Recipe: João Grande (Chourico and Chip Sandwiches)

All cultures have fast food. Here in the USA we have more than our share. The selections are endless and the icons of the industry are omnipresent. Names like the "Big Mac" and "The Whopper" are synonymous with fast food around the world let alone just here in the states. That got me to thinking what our local Portuguese equivalents might be.

We have a decent variety of Portuguese fast foods, Principally among them are Portuguese-style steak sandwiches and chourico sandwiches. Having covered Portuguese steak sandwiches in previous posts I figured it was time to focus my attention on another local favorite: The chourico sandwich.

Chourico sandwiches come in many incarnations. There are ground chourico sandwiches, chourico and pepper sandwiches, chourico and sauce sandwiches, chourico and egg sandwiches, chourico hot dogs, chourico burgers, chourico EVERYTHING! Chourico is a ubiquitous part of our local food culture. Chourico is food religion in Southern New England. Why? Because EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH CHOURICO!

What I write three times is law:

EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH CHOURICO!
EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH CHOURICO!
EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH CHOURICO!

One of my favorite types of chourico sandwiches comes from a great little hole-in-the-wall bar called "Billy's Cafe" in Fall River, Massachusetts. Billy's is one of those funky little places that doesn't change with the times, instead it just drags its time along with it. It is unpretentious and unrepentant. I ordered a glass of red wine there one night and I was asked if I wanted a small or a large! I can get behind that! Billy's is food and drinks their way, and their way is good.

They do a "chourico and chips" sandwich there that's great. Just good bread stuffed with fried chourico and french fries. It's just simple Portuguese fast food goodness. A couple of shots of Tabasco sauce on that and a LARGE wine or a cold beer and I'm in heaven. Check out Billy's if you're ever in the Riv. It's not for everyone, but it is certainly for ME!

I've made a few changes in my version of the chourico and chip sandwich. I butter and grill the bread a bit and I add some pimenta salgada and hot pepper rings to add a little more texture and a wider range of flavors. In keeping with the fast food motif, I've also named my version of the chourico and chip sandwich the "João Grande" (The Big John). I do that in honor of my Azorean great-grandfather: João de Lima da Ponte. As far as my Azorean Portuguese ancestors go, he was first to set foot on these shores and that at least merits naming a great Portuguese sandwich after him! It was also his daughter that introduced me to many Portuguese foods!

The "Big Mac" and "The Whopper" cannot compare to The João Grande!

João Grande (The Big John)

1-2 Tbs olive oil
1 package of chourico (cut into 1/4" disks)
Frozen french fries (enough to fill the desired number of rolls and some extra for sides).
2-3 soft torpedo sandwich rolls (sliced like hot dog buns)
2 Tbs sweet butter
1 pimenta salgada (rinsed well and cut into slices)
Hot pepper rings
Tabasco or Piri-piri sauce (optional)

There aren't many recipes this easy. If there is one trick to preparing a João Grande perfectly, it's timing! Try to have everything ready at relatively the same time. Keep that in mind when you're preparing the components!

Ready your fries for cooking. If you fry them (better-tasting) have your frying rig ready and hot. If you're baking them (healthier), preheat your oven. Time your fries to be ready just after the chourico and rolls are done.

Place two large skillets over medium heat. In skillet number one, add your olive oil. When the oil begins to shimmer add the chourico and cook, stirring occasionally.

While the chourico is cooking. Butter the inside surfaces of the rolls and place them one at a time (buttered side down) on the second skillet grill until they are well toasted. You may want to use a small plate to push them down a bit on the hot skillet surface.

Continue cooking the chourico stirring occasionally until the edges of the chourico begin to brown or even blacken a little. Remove from heat, immediately add the french fries, pimenta salgada and hot pepper rings (to taste) and toss together well.

Overfill the buttered and toasted rolls with the chourico, french fries and pepper mixture and serve plated with the extra french fries. Offer the Tabasco Sauce or the Piri-piri as condiments.

Couple these with giant mugs of extra-cold beer and make some friends!

