Budget Marinated Olives

 

I lived in Lisbon 1995-1996, working for a British bank. A work colleague took pity on me living on me living on my own and invited me to join his wife and family on a bank holiday weekend in Nazaré, 77 miles to the north.  Preparing for an extended family gathering (his elderly mother told showed me her charm bracelet with a charm for each of the 18 children she had had!), he showed me this quick way to make marinate cheap olives.

1 tin of pitted black or green olives, or a mixture of both

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp oregano or mixed herbs

1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed 

Simply mix everything together and leave for a few minutes, if you can, for the flavours to infuse.

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Piri Piri Chicken & Rice

I used to make a one pan chicken & rice dish with just lemon and garlic in my first flat share after university.  I hadn't made it for ages, but thought it would work well with piri piri flavours.

Serves 4

8 small chicken thighs

½ tsp hot chilli flakes

1 tbsp roughly chopped garlic

1 tsp salt

½ tsp oregano

½ tbsp paprika

50ml/1¾fl oz red wine vinegar

200g 1 large mug of rice 

1½ mugs boiling water

1 chicken stock cube, crumbled 
Oil for frying

Stab the chicken thighs and marinade with all the ingredients apart from the rice, stock cube, oil, and water for a couple of hours, or ideally overnight.

In a large saucepan, large enough to take the chicken in a single layer, with a well fitting lid or that covers snugly with a plate, first fry the chicken in a little oil for about 5 minutes per side to brown.  

Remove the chicken from the frying pan to a plate and stir in the rice. Add the boiling water, crumbled stock cube, and any remaining marinade. The fluid should come about 1cm above the level of the rice. Stir well until the stock cube is dissolved. Arrange the chicken thighs skin side back on top, bring to the boil then turn down to a the lowest heat and cover with a well fitting lid or plate and leave for 20 minutes.  Do not lift the lid at any stage as this lets out valuable steam and heat.  

After 20 minutes, check the chicken is cooked by piercing with a sharp knife or skewer and ensure the juices run clear with no blood.

Serve with a green salad or something else green - beans, broccoli...

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Caldo Verde - Portuguese Potato & Greens Soup

Round the corner from the office where I worked for a year in Lisbon was a cafe where we bought lunch.  There was a pretty limited menu but if we had time we'd sit down and eat.  And in the winter the main options were simply but filling Caldo Verde or Sopa de Grao (chickpea soup).

Caldo means soup in Portuguese, but my brother renamed the soup 'Hot Green' as this is the literal translation in Italian where I grew up.  We both now make this simple warming soup.  

Traditionally containing a few slices of chorizo, this soup is easily veganised.

Serves a hearty 4

500g floury potatoes, peeled & cubed
250g finely shredded cabbage, kale, spring greens, or chard (discard tough stems)

1medium onion, peeled and diced
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
8 slices of chorizo ring, or 1 tsp smoked paprika if vegan
1 litre recently boiled water
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
Salt to season
1 tbsp olive oil

Traditional Caldo Verde is a chunky texture of cubed potato and finely shredded greens, but it can be liquised if preferred.  I used to liquidise this when the kids where younger, but as they have just wolfed down the chunky version today I doubt I will bother any more.

Fry the onion over a medium heat in the olive oil until starting to brown. Add the cubed potato and chorizo and continue to fry for a few more minutes, stirring from time to time. 

Add the garlic, crumbled stock cubes and water and bring to the boil. When boiling add the greens, stir, and simmer covered for 20 minutes. The soup is ready when the potato is soft and crumbly.

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Portuguese Bread, Coriander, Garlic & Egg Soup

I first came across a version of this soup in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the backstreets of the Bairro Alto district of Lisbon, famous for the Portuguese 'lament' style singing - fado. I don't think I ever knew the name of the restaurant, and on regular occasions took ages to find it in the maze of backstreets when trying to show it off to visitors from Blighty.

The soup in this restaurant was watery in texture but packed full of the flavours of coriander, garlic, and olive oil.  When I eventually found a version of the recipe for this soup in print in 'The Taste of Portugal' by Edite Viera it included stale bread.  Using stale bread to make a porridgy style soup is a Portuguese speciality.  Portugal is historically a poor subsistence economy, and 'açorda' (pronounced ass-orda) was a simple peasant dish of rehydrated stale bread beefed up with whatever strong flavours could be found.  It apparently continued to be popular until relatively recently as a stand-by meal for feeding infants!  The 'Sopa Alentejana' I found in the backstreets of Lisbon hailed from the Alentejo, one of the poorest and most barren regions of Portugal despite bordering the Algarve to the south.

Despite it's more common association, in this country at least, with Thai cooking, fresh coriander is a common ingredient in Southern Portuguese cooking too.  But this soup can be made with paprika instead if fresh coriander can not be found.  Do not use coriander seed!!!

The egg can be left out if preferred.

Serves 1

2 large crusts of stale bread, white or wholemeal
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large pinches of sea salt
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander or 1/4tsp smoked paprika
1 free range egg
1 mug boiling water

Beat the egg in the soup bowl of your choice, then add the bread broken as small as you can together with the other dry ingredients.  Pour over a mug of boiling water and stir to cook the beaten egg.  Leave to stand for a couple of minutes for the bread to soften then tuck in.

If undercooked egg is something that concerns you, you could always microwave the soup for 1 minute, or heat it in a small saucepan, or poach the egg in the mugful of water and pour this gently over the other ingredients and leave to stand.

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