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We recently found a new white wine of choice that I only picked up due to its price and rather attractive label.
People who don’t live in Portugal may find it hard to believe that I purchased a 2.50€ wine as a Friday night treat, but this is in fact quite true. We have regular mid-week
 Porca da Murça - Portuguese White Wine wine choices that can be had for between 1.29€ and 1.60€! If you visit us and get given a bottle in the 4€ range then you are truly a distinguished guest!
Anyway, this tasty white is from the Douro region, and goes by the name of Porca da Murça. It has the trademark tropical / gooseberry taste of a really good Malborough sauvignon blanc – something I miss greatly from the UK. Finding this is a great result for me, as it’s better than most of the supermarket sauvignon blancs available back in England, that, needless to say, come at a far higher price.
For those that know their Portuguese wine, I would describe this as rather like white Fonte de Nico (one of our regular budget wines), but one that is a little more grown-up, oaky, and sophisticated. It tastes far more expensive than it is, and that’s always good! Highly recommended, and spotted in Continente as well as a couple of small local stores.
The Portuguese don’t really “do” ready meals, and that’s a good thing. However, last week we found out a bit of a secret that some expats may not be aware of; not all of the delicious dishes of feijoada (bean stew), arroz de pato (duck rice) and bacalhau com natas (cod in cream) are the result of hours slaving in the kitchen, nor indeed are all of the tasty cakes. Plenty of this food is in fact produced by a clever machine with something of a cult status in Portugal, and also, as it turns out, in Italy.
The Bimbi machine, known as the Thermomix in some countries, is an extraordinarily clever kitchen gadget that weighs, chops, sautés, cooks, steams, and even cleans itself.
 Bimbi Machine in Portugal This amazing little machine allows you to, quite literally, pour in fresh ingredients, program it, and await delicious “home cooked food.” It can produce bread dough in minutes, complicated chef-style sauces in seconds, and even make ice creams and sorbets.
There’s a good chance you won’t have heard of it, as it isn’t for sale in shops, and is only sold via direct sales reps, one of whom we crossed paths with over Christmas.
As an avid cook I admit to being slightly tempted by this machine despite its jaw-dropping price of nearly 1000 euros!
Since our demonstration, I have done plenty of online research about this clever gadget, which has in fact been available in various guises for several decades. Bimbi machines actually have a huge cult following, and, to my surprise, they are used in the kitchens of many top international chefs, and are especially popular (apparently) in the galley kitchens of luxury yachts.
Sadly for the sales rep, trying to persuade us to buy something while we are still licking our financial wounds from Christmas is rather poor timing, but I can’t help but think I may give in and buy one of these at some point. The main reason for this is that it will make us cook with fresh ingredients even on the days when we are too tired and jaded to do much beyond eating something lazy and unhealthy from Iceland!
However, I have one key misgiving: I adore cooking, and I especially love improvising, adapting, and tasting as I go. Trusting all of this to a machine makes me fear that the Bimbi could do for cooking what iTunes and Youtube has done for music. Although I can now listen to pretty much any song in the world within a matter of seconds, I fondly miss the hours spent trawling record shops. Similarly, while the Bimbi could allow us to pick hundreds of foods from its extensive recipe book, and have them made to perfection with no effort, could it not take the fun and the soul out of cooking? If it could, then I’m afraid I don’t really want one.
Have you got a Bimbi / Thermomix? What do you think?
The opening of a new Iceland store in the Algarve has provoked some strong debate amongst the expats in Portugal who frequent certain Internet forums.
Many expats (ourselves included), cite the ready availability of high quality, fresh local food as one of the main reasons for moving here. We have certainly embraced it, and can be found at Tavira market most weekends, stocking up on wonderful produce, fish and meat.
However, after living here a while, you do come to miss certain things, especially some cooking ingredients that are hard to find or very expensive. For this reason, we count ourselves among those welcoming Iceland’s arrival, and all of the extra culinary variety it brings with it.
The new Iceland store in Albufeira is not a British Iceland as such. It is run by a Spanish-based company called Overseas, who have an agreement with Iceland to sell their products in Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands. Unknown to us before we visited, the company also have a deal with Waitrose, so their products appear on the shelves alongside those from Iceland, as well as many well-known British brands.
We visited at the weekend, choosing to avoid the opening day crowds, but the store was still very busy and perhaps not for the faint-hearted. (Or, for that matter, for the one expat who we heard saying outside saying that he was “never bloody well coming here again!”)
 Iceland in Albufeira Fuelled by espressos and sugary churros from the van outside, we grabbed our trolleys and disappeared into the shop for a pleasurable couple of hours of exploring products that until now had been off-limits in Portugal–due to cost or lack of availability.
