Portuguese dishes to tempt your palate.

The Portuguese love their meat and their fish. This is evident in Portuguese dishes on offer. They clearly have a love affair with food. This is as true in the Algarve as elsewhere in Portugal. There are some great dishes to try during your Algarve holiday.

The locals will have 3 course meals when they go out, and invariably start with a bowl of soup. The most well known of these is caldo verde, a green broth made from shredded cabbage or kale, with potato and pieces of a spicy sausage called chouriço. However, if you are on holiday in the hot summer months, then why not try one the popular Portuguese dishes, Gaspacho. This is served cold and is made from garlic, tomatoes, onions, green pepper and cucumber. The Portuguese version has more texture as some of the vegetables are chopped rather than pureed.

If you’re after a light dish, why not try what the Algarve is best at, and have some delicious grilled fish, such as Sea bass (Robalo), gilthead (dourada) or sole (linguado), simply grilled over charcoal and seasoned with a pinch of salt and lemon juice, served with a fresh salad and buttered boiled potatoes.

The same applies to the sardines (sardinhas assadas), always best in the summer, when you’ll find vendors down by the sea cooking them on braziers. Best enjoyed outside with a cool glass of vihno verde. Do as the locals do when they eat them and dispense with your knife and fork. Simply put them on a piece of crusty bread and nibble away at the flesh to your heart’s delight. They definitely taste better this way!

A very traditional dish is Bacalhau, salted and dried cod, basis for very many recipes, boiled with potatoes and cabbage. This is the dish that you will find served in most Portuguese houses for the traditional Christmas Eve supper.

A variation of this is Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, cod potatoes and onions, or Bacalhau á bras, scrambled eggs with salted cod, potatoes and onions.

Fish stews are very popular, Different types of fish are put into a stew called Caldeirada.

Portuguese dishes will very likely to include fish, shellfish and meat together. With this in mind, don’t miss out on one of the Algarve’s signature dishes, Ameijoas na Cataplana. This is prepared in a cataplana, using clams (or other shellfish), cured ham, tomato, lemon, garlic and chouriço (spicy sausage). It is usually prepared for 2 people.

The cataplana is a round copper pan similar to a wok, with a similar shaped lid that fits on to it. This is their method of steam cooking. You should have no trouble finding one to buy, if you want to try some typical Portuguese dishes back home.

Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato, This regional favourite, and probably the most common method of cooking clams. The clams are cooked with onions, garlic, olive oil and white wine, and normally served with crusty white bread.

Seafood rice, Arroz de marisco, is a succulent dish of rice, with clams, prawns and fish of the day, cooked with onions, tomatoes and fresh coriander. It is one of the most wonderfully tasty Portuguese dishes and is quite similar to risotto.

Atum or Tuna, is usually served as a grilled steak with either onion or tomato sauce, Tuna can be prepared in various ways, being baked, boiled, and served in soups and stews.

Arroz de Polvo, which is chopped octopus tentacles, cooked with onion, tomatoes, delicately spiced with chilli powder and garnished with parsley. Served on a bed of rice.

The further you go inland, less emphasis on fish and seafood will be found on restaurant menus, being replaced with predominantly meat dishes.

One of my favourite Portuguese dishes, best done in the Algarve is Chicken Piri-Piri. The chicken is basted in spicy chilli, marinated and then cooked on a charcoal grill. Simple, but glorious. There is something so tasty succulent about Portuguese chicken. Perhaps it is because chickens here not intensively reared, allowed to roam free in the hills (in my imagination anyway – I don’t know whether this is true or not).

Pork is prepared in many ways and every cut is used. Pork “a alentejana,” pork with clams from Portugal’s southern Alenteja region, is a classic of Portuguese cuisine, slowly simmered with a few sprigs of cilantro in a cataplana.

One dish that always looks and smells delicious is suckling pig (leitao a Faia) a speciality from further north. It is rubbed with spices and roasted slowly, until it is cooked to a shiny dark golden colour. It is salty in flavour, moist and succulent inside. Pigs fed only acorns and cooked in wood fired ovens.

I’ve always found steaks are best avoided in traditional Portuguese restaurants, as they can be quite tough. Much better and more tender when ordered in international style restaurants, for some reason.

One of the more interesting Portuguese dishes, which I found in a small restaurant in Moncarapacho is Espetada mista. It is basically a kebab of mixed meats, brought to your table,hanging from a gallows with a skewer attached. Looks a bit dangerous, but once youu’ve got past that, delicious and succulent.

Cozido a Portuguesa, (a stew made from boiled pork and beef, vegetables and various kinds of sausages) is a classic but heavy dish, A family favourite this dish contains a variety of meats, sausages, vegetables, rice, and beans, all cooked in a pressure cooker.

Finally, if you’re a keen meat-eater, then do try the cabrito assado no forno (oven-roasted kid), which is found in practically all regions, and is the dish traditionally served at family gatherings at Easter time. Kid tends to be more popular than lamb.

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