Morcella Especial

Morcella (say "muh-sal-uh") is the Portuguese version of the blood puddings or blood sausages that show up in just about every major cultural cuisine. "Boudin Noir" to the French, "Black Pudding" to our British friends, "Blutwurst" to the Germans, "Soondae" to the Koreans and known by many other names to people from many other cultures. The stuff is universal.

I'm not going to pull punches here. It's made from blood and that tends to put people off. Even people who'll eat the rarest of rare meat will pass on morcella and its international kin. It is kind of an acquired taste. Most people I know that eat it started doing so as children and ended up liking it long before they learned what it was. Some, once they learned what it was, stopped eating it. Bummahs for them!

My earliest memories of morcella are the sandwiches my dad and mom used to make, or how my Portuguese grandmother used to mix it with scrambled eggs for breakfast. The latter I enjoyed again for breakfast when I was in the Azores in 2004 and it was still damn good!

Recently, the good people at Mello's Chourico in Fall River, MA asked me to come up with some recipes for their fine line of Portuguese sausage products. While anyone who reads Chop Onions, Boil Water knows, doing anything with chourico is easy because EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH CHOURICO! Morcella presents a little more of a challenge.

So I did a little research on all the different international types of blood sausage (as evidenced in the introductory paragraph of this entry) and came up with a number of recipes to work from. For my first morcella recipe on Chop Onions, Boil Water I chose a traditional French preparation but of course used Portuguese blood sausage instead of boudin noir.

The result? It is delicious! That's not just my opinion but also my wife Michelle's. Prior to eating this dish, she was NOT a fan of morcella but Morcella Especial made a believer of her. She liked it a lot. So did my mom, who proclaimed it the "Best morcella ever!"

Why is it good? It's all about the green apples. They balance and harmonize with the flavor of the morcella to create something really delicious and different. In fact, if you're a little evil, you might even serve this without telling anyone what it is and fool more than a few people. In doing so, you could make some people angry, but hey that's a risk you take. One can have too many friends!

Try it friends, you'll be surprised!

Morcella Especial

1/2 morcella link (7 or 8 ozs.)
2 large tart green apples (cored, peeled and sliced into 12ths)
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes (peeled and sliced thin)
4 tablespoons sweet butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup white wine
2 Tbs fresh parsley (chopped)

Place the morcella in the freezer at least an hour before you are going to need it. This allows it to harden and makes it much easier to peel and slice.

Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Place a cast iron (or suitable facsimile) 10" skillet on a medium-high flame. Add 1 tablespoon of the sweet butter, allow it to melt and spread it around the pan. Immediately add the apple slices and sauté, turning frequently, until the edges of the apples begin to caramelize. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until tender (about 15 minutes).

Meanwhile, in a second skillet melt the remaining 3 tablespoons sweet butter over medium-high heat. Add the potato slices and fry, turning frequently, until they are golden on both sides. Add salt and pepper to taste and pour them over the baking apples.

Quickly deglaze the potato pan with the 1/4 cup of wine. Stir continually until the liquid is almost completely reduced, then pour the resulting liquid over the potato and apple mixture. Place the apple and potato mixture back in the oven and continue to bake for an additional 10 minutes.

While the potatoes and apples are baking, remove the frozen morcella from the freezer. Slice the link shallowly along its length and peel off and discard the skin. Slice the morcella in 1/8" slices and set aside.

When the apple and potato mixture finishes baking remove the pan from the oven and cover the entire apple and potato mixture in a layer of sliced morcella.

Place the mixture back in the oven and bake until lightly browned, crumbly and crispy on top, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Garnish with the chopped parsley and serve at once to surprised people.

Recipe: The World's Best Favas

Favas be big beans-BIG BEANS! It's a dish that seems to be an acquired taste. Which basically means that cowards or the uninitiated don't care for it. I like it however. I like it quite a lot and the recipe below is responsible for more than a few converts to the dish. Most recently, my beautiful wife who LOVED them. It's one of those meals that can be had in as many variations as the number of families that make it. This is my version of course and I am telling you that these are the World's Best Favas. THE WORLD'S BEST FAVAS!