160 euros later, we left the store very pleased indeed. Plenty of Portuguese people, excited by a new range of products, joined the smiling expats, happy to have access to a well-priced taste of home.
Interestingly, the grocery aisles were far more crowded than the freezer sections – the particular highlights for us were condiments, ethnic foods, and some of the oils, herbs and spices not readily available in the Algarve.
The prices were low too, with the mark-up that must have to cover transport and importation costs seeming, to us at least, very generous.
Iceland in Albufeira also has a UK-style butchers counter, and although we didn’t make use of this, having already visited a “local” butcher earlier in the day, there was much of interest to us, especially fat English style lamb chops and big gammon joints.
I find it hard to find anything to criticize. The arrival of Iceland has created jobs, both for locals and expats, and given lots of variety to natives and expats alike. I can see the keen pricing offering a challenge to smaller food importers and Apolonia – but that is just the way business goes. Overseas and Iceland seem to be doing extremely well so far and they deserve to.
 My Favourite Smoked Mackerel Salad - Thanks Iceland! I’ll finish off with some of the highlights of our purchases from our first visit to Iceland in Portugal.
1. Christmas Crackers (we went without last year as the only ones we saw were extremely overpriced in Apolonia).
2. Lime leaves and lemon grass (once again we can enjoy Thai food without needing a mortgage to eat at the wonderful, but expensive Thai restaurant in Vilamoura).
3. Smoked mackerel (about to be devoured in a salad with new potatoes, walnuts and beetroot, as pictured above!)
4. Frozen cheesecake (Portuguse cheesecake isn’t cheesecake, sorry.)
5. Mini Kievs and Spaghetti Hoops (my wife’s highlights…OK so we did buy some processed food!)
6. Horseradish, mustard, cranberry sauce, redcurrant jelly, tartare sauce – all at prices we could afford – these often cost as much in Portugal as the meat or fish they are designed to accompany!
7. Quality Streets – well it’s nearly Christmas isn’t it?!
Iceland won’t be somewhere we visit, or need to visit, every week, but we WILL be back!
Lemongrass can be really tricky to get hold of in the Algarve, so we were delighted to find some in our local supermarket recently, and looked forward to making a Thai dish with it.
To our shame, we found it a week or so later looking a little past its best, when we had already planned our meals for the week. My wife was determined not to throw it away after we had been so delighted to find it. She had heard that the usual use for lemongrass in Portugal was to make tea with it, so that is what she did. Over to her.
This is really the simplest recipe ever. It makes two cups of delicious, fragrant lemongrass tea. As lemongrass has a wide range of health benefits (from lowering cholesterol to preventing acne), it’s good for you too.
Ingredients:
 Portuguese Lemongrass Tea 1 stick of lemongrass
Boiling water
1. Chop the lemongrass into 1 cm chunks in a small jug.
2. Pour enough boiling water into the jug for two cups of tea.
3. Allow to steep for 3-5 minutes, to taste.
4. Pour into tea cups, straining to remove the chunks of lemongrass if you prefer.
You can vary the recipe by adding mint leaves or other infusions.
Our stop-off at “A Casa” in Santa Luzia was unplanned, but their blackboard listed a range of tempting petiscos (the Portuguese equivalent of tapas). This appealed to us, as we were peckish, but not sufficiently hungry for a full meal.
For those that don’t know the East Algarve, Santa Luzia brands itself as the “capital of octopus (polvo),” so it was unsurprising to find a range of octopus dishes on the menu.
Service was quick and friendly, and we ordered a selection of snacks to compliment the bread and queijo fresco that immediately appeared on the table.
Again, for those unfamiliar with such things, queijo fresco is a light cheese, rather like set cottage cheese, and supplied as part of the pre-meal couvert in many Portuguese restaurants. Queijo fresco is often rather tasteless, and needs rescuing with copious amounts of sat and pepper, but this was a goat version with a slightly stronger flavor than usual – a good start!
We started with a plate of cooked prawns, served simply with rock salt. The menu suggested these were local, and they were light in colour and tasted of the sea—a pleasing change from the rich, sweet varieties typically sold in the supermarkets. They were a little small, however, with not lot of meat remaining once shell and vein were disposed of. Still, they were tasty and disappeared quickly.
We followed our prawns with a generous serving of conquilhas – tiny cockles served hot in their shells in a simple butter, coriander and garlic sauce. Restaurants serve these in much the same way across the Algarve, and the difference between good conquilhas and bad is how well the chef has purged the bi-valves of salt. Sadly, these has some remaining, resulting in one in three causing a nasty crackle between the teeth—a shame, as they were fresh and delicious.
 A Casa Santa Luzia To finish up we figured we would have to finally try the local octopus. I’m sure we have eaten it before as part of a shellfish rice or cataplana, but the time had come for us to order it specifically.
