When Portuguese get together it´s like this

We eat. We cook. We have a few beers and we laugh. In 90% of the cases, being together is about preparing our food and savor it. This is true back home but I know now that it´s even more among the expats communities. Here, the type of food we relate to becomes a rarity and just too precious when it comes along.

Some Portuguese friends and neighbors I have in Singapore visited Portugal at the same time as I did. Suffering from the expat syndrome, they also returned packed with some of the Portuguese classics.  I´m yet to meet a Portuguese in Singapore who resists to the temptation of bringing back yummy things like codfish, chouriço or cheese.

With this introduction I mean to say that every time some of us have any of these precious items, then it´s time to gather the people and eat! And that´s precisely what happened last weekend: we shared the good flavors we brought from home.

Here´s non other than the chouriço being roasted in this very typical clay assador, brought by my neighbor (I completely forgot to bring one too!!). To cook the chouriço it´s only necessary to put some alcohol in the bottom (normally an alcoholic drink) and set it on fire. The flames will do their job and leave the chouriço crispy and brown. The flavor is just amazing!

 Cheese from the south region of Portugal.

Scrambled eggs with farinheira, Tuna paté and freshly baked bread by my husband using Thermomix.

The paté is something I prepare very often and I follow the same recipe I learned many years ago. It´s always a hit and super easy to make.

To prepare it, you just have to mix the following ingredients in a blender:


- 1 can of tuna
- 1 boiled egg
- 2 - 3 cloves of garlic
- coriander
- pickles
- about 3 - 4 table spoons of mayonnaise
- about 1 - 2 table spoons of mustard

As for the bread... we are going crazy with it around the house, in a good way, particularly my husband who has always been fascinated by the process of making bread. Thanks to Thermomix, doing it became sooooooooooooo easy and super fast, literally 5 minutes.

Whether you have a kitchen appliance to help, here´s the recipe of this white and wheat bread we´ve made for our Portuguese gathering.

Ingredients:

- 500 grams of bread flour (250 g of bread flour and 250 g of wheat flour for the wheat bread)
- 6 grams of yeast
- 300 ml of tepid water (if you want to be precise, tepid means 37º)
- 2 tea spoons of salt
- 1 tea spoon of sugar

Dissolve the salt and the sugar in the tepid water and then add the yeast. Let it rest for 5 minutes until getting a brownish layer on the top. This means the bacteria in the yeast were activated by the sugar. Only then we add the flour and knead the bread.

Now it´s time to let the dough rest for about 30 minutes, covering it with 2 cloths to keep it warm. The dough should double the size.   

At this point you can either bake the bread right away at 180º (preheat the oven) or knead the dough once more to get the air out and let it rest for another 30 minutes, already in the oven´s tray. This will allow the bread to grow even more.

Before baking the bread don´t forget to brush the bread with water.

Hope you can try this recipe!