One little Portuguese cooking trick that I use in this dish may seem like it wouldn't make a big difference, but it really does help to create THE WORLD'S BEST FAVAS. That trick is sweating the onions and garlic instead of sauteing them. You'll notice how profound that difference is when you pop the cover off the pan at the end of that 20 minutes. The aroma is HEAVEN! HEAVEN PEOPLE! Which incidentally is where they probably serve a lot of these favas because if I haven't mentioned it yet: THESE ARE THE WORLD'S BEST FAVAS!

What else can I say about this recipe?

How about this: IT'S GOT CHOURICO IN IT!

Chourico, as in EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH CHOURICO. Including these favas which happen to be THE WORLD'S BEST FAVAS!

Pay attention to the details at the end, the bread, sweet butter and chilled Dao are MANDATORY!

'Nuff said on my part.

The World's Best Favas

1lb. of dry favas beans (soaked then simmered or pressure cooked to tenderness)
2 Tbs Portuguese olive oil
4 onions (halved and then thinly sliced)
8 cloves of garlic (minced)
3 sticks (about 20+ ozs.) of chourico (sliced in 1/4" disks)
1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
3 tsp hot crushed red pepper (the wet stuff)
4 Tbs fresh parsley (chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat a large saucepan over low heat.

Add olive oil and spread it around the pan. Add the onions and garlic and sweat them covered in the pan for 20 minutes. Don't open that cover. Keep the flame on low and don't burn it!

Add the chourico and mix in well. Raise the heat a little and continue cooking for 10 to 15 minutes.

Add the crushed tomatoes and crushed red pepper and continue at a good medium simmer for about 45 minutes.

Add the fava beans and continue cooking for 30 more minutes or until the beans are tender and creamy inside.

Add all but 1 tablespoon of the parsley to the favas and mix throughout. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with the last tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley and serve with a good crusty peasant bread, sweet butter and some chilled red Dao wine (that's right I used "chilled" and "red wine" in the same sentence! DO IT!).

It's even better the second day!

Recipe: Porco com Ameijoas a Alentejana (Pork and Clams Alentejana-style)

Pork is the meat used in this recipe and a lot of other Portuguese cuisine. The pig is very important in Portuguese culture, and pork is the culinary center point of most of the feasts on the Portuguese mainland, her islands and many of the places where the Portuguese have settled. The slaughter of the pig is an important ritual in the local community. Also, in a fashion very reminiscent of the Native Americans and their relationship to the buffalo, the Portuguese make use of virtually every part of the animal.

They have mastered its preparation and dishes abound with pork as the main ingredient including many that appear here on Chop Onions, Boil Water. Among those I have included is this recipe for Porco com Ameijoas a Alentejana or "AH-lehn-jah-nah" as we call it on the South Coast of New England.

Along with Portuguese style steak, Alentejana is probably one of most popular dishes to be had in the local Azorean-Portuguese restaurants where I live. It is named for the region in Portugal where it was first created; there, it consists mainly of pork, spices and the hard-shelled clams known locally as "little necks". Here in the USA, I notice they add potatoes to it which doesn't harm it at all. I was first introduced to this dish as a teenager in the early 1980s. It is certainly one of my favorite Portuguese dishes and I have enjoyed it at many of the local restaurants. I've found that there is a little variation in the basic recipe and people seem to favor one establishment over another based on their personal preferences regarding the flavor and amount of sauce or the tenderness of the pork.

The real secret to good Alentejana is in the marinade and in the preparation of the pork and potatoes. If one pays attention to detail, it's not a difficult dish to master and prepared correctly it'll garner you nothing but smiles, oohs, ahs and respect in my neck of the woods. The local restaurants have even begun introducing a chicken version for people with restrictive diets which is equally delicious.

Locally, we use a special copper, two-sided, hinged pan called a "cataplana" that opens similarly to a clam to prepare this dish in. Being able to flip the pan over completely makes stirring unnecessary and aids in the perfect cooking of this dish. It's a nice addition to your kitchen but expensive and not necessary.

