tonight's roast pork & roast potatoes

[goncalo]

This is roast pork - portugal style, a recipe that was given to me by my mother and passed on to her by my grand mother. It was the first time I got the results right taste wise.

[DalPuri]

What are you wearing?  ;D very French.

Is there a Portuguese connection in your family Gagomes?
The potatoes look delicious and i'm quite partial to roast pork. I have a shoulder in the fridge that i meant to cook today, only i had some curry leftover from last night.

[Malc.]

Not interested in the tartan jammies but very interested in the recipe, please tell us more gagomes.

[goncalo]

What are you wearing?  ;D very French.

Ha ha! indeed. They are "comfortable trousers" that I wear all the time when at home.

Not interested in the tartan jammies but very interested in the recipe, please tell us more gagomes.

I thought you would be curious to know Malc!

It's a rather straight-forward recipe, very tasty, flavourful and great for when the guests aren't big into curries (like the inlaws.)


It requires:

1 joint of pork tenderloin (my favorite part, but I reckon you can use any other part or even type of meat. This recipes transfers well to chicken too)
4 chef spoons of sweet pepper paste ("Massa de Pimentao") or to taste
1.5 - 2 lemons
2 heaped tbsp of garlic paste
1 knorr chicken stock cube
4 tbsp of butter
1 bay leaf (I used an asian one, but in portugal they use whatever they can get)
half-glass of white wine (or to taste)

Now, in a pyrex or bowl add the meat and rub the sweet pepper paste and garlic paste on the meat, try to cover as much as possible. Add wine and squeeze a whole lemon on top of the meat and if the wine/lemon rubbed the paste off the meat, rub it again. The idea is that you don't have large spots of the meat non-marinated. Leave on the fridge from one day to the other ( I did this late last night for tonight's dinner with the inlaws, the first one in our new house)

You will likely notice there is no salt in the recipe. There is a reason for it. The Pimentao paste is high on salt. It is the portuguese cuisine equivalent of g&g paste. It is used in a lot of dishes.

So after marinating:

Crunch the stock cube over the pork, add 1 tbsp of butter to each of the corners (or in 4 different places)  add the bay leaf and turn on the oven in gas mark 4 (or around 180 centigrades). At every 15-20 minutes, use a chef spoon to bathe the meat with the sauce in the bottom of the pyrex. If after 1 hour  the sauce appears thick, squeeze another half-lemon or a lemon. On a 1.5kg of pork tenderloin it takes about 1.5 - 2 hours to cook on a non-fanned oven (sorry I wasn't measuring time.)

For completion sake, I did my own "massa de pimentao" because I can't find a pre-made one in Dublin (or even in UK -- though I didn't really look for it, as I had curries all the time.)

6-7 sweet red bell pepper
olive oil to cover
5-6 tbsp of fine salt

1. Boil the peppers for 40mins, medium flame
2. Add to blender, blend until smooth. The consistency should be that of passata.
3. Add salt and cover with olive oil

I'll post a picture later of the paste on its own.

This is DELICIOUS.

[DalPuri]

What are you wearing?  ;D very French.

Ha ha! indeed. They are "comfortable trousers" that I wear all the time when at home.

Ahhhh, a bit like my housecoat...(A.K.A. me dressing gown)  ;D

[goncalo]

What are you wearing?  ;D very French.

Ha ha! indeed. They are "comfortable trousers" that I wear all the time when at home.

Ahhhh, a bit like my housecoat...(A.K.A. me dressing gown)  ;D

Pictures of the "paste":





Now,  I should probably highlight that I didn't actually followed the original recipe to make paste to the letter - I made it as I explained above. I didn't throw away the peel of the peppers after boiling them as some recipes seem to suggest you to do and I also didn't leave them draining the "salty water". I was trying to shortcut it in the way my grandmother used to make it back in the day and I should say I found no differences between the taste of the commercial version my mom uses and the one I made (in fact, I found mine to bring the flavours and smells to the front a bit better, but it may be placebo.)

Also, this dish without this paste is similar to the traditional "Vinha D'alhos", which is how the vindaloocame about.

[Malc.]

Thanks Gagomes, i've Googled this and it's thrown up some interesting dishes. It's going on my list of recipes to try, found a version using pig cheeks which I also want to try, I feel a 'two bids with one stone' coming on.

The pepper paste is interesting and again Google has thrown up a few variations. I see some mention slow roasting the peppers as a shortcut and other boil as you have done. Am I right in thinking the original Massa de Pimentao is a paste made by salt curing the pepper to remove the water which you then drain off? I'd be interested in the original recipe if you have it.

[DalPuri]

found a version using pig cheeks which I also want to try, I feel a 'two bids with one stone' coming on.

So many tasty parts on the humble pig.
Many a time I have eaten Coddle in Graignamanagh with pigs tails. Deeeelicious.  ;D

[goncalo]

Thanks Gagomes, i've Googled this and it's thrown up some interesting dishes. It's going on my list of recipes to try, found a version using pig cheeks which I also want to try, I feel a 'two bids with one stone' coming on.

The pepper paste is interesting and again Google has thrown up a few variations. I see some mention slow roasting the peppers as a shortcut and other boil as you have done. Am I right in thinking the original Massa de Pimentao is a paste made by salt curing the pepper to remove the water which you then drain off? I'd be interested in the original recipe if you have it.

My granny said the original way, as my grandmother learnt from her mother, was to do as you said: cure the peppers over several days with salt, however, she stopped doing it that way because she couldn't find a huge amount of difference in palate and could manage to get food done  faster.

She also added that "salty water" would be used to season the salads, which is something I didn't thought of but if you are a big fan of pepper like me, it can be an interesting replacement for salt.

[Malc.]

That really is food for thought and an interesting comment on the salty water being used on salads. I think I should try and make some the traditional way to set the bench mark flavour, before trying any shortcuts.

What is the dish traditionally served with?