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posted on June 20th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
Dad's love to barbecue, why not have an old fashioned barbeque today. Start by burning small logs of some hard wood in a fire pit or hearth. (oak, maple, applewood or other fruit woods)
when the wood has burned, some nice coals are created, spread the hot coals out & move any burning wood to the back.
select what you want to grill, I chose lamb chops on this occasion. But steak, pork chops, or hamburgers and even fish can be grilled this way. Season with just some sea salt.
place the meat (or fish) on a barbeque grate, and place just above the hot coals,. The coals are very hot and will cook the meats fairly quickly so keep an eye on them, flip the & continue barbecuing the other side to your liking.
This time of year the lettuce is at it's freshest, pick some from the garden or get some fresh from your local market. Barbecuing on hot coals gives the meat a nice charred texture and taste..
DAD will love the meal and the time spent with him.. Happy Father's Day, Dad Tags: Father's Day barbecue
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posted on June 14th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
grelhos (broccoli rabe) also are great mixed with rice to create a tasty and nutritious meal.
It's easy and inexpensive and very tasty.
simply make the rice as you normally would and stir in the diced grelhos towards the end, cover & let cook,
I added a little paprika and curry to the rice for color & flavor.
The Salmon is saute'd with diced garlic & olive oil.
bom apetite Tags: rice and broccoli rabe', salmon with garlic & olive oil
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posted on June 13th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
Today I'm posting a soup, (sopa de grelhos) that I liked making with my mother.
It's a very nutritious vegetable & can be made into many different meals."
I will be posting more as the grelhos are prime for picking now.
grelhos" are a very common vegetable grown in almost every Portuguese garden. Known in the USA as (broccoli rabe'). It's a an easy vegetable to grow & will come up every year as it seeds very easily.
The flowers are edible as are the leaves and stems, the flowers should be picked or pruned before they start seeding to create more stems with new growth.
To make this soup, I used potatoes and onions as well as some pork bones to create the broth.
If you prefer to keep it vegetarian, do without the bones.
The potatoes and onions are cooked till soft and mashed, add the diced grelhos salt to taste and continue cooking.serve with a dash of good olive oil and garnish with the flowers from the grelhos. serve with a dash of good olive oil and garnish with the flowers from the grelhos. .bom apetite....... Tags: broccoli rabe' soup, sopa de grelhos
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posted on June 12th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
My mother Luçia passed away last week after having an unexpected severe brain hemorrhage. You might have seen some of my posts in the past with her cooking with me and passing on her and her mother's recipes. She was full of life and loved life. She loved spending time with her family cooking and feeding them, traveling with us and encouraging us. I will miss her phone calls to come see what she's cooking. She was always singing.
Eu te amo minha mãe..
Yesterday, one week after her passing, I am in her kitchen with family, cooking with her pans with vegetables from her garden, just the way she would want it..
we planted a great variety of vegetables and the lettuce, cabbage, grelhos, and turnips are ready to enjoy. Portuguese Cabbage (couve gelega), the tender leaves are ready to start picking and adding to soups or other recipes.
a nice assortment of lettuce from the garden, peppers, tomatoes cucumbers and onions to make a delicious fresh garden salad that mom loved so much.
with the cabbage I made a soup similar to one she made with me a few months ago, it was a simple soup she learned from her mother she called it... Tags: Luçia, Portuguese dinner
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posted on May 14th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
Spring is in the air, time to cultivate the vegetable garden, enjoy the new blooms of the season, the warmth and my "Tia Elvira's Portuguese spring lamb soup" or "Sopa de cordeiro". As my mother tells me my Tia Elvira was a housekeeper in Portugal for a wealthy family before she became a cloistered nun in Lisboa. This was the favorite meal of the household & she shared it with my mother. It's rare to have a lamb soup, but this is so simple, practicle, delicious and very simple.
As with many Portuguese Soups, it all starts with boiling some meat or vegatables to create a natural broth, in this case it's spring lamb shanks, or the whole leg cut into sections with the bone-in. let cook over a couple of ours with some sea salt (to taste). Her recipe called for some presunto to be added as well, but this does not have that.
When the meat is cooked and practically falling off the bone, add some pasta and some olive oil into the water, cover and let simmer until the pasta is done. Serve with some sprigs of mint and some nice crusty bread.. "This is what it's all about,... Tags: sopa de cordeiro, Spring lamb soup
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posted on May 9th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
- Mãe- palavra que encerra, o que o coraçao não consegue exprimir.