Porco com Ameijoas a Alentejana

2-1/2 lbs. of boneless pork loin (trimmed of most fat and cut into 1" cubes)
4 Tbs massa de pimentao   (can be purchased in Portuguese markets or use the recipe below)
2 cups of dry white wine
2 bay leaves (well crushed)
2 lbs. white potatoes (peeled and cut into 1" cubes)
2 Tbs Portuguese olive oil
2 Tbs lard
1 large onion (chopped)
6 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 Tbs tomato paste
2-5 tsp hot crushed pepper
20 littleneck clams or manilla clams (well scrubbed)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Pickled garden vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, pepper, etc.)


Day one:

Take the masa de pimento and rub it all over the pork cubes. Coat them well. Place them in a large bowl, add the wine and the crushed bay leaves. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Place the cubed potatoes in a large bowl, cover with cold water and refrigerate overnight.

Day two:

Separate the pork from the marinade being sure to save the marinade.

Drain the water from the potatoes.

Place a large deep pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot add the oil and lard. When the oil is hot and just beginning to smoke, brown the pork cubes in several batches. As they finish transfer them to a bowl until needed.

When you are finished browning the pork, lower the heat and add the onions. Sauté until translucent being sure not to brown them.

Add the garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes. DO NOT BURN THE GARLIC it will get bitter.

Set the burner to low, cover the pan and continue sweating the onions and garlic for 15 to 20 minutes. This is a common Portuguese cooking technique and it really makes a difference. Again, be careful not to burn them.

Add the tomato sauce, the reserved pork marinade, hot crushed pepper (if desired) and reintroduce the pork. Adjust the heat so that the mix barely bubbles. Cover and continue cooking for one hour being sure the mixture never breaks even a low simmer. It must just barely bubble.

While the pork and sauce cook you have two options in preparing the potatoes (be sure to prepare the potatoes so they finish at around the same time as the pork and clams are ready to serve):

1. Deep fry the potatoes until cooked through and crispy on the outside. Strain, season with salt and pepper and set them aside.

or

2. Roast the potatoes in your oven until lightly browned and done. Season with salt and pepper and set them aside.

When the pork and sauce reach the hour mark, add the salt and pepper and stir well. Test for seasoning, adjust as necessary.

Raise the heat until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Lay the clams evenly on the top of the pork mixture and cover for an additional 30 minutes until the clams open.

Discard any clams that do not open, add the parsley, then stir the mix to blend the ingredients.

To serve, place some potatoes in a shallow bowl and generously ladle the pork, clams and sauce mixture over the potatoes.

Garnish with some fresh chopped parsley and a decent amount of pickled vegetables. Serve with a good crusty bread.


Massa de Pimentao (Portuguese Red Pepper Paste)

Prepare a good quantity of pimenta salgada several days before you need it. You are going to need about 3 cups of them for this recipe.
2 large garlic cloves (minced fine)
1/3 cup of olive oil

Rinse the pimenta salgada several times in cold water to remove some the excess salt. Blot dry.

Place the pimenta salgada, minced garlic and half the olive oil in a food processor and blend well for 30 seconds.

Scrape down the sides of the food processor and blend for another 30 seconds.

Now with the food processor running, slowly add the rest of the oil in a slow trickle until the mix is really smooth (about 60 seconds).

Keep refrigerated in an appropriately-sized glass jar, removing only what you need and allowing it to reach room temperature before use.

Recipe: Shrimp Mozambique (Camarao Mocambique)

So...just how does a recipe from Mozambique end up in the Portuguese section of Chop Onions, Boil Water? You probably don't care, but I'm going to tell you anyway because if I didn't, all the space below the period at the end of this sentence would be white and I just can't have that.

This recipe begins way back in 1498 when the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visited Mozambique. Apparently he liked what he saw, communicated it, and subsequent "explorers" visited the country and established settlements for trading and waging war against, and enslaving the uppity locals in a brutal feudalism that eventually evolved into a less-brutal-but-no-more-attractive colonial government. This of course led to conflicts for independence and fast forward to 1975 when the good people of Mozambique finally won their self-governance. So there's your Portugal-Mozambique connection.