The option we chose was octopus in a feijoada (bean stew.) Interestingly, I was uncertain after my first taste, but by the end of the dish, I was rather sold. Good feijoada is perfect comfort food, and this blend of octopus, butter beans and chorizo was bound together with a thick, but not overly rich gravy. As I commented to my wife at the time, this is a dish that, at some point soon, I am going to specifically crave, in the same way I have come to crave two other Portuguese dishes: bacalhau a bras (saltcod with potatoes, onion, egg and olives), and arroz de pato (duck rice).
As this was only a quick snack stop, we didn’t hang around for desserts, and our bill was suitably small, around 25€ for the items mentioned above and a half-bottle of white wine. “A Casa” in Santa Luzia didn’t blow us away, but there was nothing we ate that wasn’t perfectly pleasant, and served with a smile. For that reason I recommend it as a solid choice for a simple meal.
I make no apology for reviewing a British style fish and chip shop on this blog. Sometime us expats fancy “a taste of home,” (see this post for more on this!) and fish and chips are one of the things we miss. So when we found out there was a “proper” chippy under new management in Almancil, we decided to pay them a visit.
When we walked in, we were surprised to be the only diners in this surprisingly smart establishment, but it turns out we were just in there quite early for the peak of the summer season, with the tourists yet to return from the local beaches.
Service from the gregarious female owner was very friendly without being overbearing, and the lady took our order (cod, chips and curry sauce for me and fishcake, scampi and chips for my wife) swiftly. She also “cross-sold” us some tasty home-made coleslaw!
 The Cheeky Chippy - Algarve Fish and Chips I’ll be honest and say that when I first received my plate of food, I was unsure of what to expect, as everything looked a bit too crispy and clinical compared to the the “soggy fish and chips in a bag” that I had been craving.
I needn’t have worried. The taste was spot on; delicious batter on the fish, chips that tasted perfect, and scampi (stolen from my wife) that was some of the best I have tasted. The home-made coleslaw made a nice addition too.
If I had to criticize at all, all I would say is that next time I might be tempted to order two pieces of fish for myself. However, that is probably just a combination of greed, and the fact that we have recently returned from a wedding in Yorkshire, where I treated myself to a preposterously proportioned fish and chips from the famous Wetherby Whaler!
Unfortunately we had no physical capacity left to try any desserts, but will be sure to make room next time, as home-made rhubarb crumble did sound appealing.
We really liked the Cheeky Chippy. The owner is clearly enthusiastic about making a success of the business and was really keen to hear about how much we enjoyed our meal. They also offer take-away, but, as the owner was proud to tell us, they charge no extra to eat in the restaurant so “you may as well let us wash up.”
Not only is the Cheeky Chippy the perfect place for us to cure our occasional fish and chips cravings, it is a really positive sign that by thinking about what people want and delivering it with a smile, businesses can thrive in a challenging economic climate. I hope the proprietor does well, because she clearly deserves to.
Fate led us to have dinner in Antonio’s. The seafront restaurant we had originally planned to eat in was full of tourists, and hundreds of mosquitos were feasting on members of the queue. So, on recommendation from some family members who have taken to eating in Antonio’s quite regularly, we set off to Moncarapacho to try this place, which judging by existing web reviews is highly regarded locally.
Things started off well, with very friendly service and some good couvert, including a semi-hard local cheese which was sharp and creamy, and stood out enough to lead us to ask what it was. We were intrigued to be told that the cheese is made “in house,” doesn’t really have a name, and “no” we can’t buy any to take away! I am reliably informed that there is usually a “delicious” home made pate served with the couvert, but sadly none was left when we arrived.
Starters were garlic prawns all round and these were served in a generous quantity, shelled, and more in the style of a Spanish garlic prawns tapa than
 Antonio's Restaurant Moncarapacho the style usually seen in a Portuguese restaurant. It made a pleasant change to not have to get our hands dirty to eat them, and the quantity of garlic used would have warned off the most determined of vampires!
My main course of seabass was typical grilled fish, well cooked, and it was good to be given the choice of potatoes or chips. However, I was surprised not to be presented with the usual serving of salad. Whether this was forgotten or should have been requested separately I am unsure.
Although my main was perfectly good, I was distracted by plate-envy, brought on by my companion’s prawn curry. Home made and delicious, complete with a dish of sliced bananas to add to the sauce. Between this and the pre-meal cheese, I will definitely be back to Antonio’s, and I know exactly what I will be ordering!
For dessert, I was bowled over by a stand-out apple tart, cooked Austrian style with plenty of cinnamon, and far lighter in reality than it looked on the plate. Mango mousses and coffees were enjoyed by the rest of the party.
