by Food in rural Alentejo revolves around these six ingredients: wine, olives, bread, cheese, porco preto and eggs. Almost every household will dine on a combination of these for at least one meal a day if not both. Wine drives the Alentejo economy and the stomachs of its workers, from simple house wines to celebrated international award winners. This is my Christmas present to myself — a presentation box of five reds from the renowned Cortes De Cima.
No meal can be complete without olives or olive oil. Every meal starts with olives and bread and the oil to soak the bread in.
Bread — deserves a post of its own later as do all of these to be honest. This, however, is the quick intro to whet your appetite. Nearly every village has its own baker and its own speciality bread depending on the geography of the village, the crops it grows and the soil in which they are grown.
Cheese is to be found anywhere goats and sheep are found — there is very little cheese made from cows here as dairy herds are not as common as elsewhere. Fresh goat and sheep cheeses are available in every village and like the bread the recipes vary from village to village. This is one of my favourites – it is soft in the centre and eaten with a spoon.
Next up is Porco Preto or Black Pig; a very different class of pig to normal and particular to the Iberian Peninsula. The meat of the black pig is a favourite for smoked and preserved meats and in particular “linguiça do Alentejo” which are this areas equivalent of the French saucisson or salami.
Last and by no means least is the humble egg which finds its way into as many dishes as possible — be they savoury or sweet. Quite often a poached egg is added last minute to savoury dishes and stirred in at the table. They are added protein to vegetable soups, and an element of the trucker’s lunch — meat, egg, chips and rice.
The yolks form the foundation of many of Alentejo patisseries — they are spun with sugar to weave spider’s webs creations and imitate apricot in all of their cakes — much to my disgust!
Thanks for this wonderful food education, Nicola! The basics help define a culture.
As a Vegan, I’m curious to know if “live foods” are ever considered part of the vital diet? Fresh fruits and vegetables? Or are live foods just not done?
Vegetables and fruits are always available – served as sides. .
Yes they are done – that is next weeks post ! There are some famous specific dishes I want to cover – but I need to do a little more research. There is one soup in particular and one vegetable stew I have found so far that are Alentejano based and are Vegan – will also cover fruits as well.
Ooo! That sounds delicious.
Is there any sort of official government “Food Pyramid” — now known as “The Plate” in the USA — in Portugal to teach people about a proper diet equation?
http://goo.gl/IV3o8
SMILE
There is now a scheme that is being taught from the bottom up – ie they have started in schools – think they gave up on the oldies ………………………
http://goo.gl/H6AsZ
I love that “plate!” I think it’s clearer and more fun than the USA version!
It is deliberately aimed at children and as such it offers a clarity and a simplicity not found elsewhere. I also like the “water” element in the center.
That plate makes more usage sense in my mind than the idealized American one!
Great pics — I particularly like the cheeses and bread! Do you have any recipes to share?
will put my transating head on and see if I can find some
I really enjoyed this! Well done.
The bread in the picture looks delicious. I make my own homemade bread and knead it by hand and everything and I have yet to hear anyone else who still make bread from scratch like I do around where I live. I’m glad it is still done like this somewhere though.
I still make mine by hand where I can get appropriate ingredients with the instruction for use in English as opposed to Portuguese – there are so many different kinds of yeast here and not all of them work like they should!