Now lets make the Portugal-Mozambique-Recipe connection: Way back yonder when the Europeans were running around "discovering" people and cultures that already knew they were there, they started bringing back things they begged, bought or stole from the inhabitants of "THE NEW WORLD". Useful things like corn, potatoes, gold, captives, etc., and for the purposes of this story: chilies. Some of those chili seeds that were brought to Europe from the New World by European explorers, then made their way to Africa with Portuguese traders. There the peppers were spread by man and nature and flourished all over the continent and the local cuisine.

One small dried variety of these pepper pods called "Piri-Piri" by the local folks in Mozambique (sounds like "peedy-peedy" in Portuguese but means "pepper-pepper" in the African Swahili language), were used in making hot sauces and dishes, one of which would evolve into the recipe below. Portuguese, inhabitants, travelers, military men and mercenaries fell in love with the dish and brought it back with them to the homeland. Other Portuguese traveling abroad later would bring this dish to American shores, specifically the shores of Southeastern New England where the recipe is hugely popular. That's my story and I'm sticking to it until I learn otherwise.

See? Portugal-Mozambique-Recipe-America-Internet-The World.

This dish is great for group dining. It is rich, spicy and tangy. Be sure to have plenty of rice or a good crusty bread around because the resulting sauce is too good to pass up!

Incidentally, this is also prepared as a chicken dish using grilled tenders or breast meat sliced similarly.

Shrimp Mozambique

15 to 20 saffron threads
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of Portuguese olive oil
2 lbs. shrimp (uncooked, shell on)
10 cloves of garlic (coarsely chopped)
1/2 bottle dry white wine (Portuguese vinho verde is EXCELLENT for this dish)
1 tsp. colorau (colorau is Portuguese paprika. You can substitute sweet Spanish paprika or regular paprika in that order)
2 Tbs hot crushed pepper (the red wet kind)
How ever many dashes of Portuguese piri-piri you like (recipe below) or your favorite red hot sauce (Frank's© or Tabasco©).
2-3 Goya® seasoning packets (seafood type)
Juice from one lemon
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup fresh parsley (chopped, loosely packed)
Salt and pepper to taste
A good crusty bread or some rice

Put the saffron in the water and let steep overnight.

Place a deep saucepan on medium-high heat, when the pan warms, add the olive oil. When oil begins to shimmer add the shrimp and sauté until they just turn pink.

Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and keep the juices and oil in the pan. Put the shrimp aside and keep them warm.

Add the garlic to the pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes. DO NOT BROWN OR BURN THE GARLIC IT WILL GET BITTER.

Add the saffron and water, wine, paprika, crushed pepper, hot sauce, Goya seasoning and lemon juice. Bring this mixture to a boil, adjust to a lively simmer and allow it to reduce and thicken slightly.

Return the shrimp to the pan and continue simmering, stirring frequently for about 2-3 minutes.

Add the butter to the pan stirring frequently. Once butter melts, stir one more time, remove from heat and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish well with chopped parsley and serve over rice or by itself with a good crusty bread for dipping in the sauce which you will want to do again and again and again.

Piri-Piri Sauce

2 to 6 hot chili peppers (like Thai bird's eye or Szechuan peppers)*
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 tsp of coarse sea salt
1 cup Portuguese olive oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar

De-stem but do not de-seed the peppers and then chop them coarsely (Wash your hands afterward and be careful not to touch your eyes fool!).

Combine the chopped peppers, red pepper flakes, salt, oil and vinegar in a bowl and mix together well. Then transfer to a suitable vinegar dispenser jar and allow to steep for a day or two.

Shake well before use.

Piri-Piri is great on a lot of different foods. Even shrimp that has been simply sauteed, broiled or boiled.

*If you want a mild sauce use less, if you want a fiery sauce use more.

