Olympic Food Part 3 - "The Food of Portugal" - Pork with Clams Alentejo-Style (practically a national dish!)

Date I made this recipe:  August 21, 2016 – closing day of the Rio Olympics

The Food of Portugal by Jean Anderson

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 ("Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl..." from Copacabana by Barry Manilow) and who knows,  Andy and I might go there some day.  If we don't, then 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 substitute: (Ann's Note:  if you make half the recipe, make half of this mixture)

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.

Olympic Food Part 2 - "'Round the World Cooking Library, Latin American Cooking" - Brazilian Chicken Soup

Date I made this recipe:  August 17, 2016 – the Olympics, continued

'Round the World Cooking Library – Latin American Cooking – Recipe contributions by Susan Bensusan

Published by 'Round the World Books Inc.

© 1973

Purchased at Barnes and Noble Used Books – Roseville, MN

Recipe: Chicken Soup (Canja) – p. 21

So the Olympics continue (we are now up to track and field) and the race (pun intended) was on to find a Brazilian cookbook.  I could have sworn I had one but it turns out that all I have are a few Latin American cookbooks that include Brazil.  Well, some is better than none, right?

Recently, a cousin asked me what places I have traveled to (I have traveled a lot) and South America/Latin America and Brazil still remain on the "to do" list.  But I have been to Portugal, and Portuguese sailors were the ones who settled in Brazil so that counts, right?  (I'll discuss Portugal in my next post.) 

Since I am a singer and a musician, I had several "Brazilian" song ear-worms running through my brain during this time.  First was the song I mentioned in my previous blog, "I Go To Rio," but this next one is probably the granddaddy of them all – "Brazil" -composed in 1939 by Brazilian Ary Barroso, and made famous by several people including Frank Sinatra, Xavier Cugat and Antonio Carlos Jobim, whose other hit, "Girl from Ipanema," remains extremely popular world-wide.  I don't think anybody would care if I did a little samba (dancing) while in my kitchen, would they?  No.  Final answer.

Because of that Portuguese influence, Brazilian food differs slightly from the rest of South America but this recipe for Chicken Soup is not one that goes too far off course from what we in North America know.  This soup though, uses onions, leeks, and chives and I cannot say I've ever seen chives used in a chicken soup recipe before but I liked it and all the flavors blended well together.

Actually locating the soup recipe in this cookbook though, was no easy feat. Recipes are first listed by name in alphabetical order in English and so you'll see "Almond pudding (Mexico);" "Almond sauce (Mexico);" "Avocado dip (Mexico)" and so on.  The list repeats in Spanish and then recipes are broken out by type of dish and so, for example, soups are listed as follows:  "Avocado soup (Mexico);" "Barley Soup" (Columbia); "Bean Soup (Mexico);" "Black Bean Soup (Venezuela)" and so on.  And so finding all the Brazilian dishes for further consideration took a minute or two but the search was rather fun.

Happily for you then, the list contains quite a few Brazilian entrees, salads (lots of salad), soups, sauces (can I just say I was surprised to see a recipe for Brazilian "curry sauce?"),

tortillas/pancakes, and so on, so if soup doesn't do it for you, something else might.

Brazil's most famous dish – feijoada, i.e. " black bean stew" – was also included but I passed on making it as the first ingredient up was "smoked beef tongue."  Yeah...no.  I probably could have left it out but then I would have also needed carne seca (dried beef), and two pounds linguiça, a Brazilian/Portuguese sausage.  I could have substituted chorizo for the linguiça but decided to scrub the entire thing.  (But then I found out that a St. Paul butcher shop called – appropriately – Meat Shop – is going to start offering linguiça this coming week – hooray!) (Still not making feijoada though.)

By the way, the weather cooled off and became rainy when I made this soup and so thanks to Mother Nature for cooperating on that front.

Let me also add that this cookbook is part of a series – 'Round the World Cooking – which I have been slowly but surely collecting.  Right now, I have five of the 16 cookbooks in this grouping.  A collector's job never ends.