Jamais houve no Mundo, quem pudesse enfrentar os sentidos profundos do coração de uma "Mãe- Nele vivem conjugados!......
Sofrimento, alegria e amor:
Mãe, palavra que acalma os coraçoes,
Mãe, Palavra que adoca a nossa vida,
Mãe, palavra cantanda em oraçoes
Mãe, palavra universal tão querida!
Mãe rosa branca de amor tão puro
Mãe rosa amarela de ternura infinita
Mãe rosa vermelha de sacrificio tão duro
Mãe rosa no ceu e na Terra Bendita
Poem by Luçia Lopes, published in "Portugal No Mundo", May 3 1980
Thanks and credit to my mother Luçia. She has inspired & taught and encouraged me and my children not only how to cook, but to look at life in a positive way. Tags: Mother's Day
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posted on May 6th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
In the spring there are so much new life sprouting from the ground, and some unique opportunities to taste some fresh new ingredients. One of those are fiddlehead sprouts, which are sprouts from a ferns. The most common being from one called "ostrich fern" which grow in forests throughout regions of the Northern Hemisphere in eastern and northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America. They are picked in the spring (typically in May) before the ferns grow out and are very tasty and nutritious.
They only take about 10 minutes to cook and can be boiled, steamed or sautéed. I chose to saute them with some mushrooms, garlic and presunto, white wine and rice vinegar.
Wash them in cold water, heat some grape-seed oil in a saute pan, add the sprouts and saute for about 5 minutes, add the garlic, presunto and mushrooms, continue to saute' and add about an ounce of white wine, steam off the wine. Drizzle with some rice wine when serving.
Some simple fettucini pasta goes well, if you like..
Tags: fiddlehead sprouts
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posted on May 4th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
"agrião" or watercress is very common in regions of Portugal & Eastern Europe, grown and carefully cultivated as a very nutritious vegetable, high in iron, calcium and folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C.It also appears to have cancer-suppressing properties; it is widely believed to help defend against lung cancer.[8][9][10][11] Due to its high iodine content, watercress has a strengthening effect on the thyroid gland, thus beneficial for sufferers of hypothyroidism.
You can use it just like lettuce in a salad or in a sandwich, and in soups as well. It has a slight bitter and refreshing taste.
I added several ingredients into the salad to offset the bitterness and ad more flavor and nutrition as well. All these ingredients are in keeping with what is available and customarily used throughout Portugal as well.
Portuguese goat cheese, mushrooms, olives, oranges and apples, pine nuts and crushed walnuts. For the dressing, some olive oil and white and red wine vinegar and sea salt, and topped off with pieces of sardines that were marinated in olive oil and onions.
The combination of the slight bitter flavor of the watercress and the citrus from the oranges, the nutty flavors of the pine nuts, crunchiness of the apples, flavors of the goat cheese and sardines, makes for... Tags: agrião
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posted on May 1st, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
There's something about making bread that's synonymous to life & living. "pão", or bread in all different forms, has been one of the constant forms of nutrition and life for the human race and caries with it spiritualism, that you can feel when going through the process.
The fact that you are working with a living organism that needs to be kept warm at precisely the same temperature as our own body temperature in order for the dough to rise, grow and flourish to make the bread.
Making bread isn't that difficult, this recipe is a simple one handed down from generation and given to me by my cousin, who in turn was handed down to him by his mother. I now pass it on to you.
The Ingredients,
4 cups of flour (you can use one type or blend in different ones to make your own, be creative)
1 1/2 cups water, heat water to 98 degrees or up to 110
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 packet (1/4 oz) of yeast (add the yeast into the warm water to activate, stir)
In a bowl, sift & add the flour, olive oil, sea salt and half of the warm water, stir with a wooden spoon... Tags: bread, Pão
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posted on April 30th, 2010 by Manny Lopes|
"Hamburger" do we really eat hamburger, it's really not made of ham. It's really ground beef patties.
This time of year as we enter the grilling season, consider making a change to your burger and make it a little healthier by adding more veggies & eliminating the fries and cheese.
There are lots of fresh vegetables available in the markets this time of year, so be creative, try something new & different.
To make it colorful, spaghetti squash is added replacing the cheese and fries, lettuce and fresh tomatoes both in the sandwich and on the side drizzled with a little vinaigrette dressing and black pepper..
A tasty, creative, colorful and fun burger for you, your kids and your guests. Tags: Hamburger
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