Recipe: Azorean-Style Pork Cutlets

In 2003 my wife and I were invited by our friend Sherri to travel with her and her family to Sao Miguel, Azores-Portugal. We were to stay with her grandmother and aunts in the tiny village of Lomba de Sao Pedro. I jumped at the chance because my great grandmother was from the same island, and growing up in Fall River, Massachusetts you hear so much about the Azores. How could I not go?

Upon arrival, we were introduced to Sherri's grandmother Maria Elvira and her aunts and then directed to the cozy room we would be staying in. Once settled we made our way to the kitchen which was located at the center of the house. The whole family was there smiling and catching up and we were brought into the conversation. Many times our host inquired whether or not we were hungry or thirsty. At one point sensing our polite protestations Maria Elvira offered in Portuguese: "A casa pequena, mas o cora grande." They are all Portuguese words I knew but I had never heard the phrase before. It means "The house is small, but the heart is big." If this was a promise it was surely kept for I never had such a gracious and generous host. She prepared breakfast and dinner for us on most days, and often encouraged us to take cheese sandwiches with us on our daily trips around the island.

I have noticed that words used to describe bad food and cooking always come easy and are accurate. However, to try and craft words to describe great food is impossible. That is because great food transcends language. Such was the case with Maria Elvira’s cooking. It was great, all of it, and I tried to taste everything she had to offer and often that was quite a lot. Dinner was always a perception/reality kind of thing. You would perceive that you were going to eat Portuguese-style pork cutlets, however in reality, you were going to start with cutlets, then favas would come, then olives, bread, cheese, fish and anything else one of the aunts might walk in with! Pork, fish, beef, chicken, chourico, morcella, eggs, pudding, homemade ice cream. All of it sublime, all of it prepared by 70-something-year-old food magicians in a traditional Portuguese kitchen. We always left the table near bursting. I would walk outside and sit down and then the dessert offerings would come! It is a lucky thing for Portuguese men that they farm and do other active work, or else they would weigh 500lbs! Maria Elvira was not only generous with her food, when I asked how she made things, she was always generous with her recipes and her methods.

My time on Sao Miguel was filled with many fond memories of charming and generous people, great food and the island's beauty. In honor of Maria Elvira, I present my recipe for Azorean Style Pork Cutlets which is based on, but could never be nearly as good as the ones she served us the night before we left for the U.S. She also made sandwiches of the leftovers for our trip home.

Azorean-Style Pork Cutlets

1-1/2 to 2 lbs pork loin (cut into 1/4" cutlets)
2 cups white wine
4-6 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 tsp colorau (or regular paprika)
2 Tbs Portuguese olive oil
2 small bay leaves
1/2 cup shallots (chopped)
1 medium pimenta salgada (chopped)*
1/3 cup parsley chopped

In a large bowl, add the wine, garlic, colorau and bay leaves and mix together well. Add the pork cutlets and marinate 30 to 40 minutes.

Place a large, deep pan on medium-high meat. Add olive oil. When oil begins to smoke, brown the sides of each cutlet and set aside to keep warm.

Add the chopped shallots to the pan and simmer until they begin to brown lightly.

Increase the heat to high and immediately add the marinade to the pan to deglaze it.

Adjust heat until the mix is at a high simmer. Add 1/2 the pimenta salgada and a 1/3 of the chopped parsley.

Continue simmering the sauce until it is thick and rich. Remove the bay leaves.

Reintroduce the meat and coat it well in the sauce as it warms.

Remove from heat and let sit for about 5 minutes.

Plate with the gravy spooned over it and garnished with chopped parsley. Pair it with rice or potatoes or serve it in rolls as a sandwich. Offer the remaining pimenta salgada on the table so your guests can use it to season the cutlets to their own taste.

*If you cannot find pimenta salgada and do not want to make your own, use pickled red pepper instead and be sure to include salt to the recipe.