As to the recipe, please note the following:

1)     I erred on the side of under-salting rather than over-salting the soup but even so, I thought this dish was a little bland.  Not a lot, just a little.  You can fix that easily with your own salt and pepper shakers.

2)     My rice came close to being too mushy.  It didn't matter in the least when eating it, but I just wanted to put that out there.  The recipe says "20 minutes" but that is too long.  Check as you go.

3)     By the time this dish was done, there was hardly any broth and so there went the "soup" portion of our program.  No worries—just add water when you reheat the leftovers.

4)     The carrots I used were purchased that day and they added a sweetness that I loved to this dish.

5)     The onion/leek/chive combo was interesting but man, those leeks made my kitchen smell all night and into the next day.  Oh well, if the recipe calls for them, the recipe calls for them!

"But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...."

"Coma bem!" ("Eat well")

Chicken Soup (Canja) – 4 to 6 servings

3 tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 (2 ½ pound) chicken, cut into serving pieces

6 cups water

1 sprig parsley

2 carrots, sliced

1 leek, sliced

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup rice

1 large tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped

Heat the butter in a large saucepan and sauté the onion until softened.  Add the chicken pieces and sauté until lightly browned on all sides.  Add the water, parsley, carrots, leek, chives, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, cover and simmer 35 to 40 minutes until the chicken is tender.  Strain the broth into a clean saucepan and skim off the fat.  Remove the skin and bones of the chicken and cut meat into 2-inch pieces.  Bring the broth to a boil.  Add the rice and stir once with a fork.  Lower the heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.  (Ann's Note:  at 20 minutes, my rice was nearly mush.  I say check back in 10 minutes and then work in 5-minute increments.)  Add the chicken meat and cook 5 minutes more.  Stir in the tomato and serve.

Olympic Food Part 1 - "The Kraft Official U.S. Training Table Cookbook (1992)" & "The Best Traditional Recipes of Greek Cooking" - summer salads

Date I made these recipes:  August 14, 2016

Kraft Official U.S. Olympic Training Table Cookbook (1992 Olympics) by Kraft Creative Kitchens

Published by Kraft General Foods

© 1992

Purchased at BCPA (Bloomington [MN] Crime Prevention Association) annual sale

Recipe:  Decathlon Macaroni Salad – p. 35

The Best Traditional Recipes of Greek Cooking  (New Edition) by Dimitri Haitalis

Publisher unknown (self-published?)

© 2000

Purchased at an estate sale

Recipe:  Country Greek Salad (Salta Horiatiki) – p. 48

"When my baby.  When my baby smiles at me I go to Rio.  De Janeiro.  My oh me oh..."

(from the song, I Go To Rio)

Folks, here are two words that always warm my heart: "Summer" and "Olympics. "   Even though our summer is running short on time, I do love warm weather and love sports so this is the best of both worlds.

Except that technically, it's winter in Brazil, this year's host country.  I think we need to redefine "winter" though because apparently, those poor souls are freezing to death down there right now in 86 degree temperatures.  Life is so cruel. 

And so with the onset of the Olympics, my mind turns once again to what food(s) to make to celebrate these "thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" moments (apologies to ABC's Wide World of Sports for stealing their line.)

But first, of course, let's talk about the sporting events.  I'll start!

Gymnastics:  In many ways, watching gymnastics is a little like watching a horror movie i.e. "I. can't. watch."  These men and women are just flying through the air ("with the greatest of ease...") and I fear for them every time they land back on planet earth. 

And the balance beam?  Well that's just insane.  In junior high, our PE teacher brought out a balance beam that was all of two inches (maybe) off the floor for us to try out and right then and there, I knew gymnastics was not for me as moving on that thing is harder then it looks.  That mini beam (the gymnastic equivalent of a Shetland pony) was as close as we all got to experiencing gymnastics and that is just fine by me.  No need for the parents to stock up on leotards or shore up my life insurance/disability policies.

