Traditional Portuguese moist sponge cake

The first sponge cake with a kind of egg yolk based filling that I ate was from Rio Maior, where I spent part of my teenage years and where I still have many good friends. One could find it in almost every coffee and cake shop and gastronomically speaking it was - still is - an ex-libris of this small town.

One of these weekends, coming from the West region and going to Santarém, I passed through Rio Maior, a land of salt but without sea, and I immediately remembered its delicious traditional sponge cake. Although I didn't find the original recipe, here it is my version.

Ingredients:
8 eggs
10 egg yolk
180g brown sugar
100g plain flour


1. Preheat oven to 230ºC.

2. Mix the eggs with the sugar in a mixer for 5 minutes.

3. Beat the egg yolks. Add them to the mixture prepared earlier and beat for more 3 minutes.

4. Sift the flour into the mixture and stir with a spoon or wire rod.

5. Put the mixture in a round shape cake tin with approx. 26 cm covered with parchment paper.

6. Bake for 10 minutes.


This sponge cake is delicious. The core is completely wet. Its appearance sometimes is not very photogenic, but it is so yummy that one cannot stop eating it until the last slice.

I wish you all a good day!

[ Originally published in Portuguese as Pão-de-ló húmido ]

Tomato jam and the sweet memories of Summer afternoons

Making jam is a time consuming task. Firstly you have to take some time for cleaning and preparing the fruit and then you have to heat the sugar and fruit mixture and wait for the sugar reaching its setting point. But the end result is really worth it.

If someone asks me which jam I like the most, I will have some difficulty in identifying just one. But I am sure that I will pick tomato jam as being amongst my top preferences. Today's jam recipe is very simple to make and is one of my favorites. Perhaps because when I think of this recipe I associate it with some good memories of both my mother and myself making jam on Summer afternoons. On those times, many years ago, we made enough jam for all year round. I loved to help my mother peeling and seeding the tomatoes. I remember how our home would be filled with the sweet and warm aromas from the cinnamon. It was a delightful fragrance. When the jam was ready to eat, I was summoned to taste it. What a lovely sensation! Such pleasant and memorable recollections, all due to tomato jam!

Ingredients:
2kg peeled and seeded tomatoes
1kg light brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 pinch of salt
A drizzle of olive oil


1. Place the tomatoes in a saucepan. Let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Whiz the tomatoes with a stick blender and add the sugar, cinnamon, salt and olive oil. Let it boil until the sugar reaches the correct setting point. Spoon a little jam onto a cold saucer. After a couple of minutes gently push your finger through the jam and if the surface wrinkles it is ready. If not, let the sugar and tomato mixture boil for a couple of minutes more. Don't forget to stir occasionally.

3. Put the jam in glass flasks while it is still very hot and close them almost immediately.


To peel the tomatoes, you just have to make two cuts at the base of the tomato (like a X). Then parboil them for a few minutes. The skin will come off easily.

The zest of one lemon can also be added to this jam recipe. If you prefer, you can avoid blending the tomatoes.

This jam has a beautiful strong reddish color due to the tomato and light brown sugar mixture. Its flavor is simple delicious. Here at home, we easily eat it in a piece of bread or bagel generously spread with spoon after spoon of jam! A treat from which, one cannot run away!

[ Originally published in Portuguese as Doce de tomate e as memórias das tardes de Verão ]

Lamb, tomato and chickpea stew with harissa

Fresh tomato is still around here in my kitchen. Consequently, when I decide which recipe to cook I usually try to include tomato in it. In today's recipe, the tomato makes all the difference.

Ingredients:
750g diced lamb
1dl olive oil
1kg unpeeled and unseeded tomato
50g green pepper cut into strips
1dl water
2 carrots, sliced
2 teaspoons harissa
500g canned chickpea
1 bunch coriander, chopped
salt and pepper to taste


1. Put the lamb, tomatoes, olive oil, harissa, green peppers, carrots, water, salt and pepper in a pan. Bring to a simmer. Once it begins to boil, lower the heat and let it cook for one hour with the pan covered and in low heat.

2. Add the canned beans and let it boil again.

3. Serve the stew sprinkled with chopped coriander.


I served this stew with slices of freshly baked bread. This lamb, tomato and chickpea stew with a gentle touch of spicy harissa is delicious.

The lamb can be replaced by pork or beef.