Recipe: Pimenta Salgada (Portuguese Salted Peppers)

Pimenta salgada are the lynch pin in Portuguese-style steak sandwiches and other dishes. For me and many others, if they are not in there, you're just having a mildly spicy steak sandwich that you can get anywhere. They have a salty and unique flavor that makes the dish what it is. Because of that unique flavor I also use them in several other Portuguese recipes and I am sure they will infiltrate more.

Here in the good old South Coast of Massachusetts city of Fall River, we have a large Azorean-Portuguese community. It is so large in fact that many Azoreans consider Fall River to be the tenth island in the Azores chain! Because of that large Portuguese population we have immediate access to a great deal of good Portuguese food and ingredients. From staples like the spicy chourico and linguica sausages and bolos levedos sweet buns to more exotic things like fresh Azorean seafoods and hard-to-find spices.

One of the harder to find items is pimenta salgada. You won't find it in most local grocers. Only the most "Portuguese" of the Portuguese stores carry it. I don't think that is because it is rare or unpopular but instead, I think it is because most people who use it in their cooking prefer to make it themselves. One of those people is my friend Karen (family name: Lima) who learned how to make it from her mother. When I asked her for instructions on how to prepare it she didn't hesitate to offer them up.

So, for my friends from far away who may or may not have have had Portuguese food, or better yet: Portuguese-style steak sandwiches, and who want to create them at home using my recipes and others, you are now just a short process and fourteen days away from being able to do it in your own kitchens! I have other great recipes that use these unique peppers coming in the near future. Thank you Karen for your generosity!

Pimenta Salgada (Portuguese Salted Peppers)

Red Finger Peppers (hot or sweet peppers 6" to 8" long)
Coarse Sea Salt
A suitably large and deep, lidded glass or ceramic container (red ceramic is traditional).

Carefully wash all the peppers and blot them dry.

Cut off the top of pepper, be careful not to remove the seeds.*

Fill each pepper with sea salt and carefully layer them in the glass/ceramic container.

As you complete each layer of peppers, place a layer of salt over it before starting a new layer.

Continue until you fill the container or run out of peppers.

Cover and place in a cool dark place.

The pimenta salgada are typically ready in about 2 weeks.

You can expect the peppers to give up a great deal of their moisture and it may eventually cover the peppers, this is normal. It is also normal for pimenta salgada to darken and soften over time. It requires no refrigeration.

*There is an alternative method in which you halve and deseed each pepper. Then you layer them in the container and cover each layer with salt. I've used them both ways.

Recipe: Academica/Caravela-Style Portuguese Steak Sandwiches 2010

Way back in November of 2008, I posted the first recipe for Portuguese-style steak sandwiches on Chop Onions, Boil Water. In that entry I recounted my first experiences with that type of sandwich at a Fall River, Massachusetts restaurant called "The Academica". I went on to explain how my friend Dave Leboeuf had, observed how the locally-famous (now internationally famous, right Kiwis?) sandwiches were made, and how he tinkered in his home kitchen until he came up with a good version. I took his version and tuned it to my personal tastes (admittedly, not much tuning needed thanks to Dave's work) and created my own recipe. This all took place a year or two before I ever posted the recipe online. If you're interested in that Portuguese steak sandwich recipe, just click here.

Since that time, the Portuguese steak sandwich situation in Fall River, Massachusetts has gotten a little "complex". It seems that a while back the cooks at the Academica restaurant decided to open their own place and did so, right on the side of the Academica! They named their new restaurant "The Caravela Family Restaurant" and proceeded to create the same sandwiches and other dishes that they did at the Academica. Today, each place has its adherents and I'm sure they have good personal reasons for which restaurant they patronize. I have my favorite and that's where I take my out-of-town guests and they love it too. Hell, I've even heard there may have been a split at the Caravela and there could be a third contender for the best Portuguese-style steak sandwich in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Why a new recipe you ask? Because, as good as the original one was, it was never perfect. Something about it was always just a little less than authentic and that sent me to thinking about it.

