Food treasure from Portugal and 'Elvers'

Look at all the lovely things my Mum bought me back from Portugal, I'm a very happy girl indeed. I got some truffle cream made with a type of truffle called 'Black Summer' and I have to admit that I have never tried truffle in any form and I love all fungi so am looking forward to trying that. I got a gorgeous bottle of pink rose syrup that I can use for cakes, piri piri which is in almost everything in Portugal, extra virgin olive oil, some pinchitos which I think is some kind of spice mix used for meat skewers in Spanish tapas. I also got a hazelnut sausage/chorizo that I have no idea what to do with but strangest of all was the tin of baby eels or 'Elvers' in some kind of spicy garlic sauce. Now I know there is some controversy about eating these little 'Elvers' and I have never tried them before and am intrigued to know more about them, my Mum said it was a bit naughty to have them and she's hippy woman of the year but she thinks I should try them once, what do you think??


I'm really not to sure about eating these little guys, the photo on the front isn't the most appetizing, they look like malnurished slugs!


Sorry the pictures so blurry, I had to use a very bad camera phone because I'm waiting for a new memory card for my actual camera!

Portuguese Baked Pork and Orange Ribs with Butter Rice

I took this recipe from a beautiful cookbook called 'Piri Piri Starfish:Portugal Found' and it worked so well. Gorgeous sticky ribs with an amazing orange flavour as well as the roasted peppers that I tucked under the ribs when they were cooking. I served this with butter rice and salad.

1KG of pork short ribs
125ML olive oil
1 Red and one yellow pepper (optional)
2 bay leaves
125ml white whine
juice of 1 orange plus 2 oranges quartered
1 large onion chopped
3 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons of passata or tinned diced tomatoes
a pinch of piri piri (optional)

First of all brown off your ribs in half the olive oil and in a separate pan saute the chopped onion, next add the crushed garlic and after a few minutes add the passata and piri piri if your using it. Place the orange segments and sliced peppers onto a roasting tin before placing the ribs on top and then pour over the sauce and bake for around 40mins. I made some butter rice to serve alongside this by just frying onion and garlic in oil and butter and the adding the rice to it and frying for a few moments before adding water to boil. In the original recipe peppers are not included but I think they go really well and you can also add more passata for more sauce to eat with your rice.
It's quite possibly one of the messiest meals to eat so have lot's of napkins ready, Mercer managed to get sauce in his ear and he's 27....

Portugal trip.

Sorry I have not posted anything for awhile but it's been rather a hard month and I lost a very dear friend so have not felt up to much, but now I do so onto happier things!
My Mum and her husband have recently moved to Portugal for 6 months and so I was lucky enough to go and stay with them for a week in a tiny village called 'Villa du Bispo' in the Algarve. My Mum is just as much into food as I am so I knew there would be lot's of food adventures to be had and my first morning there I was taken to a market in a place called 'Lagos' and it was fantastic, the amazing choice of gorgeous fresh produce was so varied. There were lot's of locals with fruit and veg they had grown in there gardens and live chickens and rabbits for sale that were clearly bound for the pot!







We bought some fresh sardines and I gutted them with Mum and we just covered them with lemon juice, sea salt and the BBQ'd them. We just served them with them salad and bread we had bought at the market. Very delicious!







I adore Portugal and have been twice before to Lisbon which is one of my favourite city's I have ever been to. I was lucky enough to go to the best bakery in Portugal that is known for making the best Portuguese custard tarts in the world and it's called 'Pasteis de Belem' and my God they really were the best, crunchy flaky, chewy pastry filled with sweet, rich, thick and creamy custard filling with a glorious slightly burnt top, oh how I love Custard Tarts!





My Mum has a great Portuguese cookbook called 'Piri Piri Starfish, Portugal Found' with the most beautiful photo's in it. We took turns in cooking recipes from it including pork ribs with orange, pork and clams served with sauteed potatoes and I made seafood rice using crab claws, mussels, prawns, squid and clams. Unfortunately there are no photo's for thses dishes but I can assure you they were all very delicious.