We really liked Antonio’s. The décor and lighting are more like an English bistro than a typical traditional Portuguese restaurant which made a refreshing change, the pricing is fair, and the little touches like the special cheese and the bananas with the curry show you are in a place where the owners care about the food on offer. We’ll be back.
Image from web, any party with a objection to my reproducing it here, please contact me and I will remove it.
Continuing on the theme of preserves and ways to use up excess produce, my wife was busy again this week making plum chutney…over to her….
In addition to figs from our neighbours, which we used to make fig jam , another glut of ripe, delicious Portuguese fruit came our way this week – yellow plums from my mum’s orchard. After eating as many as we could, we still had bowlfuls of them left, so decided to make some chutney.
I used a recipe that I tweaked slightly from the wonderful Complete Book of Preserves and Pickles – an indispensible handbook for anyone growing their own fruit and vegetables. As with all recipes like this, it is possible to adapt it to the produce you have available and to suit your own tastes, so experiment and have fun. The book can be found here:
Complete Book Preserves & Pickle
Recipe
 Spicy Plum Chutney Ingredients:
2lb yellow plums, halved and pitted
1 large finely chopped onion
2 inch piece root ginger, grated
3 whole star anise
1.5 cups white wine vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
4 big sliced celery sticks
3 hot red chillies
2 crushed garlic cloves
1. Boil half of the white wine vinegar with the plums, onion, ginger and star anise in a large pan.
2. Simmer until the plums have softened (this will depend on how ripe your plums are to start with – it took about 15 minutes for ours).
3. Stir the rest of the vinegar and all the remaining ingredients into the pan.
4. Cook gently until the sugar has dissolved, remove the star anise and bring to the boil.
5. Simmer until the mixture is thick and chunky and there is no liquid left – i.e. until it looks like chutney. This took us just under two hours, but check and stir it frequently to make sure it doesn’t stick.
6. Turn off the heat and tip the chutney into sterilised, pre-heated Kilner jars.
7. Cover the chutney in each jar with a small disk of baking parchment cut to size.
Store the jars in a cool, dark place for anywhere up to two years.
Like most chutneys, this should be refrigerated after opening and used within about three months.
When we lived in London, we didn’t get on particularly well with our neighbours. Every knock at the door seemed to result in a dispute over a car parking space or some similarly mundane hassle. One of our neighbours was also strangely obsessed with calling in tree surgeons at every opportunity and messing with our garden.
We love our neighbours here in Portugal, always greeting us with a smile, and patient with our faltering Portuguese. We also seem to have set up a wonderfully traditional ritual of swapping food, from cakes and biscuits to whatever produce our respective families have a glut of.
 Fresh Jam from Portuguese Figs
This week, the knock at the door brought us a mountain of fresh figs, sweet and delicious, but far too many to eat fresh, so my wife grabbed some jam sugar and got to work, with delicious results. Read on for details of the simple method she used to make it.
This was my first ever attempt at making jam, and with the exception of the Kilner jar that I broke whilst sterilising it, the result was a triumph.
I used 2:1 jam sugar which includes pectin (to set the jam).
Recipe
Ingredients – 1 kg ripe figs, 1 500g pack of 2:1 jam sugar
 Fig Jam 1. Peel the figs and cut them into small pieces.
2. Put the figs into a pan with the jam sugar.
3. Turn on the heat and bring the pan to a boil, stirring constantly.
4. Continue boiling for 3 minutes, still stirring all the time.
5. Turn off the heat and tip the jam into sterilised, pre-heated Kilner jars.
6. Cover the jam in each jar with a small disk of baking parchment cut to size.
7. Seal the jars and allow them to cool.
As with all jams, it will need to be refrigerated after opening and used within a few weeks.
It was wonderful to be able to repay our neighbours kindness by presenting them with some of their figs back, in jam form!
 Porta da Ravessa - Portuguese Wine Porta da Ravessa is one of those Portuguese wines you see everywhere, from the tiniest of shops to the big supermarkets, and in all kinds of restauranta. It is cheap (under 2 euros), and dependable, and available in both red and white – neither of which would offend given the price, as both are very drinkable.
Now, as is in the case of Monsaraz, a rose has been added to the range. If it works in the same way as the Monsaraz, it will only be available during the summer months – time will tell.
You may not be able to quite see from the picture, but this rose is a wonderful colour, which my wife informs me I should refer to as “cerise.” The taste is….dangerous….it goes down far too easily, not because it is either sweet or fruity, it’s more….juicy, with a cranberry and raspberry taste.
We will be stocking up. At 2.19€ it is a bit of a bargain, and a perfect barbecue accompaniment. In fact, it may have nudged my previous favourite, out of the way with it´s mouthfilling juiciness! I may have to drink plenty of both in the coming weeks though, just to make sure….
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