Now, Dave had seen the whole process, he'd seen the ingredients, so why couldn't we absolutely nail it in our home kitchens? I talked to him about it a couple of times and we came to the conclusion that it must have something to do with the repeated cooking. The Academica and the Caravela produce hundreds of steak sandwiches everyday. We figured that the remnants of each steak: the juices, garlic and seasonings are allowed to collect and simmer on that grill over the course of the day, and that somehow effects the final flavor of the steak. In the end this ended up being easy to test because Dave is the president of a social organization and he often cooks some of their large dinners. For a few of those dinners, he decided to create his version of Academica sandwiches and he confirmed that the steaks that came off the stove later in the night tasted more authentic than the ones that were prepared earlier.

After some thought about Dave's experiences I created a work around to avoid having to prepare hundreds of steaks for hours to get the right flavor. I discovered that if you slowly cook some of the ingredients in a separate pan before you cook your steak you be able to recreate what happens on the stoves of these restaurants. It takes a little time, but it is easy and makes a huge difference in the flavor.

Another thing I noticed about the Academica and the Caravela's steak sandwiches were the peppers that came inside each one. They were denser, saltier and not nearly as juicy as the ordinary pickled peppers available in the market. I searched the local markets for similar peppers and tried a variety of them and while the resulting sandwiches were always good, the peppers were never really right. Finally, I asked my Azorean friend Sandy to call her mom and describe the peppers that were in the Portuguese sandwiches. Her mother recognized the description and informed us that they were called "Pimenta Salgada" (salted peppers), she also directed me to the local markets where I could find them. I did find them, and PRESTO they were the real deal. Props to her mom as well because she also gave me a generous amount of them after I had inquired.

The resulting steak sandwiches were, and still are the best that have come out of my home. My wife, who is as big a fan of Portuguese-style steak sandwiches as anyone has pronounced them as better than either restaurant. Yeah, I know... my mom says I'm very handsome as well.

Academica/Caravela-Style Portuguese Steak Sandwiches 2010

2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs butter
1 head of garlic (all cloves picked off, peeled and lightly crushed)
Frank's Hot Sauce® or Texas Pete's Hot Sauce®
Steak, not too thick, cubed steak works well. It should be 1/4" to 3/8" thick.
1 cup of dry white wine or beef broth
Stick-style sandwich bread
Pimenta Salgada (Portuguese salted peppers)*
Salt to taste

In a small saucepan or skillet, add 1 Tbs olive oil, butter and a splash of the hot sauce. Place it over a low flame, when the butter is done foaming add all the garlic and allow it to cook SLOWLY until the garlic darkens, softens and just begins to caramelize. Be sure not to burn the mix. I usually start this part of the recipe an hour before I begin cooking the steak. Go LOW with the heat and SLOW with the cooking and you'll be fine.

Season each steak and then tenderize the meat using grid side of a tenderizing hammer. Just a quick going over, don't mash it into goo!

When you notice the oil, butter and garlic mixture close to finishing, preheat a large, deep skillet over a medium-high flame.

Add the remaining olive oil, when it begins to shimmer, add the steaks one to two at a time to the pan.

Brush on a little hot sauce to the top of steaks while cooking.

When steaks are nicely browned on one side, turn them over, brush on a little more hot sauce and cook until browned on both sides.

As each steak finishes cooking, remove it to a covered plate to keep it warm while you continue cooking the others.

When all the steaks are done cooling, raise the heat to high. When pan is hot, add the wine/beef broth and deglaze the pan by scraping it with a wooden spoon while the wine or broth simmers.

Add the garlic, oil, butter mixture to the simmering sauce and continue simmering until sauce becomes thick.

Remove from heat, add the steaks and any drippings to the sauce being sure that each steak is well-coated. Cover the pan to keep steaks and sauce warm while you prepare the sandwiches.

Slice the bread, add the sauce soaked steak, be sure to get some garlic in there. Top with a slice or two of pimenta salgada and serve with french fries.

*Pimenta salgada can be purchased at Portuguese grocery and specialty shops. They are very salty, you may want to rinse them in fresh water or soak them in water during the cooking time to cut the saltiness. If you don't have them in your area don't worry, I'll be posting a recipe for making your own in the next few days.