Portugal! Portugal! Vive Portugal!

Joel’s neighborhood — particularly during World Cup time this June — and interest in travel to Spain both inspired me to research Portuguese cuisine a few months ago. The result: seafood, seafood, seafood. Which, OK, is delicious, but Joel can’t eat it and I haven’t been eating meat. So I abandoned hope. 

But two days ago I was randomly inspired to visit Toronto’s Venezia bakery for some fresh Calabrese bread. Incredibly airy, it tastes as though it was injected with freshness instead of thoroughly yeasted — like a baguette but so much better at it. I also happened to notice “bean tarts” — among the customary cheese and egg tarts, plus something called “beer tarts” — on the shelf, and had to try them. Needless to say (I am blogging about them, after all), they were wonderful. The gelly consistency didn’t taste like beans at all; instead they were sweet, caramelly, almost like a savoury plum, if such a thing can be imagined. I must make these, I said. 

Many hilarious Google-translated pages later, I stumbled on a recipe that I think will do the trick: 

queijadas de Feijao

2 cups of cooked lima beans
3 cups of sugar
1 stick of butter
8 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
2 tbs of port wine

Basically (summarized from the translations) you caramelize the sugar, add the butter, then the pureed beans, then the eggs and port and beat until it resembles custard. Yum!

BUT I can’t just make something normally, right? So I plan to add caramelized onions and whatever strikes my fancy at the market. Roasted red peppers and a streaking of the famous Portuguese piri-piri (hot sauce) would be excellent, but so would mangoes (maybe with some cilantro?) or some lime and orange (perhaps candied for a deeper taste). 

I think also that I will use a crust recipe found very randomly on recipezaar that calls for: 

3 cups flour

1 egg

1 cup mashed cooked squash 

 . . . because it’s a no-fat, easy alternative to making a crust. I’m awful at crusts, and the Portuguese bakeries are so prolific, that it’s just better not to. 

As an interesting side note, there are a large number of varieties of Asian candies and tarts based on red beans. Internet forum-users inform me that this is because of Portuguese colonization; but given how unnaturally proud North American-Portuguese are of their soccer team, I will reserve judgment on that one. Whomever invented it was really on to something, though. 

I will report back on how it turns out!

The chicken sandwich question

 

After about a month of being a “vegetarian who thinks it’s OK that others eat meat and will only eat free-range hormone-free meat myself on occasion but not too often [and actually didn't end up eating any],” I’m left with the question: where do I draw the line? Years of vehemently denying my proto-vegetarianism were exhausted by the puzzlement of others at my “no I’m not a vegetarian but I will NOT, repeat NOT, eat your meat” line. Basically, it offended people and confused me: why should I eat a succulent rueben when I feel like it (read: comfort food) and other times eschew cheese and eggs? That’s a wishy-washy philosophy if ever there was one. I don’t want to be a vegan just because it’s trendy, nor am I prepared to fully break up with cheese (my one true love), but vegetarianism doesn’t have the high ethical standard I require to do something as a rule. I mean, free-range eggs can hardly be trusted, and cheese is produced in the same horrible conditions meat is. Not to mention that hormones are especially prevalent in milk products. 

What is the ethical way out of all of this? Bottom line, if food is going to waste, I will eat it. Such is the case with a chicken sandwich I was offered the other day. I managed to give half of it away, but not before, frankly, relishing it. Wasting meat is worse than eating it, but I don’t know how much farther I can ride this slippery-slope argument before a clearer ethical position becomes necessary.

Bringing bitters back

Chow.com has an intriguing post about making bitters — most intriguing is that they advise bars to make their own special brew as was done in ye olden days of cocktails, to add a local touch to everything. 

Right now I’m steeping some lime rum which I believe will turn out to be a delicious approach on the same idea. It’s based on many recipes, some better than others. On Sunday, when it’s been brewing for about two weeks — just rum, lime peels and my closet — I will add simple syrup and mint. Then, presto: ready-made mojitos, perfect for Folk Fest. I think they will be a hit. One forseeable problem is that too much peel might have found its way into the mix, which sources say will make it taste bitter. My solution: add more sugar. I’m probably just being paranoid though. It was developing a lovely green colour, but has subsequently turned olive. I take this as a sign of a more mature taste to come.

I’ll have my professional mojito tester compare the mix to the mojito popsicles currently hardening in my freezer. 

MEANWHILE, I’m also prepping another recipe for sunny day drunkenness: the fruit slurpee. Basically I will pulverize watermelon or mango and stick it in the freezer for a couple of hours with rum in my giant insulated Slurpee cup, which will function similarly to an ice cream maker. Then I will add some soda to unfreeze and presto! It’s based on an ancient family recipe that I still don’t have a copy of, for strawberry slush. However, my deductive powers are not to be ignored, and I think that this drink will be the perfect icy way to start a weekend of crazy festivalling.

Food blogging

Hello, no one! I am back into blogging, yessiree. This blog will focus on foods I cook, sources I pursue, omnivorism vs. vegetarianism and other enviro-ethical-healthy diets, food politics, local restaurants, interesting recipes and ingredients, and more! Stay tuned.