[ Originally published in Portuguese as Borrego guisado com tomate, harissa e grão ]

Pizzas for kids and grown ups

I love entertaining friends at home. A fun way to have a meal together is to make pizzas. We all go to the kitchen and our entertainment resembles a party. We speak, we laugh, we look at what each other uses for her/his pizza, we use the ingredients from one and another and finally when we sit at the table we end eating it all. Sharing the process of making pizzas with the guests is always a good-humored and enjoyable gathering.

Last July, when our dearest friend Nuno came to Portugal on vacation, we had two of these pizza making meals. One with a group of longtime friends and the other, a lunch with the kids. Attending the latter were David and Daniel, Nuno Santos, Graciete and Nuno Vaz who is already a veteran of these gatherings and usually cooks the best pizzas. The last time his pizza was the ultimate rage was in a gathering at Carlota's, where Nuno surprised us all with a pizza having dates and bacon.

This particular pizza session with David and Daniel started with both of them in the kitchen preparing a fruit smoothie that they would drink later at lunch. They chose their favorite fruits and then with the aid of Ricardo, who - I suspect - was enjoying as much as the kids, blended several peaches and plums with a delicious natural orange juice they also prepared. Immediately after finishing they all started drinking the smoothie so heartily that it barely reached the table. Of the many plums the kids ate at dessert, they were delighted to taste the particular sweetness of Elva's plums (Greengage plums). It is very interesting to see a child's reaction to the discovery of a new flavor.

After the smoothie preparation, it was pizza making time. David and Daniel made their own pizza. Daniel chose not to use tomato sauce. They chose pineapple, chicken, mushrooms, bacon, broccoli, oregano and grated mozzarella cheese as ingredients. These pizzas were the most original of all the hand made pizza sessions, not by the ingredients themselves, but by the way they were laid out on top of the dough. They both "drew" a smiling face using the ingredients as paint. Daniel used broccoli for the hair while David used pineapple for the eyebrows. These kids imagination is astounding. One just can not imagine how thrilled and amused they both were by making their own pizza and having it eaten later by everybody. And truth be told, we - the grown ups - were also very excited. Their pizzas turned out to be very good indeed.

Nuno Vaz and Graciete made a pizza with tomato sauce, Iberian pork farinheira (pork smoked sausage), pineapple, olives, savory and grated mozzarella cheese. Again, it turned out to be very good. Myself and Ricardo made a pizza with tomato sauce, chouriço, mushrooms, olives and both fresh and grated mozzarella cheese.

For dessert we had one of those eat-again-and-again delicious coconut pudding made by Manuela, Nuno Santos's mother. I made ​​a cherry clafoutis, based on a recipe from Maria de Lourdes Modesto.

This was one of those gatherings that made me feel blissful. I hope that one day both David and Daniel remember this lunch with a a big smile on their faces.

[ Originally published in Portuguese as Pizas com pequenos e graúdos ]

Roasted Atlantic horse mackerel

In my opinion, the Atlantic horse mackerel is currently one of the less preferred fishes to cook with in our kitchens. I just love grilled horse mackerel, but now that I have no more backyard grill, I don't dare to grill fish at home. And so when I usually buy fish for our meals I don't even think of buying horse mackerel. What happened was that in one of these days, I could not resist bringing home two beautiful horse mackerels, quite fresh with its shinning eyes, both caught by my father in one of his fishing trips.

I had already followed one of my working colleague's advice and had this fish roasted in the oven which turned out to be a very good suggestion. I wanted to repeat it but this time I added tomato in order to have a more colorful dish full of Summer flavors.

Ingredients:
2 large horse mackerel
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1dl olive oil
2 unpeeled and unseeded tomatoes
1 sprig coriander, chopped
Boiled potatoes to accompany
salt and pepper to taste


1. Season the mackerel with salt and pepper.

2. In a skillet or saucepan put the oil, onion and garlic. Sauté the onion. When the onion breaks, add the coarsely chopped tomato. Conitnue to sauté until the tomato is evenly cooked. Turn off the heat and only then add the chopped coriander.

3. Place the horse mackerels on an oven dish pour over the fish the sautéed mixture carefully. Cover with an aluminum foil sheet.

4. Put it into a 220ºC preheated oven for 10 minutes and then another 15 minutes to finish cooking but this time with the fish uncovered by the aluminum foil sheet.

5. Serve the fish with boiled potatoes.


Today's recipe was inspired by this recipe in the Receitas de Culinária website. My personal touch was my decision to sauté the onion and tomate before putting all in the oven to cook. I think this way the dish becomes even more delicious. As you can see, it's easy to cook horse mackerel!