But speaking of gymnastics, I'll have you know I did a mean dismount from my couch to the living room floor several times during our Olympic viewing.  Per my husband:  "Nailed it!"

Track and Field:  in 6^th grade, my school participated in track and field exercises and there went another event to scratch off my "To Do" list.

Look, I can run (barely) but I cannot run a decent Olympic time, nor a world record time, nor any time really.  And when you look at the times posted by the men and women in the track portion of our program, it's best that I stick to my regularly-scheduled laziness and leave it up to the Olympic professionals.  That said, I do excel in walking.

As to other Olympic track and events, oh please:  I would likely stab myself with my own javelin, break the pole in the pole vault, and cause serious injury to myself and others in the shot put.  I tried hurdles a couple of times and ended up wearing a hurdle like I would wear a cowl neck so that was the end of that.

Equestrian:  Although I've ridden smaller ponies and quarter horses in my day, I have never been on a full-size horse nor do I intend to (they scare me).  And so being on a horse and jumping over things like water hazards and poles and cement mixers (wait—I was mixing that up with monster truck rallies) and whatnot (it's like being on a golf course, only not), is out.  But my gosh, the sight of those beautiful horses clearing the hazards in the jumping event is outstanding. 

 I watched a lot of volleyball and basketball during the Olympics but again, these are not the sports for me.  I would no doubt sustain a permanent crick in my neck from volleyball and as to basketball, let's say  that while in gym class, I "traveled" more miles on the court than I probably did on any of my family road trips.  And I am really, really bad at shooting hoops.  Really.  And so, we must scratch those.

Which brings us to the one sport I do well and that has the smallest probability for injury: swimming. 

I may have mentioned before that I was on my high school swim team for the two short years it was in existence, but it's worth another looksee, is it not?  Besides, I'll only be talking about it every four years or so.

So.  After Title IX was enacted, my school formed a bunch of women's sports teams of which swimming was one.  By the way, the purpose of Title IX was to guarantee an equal opportunity to participate in college sports.  But many schools, high school and college, decided to go whole hog and set up women's sports teams.  Not that they funded them, mind you, they just created them.  Like a lot of teams, we got next to zero money, zero uniforms and with my tennis team, carpooled to meets.  We've come a long way, baby, yet not far enough.

 Anyway, since our school was old, our pool was also old and non-regulation which made for interesting swim practices as we had to swim at least twice the laps to ensure we could swim the regulation length of other school's pools.  And since our pool had a shallow end, we could not practice flip turns and so got permission to do a modified turn during meets.  I actually learned how to do a flip turn in, of all places, a pool at a motel (not hotel) in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where my family and I stayed if we went down for the weekend.

For two years during my sophomore and junior years, we managed to cobble together a group of swimmers and somehow managed to do respectfully well against bigger schools (Class A or B to our "barely" C) and against bigger athletes.  But then the school decided to close the pool and so we became "the swim team that wasn't" and that ended that.  (Happily, women's sports is now thriving at my old alma mater.)

Since everybody and their mother on a swim team normally prefers the freestyle events, our coach had to divvy us up between the other swim strokes and so I was assigned the backstroke.  I didn't mind it and was actually not half bad at it, but I was always happy to be a part of the 4 x 100 freestyle relay, swum toward the end of our swim meets. 

And so fast forward to this Olympics when I found myself at the edge of my seat instead of the edge of the pool, cheering on American swimmers to the finish line.  Their winning times put mine to shame as they normally did in two or more laps what I did in one but let me remind you that was eons ago and "times" have actually changed!

Also, and this is not necessarily a bragging point, swimming in a green pool or a green dive tank may have been new to most Rio Olympians but not new to me.  Our pool was so old it often had filter problems causing (green) algae blooms, and no amount of complaining to our PE teachers got us out of the swimming portion of our PE class.  Ew.  Double ew.  But hey, I am still standing today, no worse for the wear (I think???)

