic events, big and small (or at least the ones NBC showed us) and as always, that made us sad. I thought Rio's Olympic torch design was the
coolest thing ever (I want a mini one for my house) and that Rio
did a great job as host. I also loved
the daily shots of Copacabana
Beach Portugal
is an acceptable silver-medal "winner."
The only challenge, but we have plenty of time to prepare
for a Brazilian visit, is that we'd have to work on the language. Speaking Portuguese
is not for the faint of heart. It's a
combination of Spanish and French that sounds Russian—or at least it did to our
ear. If we spoke Spanish or French or
interchanged words while in Portugal ,
we were usually understood, but trying to understand what they said back to us
was another story. Oh well! ("Ah Bem!"). We shall try our best to be somewhat
conversant whether in Portugal
or Brazil . Of course, the next summer games are in Tokyo so perhaps it's
time to practice our Japanese? Yes? ("Hai")
And now, one of the best things I've ever eaten:
Pork with Clams
Alentejo-Style – makes 6 servings – Ann's Note:
requires 24-48 hours of prep time
2 ½ pounds boneless pork loin, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons Massa de Pimentão (page 90 – also below) or,
if you prefer, a paste made of 1 peeled and crushed garlic clove, 1 teaspoon
kosher salt, 1 tablespoon paprika (preferably the Hungarian sweet rose
paprika), and 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup dry white wine (Ann's
Note: a half recipe required only ½
cup but that is too little and your mixture will dry out and burn. I just kept adding until I felt I had enough
liquid to steam the clams. Couldn't
hurt, might help!)
2 large bay leaves, crumbled
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lard (hog lard, not vegetable shortening)
1 large yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 large garlic clove, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons littleneck clams in the shell, scrubbed well
and purged of grit. (To do this, cover the clams with cold water, add 1
tablespoon cornmeal, let stand at room temperature 20 to 30 minutes, then drain
well.)
¼ teaspoon salt (about)
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper (about)
If using the massa
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon olive oil
If using the Massa de Pimentão: (recipe to follow)
8 medium sweet red peppers
2 tablespoons kosher or coarse salt
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/3 cup olive oil
Ann's Note: This recipe
requires you to marinate the pork overnight in either the garlic/salt/paprika
and oil mixture OR the Massa De Pimentão.
The Massa
is not hard to make but it does require 12 hours of prep time at minimum and
then 2 hours of cooking time. And this
is why I used the shortcut! But if you
want an authentic marinade and have the time, then follow the Massa de Pimentão
recipe below (yields 1 ¼ cups).
Wash, core, seed, and cut lengthwise into strips about
1-inch wide your 8 medium peppers.
Arrange a layer of pepper strips in the bottom of a shallow bowl no more
than 9 inches in diameter; sprinkle with ¾ teaspoon of the salt; now add 7 more
layers of pepper strips, sprinkling each with ¾ teaspoon salt. Let stand uncovered at room temperature for
at least 12 hours. Drain off excess
liquid.
Turn on the oven to Warm (250-275). Place the bowl of peppers, still uncovered,
in the oven and roast 2 to 2 ½ hours, stirring occasionally, until all the
juices have been absorbed. Remove the peppers
from the oven and cool to room temperature.
Now peel the skin from each pepper strip and discard.
Place the garlic and pepper strips in the work bowl of a
food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade or in an electric blender
cup and add about half the oil; buzz nonstop about 30 seconds, scrape down the
work bowl sides, and buzz 30 seconds longer.
Now with the motor running, drizzle enough of the remaining oil to make
a paste slightly softer than whipped butter.
Churn 60 seconds nonstop until absolutely smooth. [Author's] Note: If you have neither food processor nor
blender, you'll have to grind the garlic and peppers to paste as the Portuguese
women do – with a mortar and pestle. You
must then add the olive oil very slowly, drop by drop at first, beating hard to
incorporate.
Transfer the red pepper paste to a small jar with a
tight-fitting lid and store in the refrigerator. Dip into the paste as needed, letting
whatever you remove from the jar come to room temperature before using.
To make the pork and clams:
Rub the pieces of pork well all over with the Massa de
Pimentão and place in a large, shallow nonmetallic bowl; add the wine and bay
leaves, cover, and marinate about 24 hours, turning the pork occasionally in
the wine.
Next day, heat the olive oil and lard in a large heavy
kettle over high heat until ripples appear on the kettle bottom—the fat should almost smoke. Life the pork from the marinade (save the
marinade to add to the kettle later) and brown in the three batches,
transferring pieces to a large heat-proof bowl as they brown. When all the pork is brown, dump the onion
and garlic into the kettle, lower the heat to moderate, and stir-fry 3 to 4
minutes until limp and golden. Turn the
heat to low, cover the kettle, and steam the onion and garlic 20 minutes. Ann's
Note: I almost incinerated my mixture
so 20 minutes was too long for me. I
advise checking it after 10 minutes to see you fare, especially if you halve
the recipe like I did.
Blend in the tomato paste and reserved wine marinade, return
the pork to the kettle, adjust the heat so that the wine mixture barely
bubbles, then cover and cook 1 ½ hours until the pork is fork-tender. Ann's
Note: you should plan to add more
wine as you go as what is leftover from the marinade is not enough. Also, check after 45 minutes to see how the
meat is doing. If it's done, continue
with the next steps.
Now bring the kettle liquid to a gentle boil, lay the clams
on top of the pork, distributing them as evenly as possible, re-cover, and cook
about 30 minutes – just until the clams open, spilling their juices. Ann's
Note: check back after 15.
Ann's Note: the author advises serving this with crusty
bread, but in Portugal ,
this was always served with delicious steak fries.
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