What a great Portuguese BBQ!

This was a fun weekend, with a great Portuguese BBQ on Saturday night.

I really love BBQs here in Singapore! I´ve always been a fan, but here seems to be just the right plan to gather some close friends and a easier one, since all of us live in condominiums with BBQ pits. The only downside is that now it´s rain season (the temperature is still around 30 degrees) and we never know when the unpleasant guest is going to pop up. It almost did this time! 

We were 10 at the BBQ and most of us didn´t eat any of the delicacies prepared in a long time - months and even years! Speaking for myself, some of the dishes were so normal and easy to get back in Portugal that I wouldn´t have them very often. Shame one me...

To start with, my dear friends and neighbors Ana and Nuno prepared Pasteis de Bacalhau (which I can translate to "codfish cakes"?). Nothing is more traditional than codfish and we have a thousand ways to cook it (I´m sure the cod will be in the spotlight many time here). One of my grandmothers was a true codfish cake master and some of my best memories as a child are related to that. I remember her feeling very upset and swearing if by any chance she didn´t get the recipe right!

All it´s needed to prepare these fish cakes are codfish, boiled potatoes, eggs, parsley and voilá...

My other Portuguese friend Fátima, living in Singapore only since September, prepared the bread. She has a proper machine to do it and I´m glad she has, because finding a bread similar to the Portuguese taste, consistency and texture is beyond difficult. It´s actually impossible and for me the tastiest bread is pretty expensive, 3 to 4 times more expensive, I´d say. I´m not suggesting the local bread is not good, it´s just different from the Portuguese one. 

And as a main dish we had Frango no Churrasco (chicken piri-piri) and Entremeada. Entremeada is a fatty pork meat, which you can see in the photo below, along with chicken. Delicious, delicious, delicious!!

And to complete the meal we had Arroz Doce (Sweet Rice).  It´s literally rice with sugar, cooked in milk and egg´s yolk, with ground cinnamon on top. It was my first time ever making it and judging by the comments it turned out pretty well! My dad does the best Sweet Rice ever, which he inherited from his mother. I don´t think I outdid them, but I´m close :)
In Portugal, this dessert can be found throughout the year, but it´s particularly traditional at Christmas time. This means I´m going to try the recipe again very soon.

The photo is bad, the flavor and the creaminess expected from this dessert were perfect!

Food aside, this gathering was really fun! Good company, good conversation, our kids playing together... my favorite kind of plan. To be repeated soon, I hope!