And so to the recipes!  Since the weather has been on the warmish side, I decided to make up a few salads, one from the Kraft Official U.S. Olympic Training Table Cookbook, and the other, a Greek salad, from a Greek cookbook as a nod to the country that held the very first Olympics – Opa!

The Kraft cookbook (really, more of a booklet) is interesting because it was printed in 1992 when the summer and the winter Olympics were held in the same year and so it featured athletes and recipes from both winter and summer sports.  In 1994 though, the winter Olympics were held separately, starting the trend we now see of summer and winter games alternating every two years.  The last winter Olympics were held in 2014 and in 2018 will be held in Korea and then in China in 2022. (Wow—that number gave me pause!)  The next summer Olympics then, will be in 2020 in Tokyo.  So there you have it, and please mark your calendars accordingly.

Although the Kraft Olympic cookbook features summer and winter sports, it seems slightly skewed to summer sports (again—who doesn't love summer?).  Marathon runner, Joan Benoit, is featured on the cover, and track and field star, Valerie Brisco (now Valerie Brisco-Hooks) (200 and 400-meter run), is pictured inside as is U.S. diver, Ellen McGrath Owen. Featured winter sports athletes were  ice skating star, Kristi Yamaguchi, skier Bill Hudson, and speed skater, Bonnie Blair.  And recipes in this book were often given the name of one of the Olympic events, such as "Pole Vault Pepper Steak" or my featured recipe, "Decathlon Macaroni Salad."

This cookbook was fun.  A little outdated, of course, but fun.   And of course, all recipes are heavy on Kraft products usage:  Velveeta lives on! And they are also on the healthy side (Velveeta excepted) as you would expect but that's okay.  My sport – couch-sitting -  (the least-talked about Olympic sport ever) still requires me to keep an eye toward healthy meals as I get in shape for my every-four-years (two with the winter rotation) Olympic trials.  I do so hope I make the team next time – finger's crossed!

The recipes in the Greek cookbook were also medal-worthy even though I only selected one.  In hot contention for a while was "Macaroni with Leeks in the Oven" (p. 99) but that "in the oven" part disqualified it.  Just before I made these recipes, I returned from a very fun but very hot and humid family wedding in Galveston, Texas and I was in no mood to bake anything.  This, of course, left out a lot more recipes in this book but this Greek Salad was refreshing as all get out and paired well with the Decathlon Macaroni Salad.

So here you go, part 1 of 3 of my celebration of the Rio Olympics.

Decathlon Macaroni Salad – makes 8 servings

1 package (14 ounces) KRAFT Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese Dinner

½ cup finely chopped celery

½ cup chopped green bell pepper

1/3 cup KRAFT Real Mayonnaise

¼ cup sliced green onions

2 tablespoons CLAUSSEN Fresh Pickle Relish, drained (Ann's Note:  the recipe doesn't say whether to use dill pickle relish or sweet pickle relish.  I used dill this time around.)

2 tablespoons chopped red bell pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

Dash salt

Prepare Dinner as directed on package.  Add remaining ingredients; mix lightly.  Refrigerate.

Ann's Note:  This dish was almost too crunchy for me!  I liked all the chopped ingredients but it was hard to pick up the other flavors like the mac and cheese.

Country Greek Salad – 5 to 6 servings

3-4 tomatoes

2 medium-sized cucumbers

1 onion, sliced (Ann's Note:  I used white onion that I had on hand)

150 grams (5 oz) black olives

2 medium-sized green peppers, finely chopped

2-3 tablespoons vinegar

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

200 grams (7 oz) Feta cheese

Salt

Oregano

Wash and slice the tomatoes in quarters and place them in a bowl.  Add the cucumber, sliced, the peppers and the black olives.  Dress the salad with the vinegar, the olive oil, salt and oregano.  Add the Feta cheese, cut into chunks and serve.