Roasted zucchini stuffed with farinheira and tomato

September is still having hot summer days. In fact, it seems that we finally will have all those warm and hot days that didn't appear last August. Now that the holidays are over, we are finally having the desire to go to the beach. Here at home, albeit the heat, the oven doesn't stop being used. Today's recipe is a delicious roasted zucchini stuffed with farinheira and tomato. A truly delight!

Ingredients:
5 small zucchini
Iberian pork farinheira (smoked sausage)
0.5dl olive oil
2 chopped shallots
2 big ripe tomatoes
2 eggs
some savory leaves or a sprig of parsley
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese


1. Cut the zucchini in half. With the aid of a knife or a Paris spoon remove the pulp from the zucchini.

2. Chop the zucchini pulp.

3. Pour the oil in a skillet then add the chopped shallots and the chopped zucchini pulp. Stir and cook for a while.

4. Add the chopped unpeeled and unseeded tomatoes. Let it cook for a while.

5. Remove the farinheira skin and then cut it into slices. Add the slices to skillet mixture while stirring. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

6. Add the eggs after being scrambled. Add the savory leaves or parsley.

7. Stuff the zucchini with the previous mixture.

8. In a bowl mix the cheese and bread crumbs. Sprinkle the stuffed zucchini with this mixture.

9. Place the zucchini on a oven dish. Put it in a 200ºC preheated oven for 30 minutes.


Enjoy your meal!

[ Originally published in Portuguese as Courgette recheada com farinheira e tomate ]

Roasted sea bream with coriander and cherry tomatoes

Luísa woke up early. She experienced the silence through all of the house. Occasionally she liked being alone. The maids - Joana and Juliana - had both requested some time off. Jorge wasn't around. He had gone away for a few days in one of his many business trips. Luísa did not hesitate to say yes to the request of the maids. Juliana had gone to the doctor and then she would go visit her Aunt Vitória. Joana's request may have been related with some boyfriend, but Luísa didn't bother to ask. It was nice to be home alone. Able to manage her time without giving any satisfaction, without having someone ask her things or having to make decisions for others.

She began by making coffee and drinking it in a big cup. She loved the intense and slightly roasted aroma of coffee. She shared this taste with her beloved childhood friend, Leopoldina, which unfortunately due to the pressing requests of Jorge she had stopped visiting. It didn't befit her mingling with a woman with a nickname such as "bread and butter", who was known to have several lovers. On the contrary, D. Felicidade distasted coffee. She would say every time she visited her: "- Dear, I prefer tea. You know that coffee and me don't get along very well!"

After drinking her coffee, she sat on the couch and spent the morning reading one of those novels that she loved so much. This one had been offered to her by her cousin Basílio, just before he had gone living to France. The books were a way to make her dream, a way to be transported into another dimension, a way of living and experiencing a little the lives of others.

She would have lunch at home. She could have arranged a lunch in Chiado with Sebastião or even with Julião - her old good friends - but she decided otherwise. She preferred to stay at home and cook. She loved to cook although she never did since she had married. Before her mother had died, she cooked delicious dishes. She went to the fridge and saw a beautiful sea bream with its mouth open that she thought was smiling. It was what she would cook for lunch.

Ingredients:
1 sea bream or other fish suitable for roasting in the oven
3 garlic cloves
1/2 lemon
10 to 12 cherry tomatoes
1 sprig of coriander
1 stalk of rosemary
olive oil
salt and peppercorns to taste


1. Stuff two cloves of garlic (with the its peel), rosemary and lemon in the belly of the fish.

2. To prepare the wrapper, place a sheet of parchment paper on top of an aluminum foil sheet. On top of the parchment paper sheet, place a sprig of coriander and then on top of that place the fish after being seasoned with salt.

3. Sprinkle the fish with chopped garlic and a sprig of cilantro. Place the cherry tomatoes around the fish. Sprinkle with peppercorns.

4. Sprinkle with olive oil and close the wrapper. Put it into a preheated oven for 40 minutes.


Luísa enjoyed her lunch. The fish was juicy. So delicious that she had decided to cook this recipe more often.

I was inspired in the novel Primo Basílio ("Cousin Bazilio") by Eça de Queirós to write this short story.

[ Originally published in Portuguese as Besugo assado no forno com coentros e tomate cereja ]