[Sca-cooks] Re: The Food of Portugal & Egg & Sugar Sweets

[Robert Downie]

> Apparently the Portuguese have an insane sweet tooth - reading some of
> these recipes make my teeth hurt!
>

There is a 15th C Portuguese Cookbook, "O Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria" that features most
of the dishes (including meat and egg dishes) being deep fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar...I'm
surprised any of us survivied to the present day!  I've noticed some similarities to modern dishes
there as well.

>
> Another good Portuguese recipe is Caldo Verde ("green soup") that's made
> with kale (leading to the very green...VERY green color of the dish),
> onions, and chorizo (chourico, I think, is the Portuguese spelling for
> this spicy sausage).
>

Any versions of this soup I'm familiar with uses potato as well.  My mother's version was a little
more substantial than others, she sauteed onions and garlic in olive oil, then added water and
carrots, potatoes and sometimes a little tiny bit of turnip.  Once it was all fork tender, she's
pree it with the immersion blender, then add the finely shredded couves (dark cabbage).  Add a
little pan fries chourica on top and you've got supper!  We grew large amounts of this cabbage in
our garden, then in the fall had a whole day shredding it with a special contraption, parboiled,
bagged and froze them for uuse through the rest of the year.

>
> All the Portuguese cookbooks I've ran across (and I haven't run across
> many) don't give dates or anything (and the local library is noticeably
> deficient in the Historical Foods/Food History category). Does anyone
> else have any resources or books on that particular region that's
> in-period? (Although it is conceivable that the Portuguese, depending on
> what century you were looking at, would have access to more New World
> type stuff, due to that country's expansionist policies during later
> Period.)
>

If you check the archieves, you'll come across various messages titles "Translation of Portuguese
Cookbook".  Those are my translations of the 15th C cookbook I've refered to above.  Johnna has
also graciously given me a lead on some other in or near period titles I'm going to hopefully
track down in the near future when I have a little more time (Time!  What's that?).

> Ignia il Nomade
>

Faerisa