Maria de Lourdes Modesto

After this short spring break and the selection and preparation of the next recipes for our blog, we would like to share with all of our followers and visitors this interview that Maria de Lourdes Modesto, "the Portuguese Julia Child" gave to the New York Times in 1987.

Hope you enjoy it.

Empadão de Peru - Turkey Shepherd's Pie

This one became extremely popular after a wisdom tooth extraction and the orders to eat only soft foods for some days. In Portugal, an Empadão is normally made with a mix of ground beef and pork, but we adapted it to our taste and reduced the fat a bit with the substitution of ground turkey. We both LOVE mashed potatoes so any recipe that includes them always causes some smiles around here.

This is truly a comfort food, perfect for cold winter days, but we like it so much that it stays on the menu all year long. The only downside is that takes a while to prepare and will cause a bit of a mess in your kitchen, but the results and the leftovers are well worth it.

Ingredients for 4-6 portions:

For the meat sauce:

1 large Onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves 

2 bay leaves

¼ Pepper (we used an orange one) chopped 

Dried red pepper flakes, to taste

Tomato sauce (1 cup) divided

Bacon (we used two big slices, less than ½ pound/200g)

Ground Turkey (1 pound/450g)

Red Wine (at your preference)

Beer (at your preference)

Balsamic Vinegar- just a splash 

Salt

Pepper

For the mashed potatoes (Purée):

Potatoes

Milk

Butter

Egg

Salt

Cheese (We used Cheddar) for garnish

The Path to the Empadão Kingdom

Take a deep breath before starting the cutting of the onion, smash the garlic and add it and the onion to the pan with a little olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Add a bit of salt and dried red pepper, to your taste. Once the onions become translucent (4-5 minutes), add the chopped orange pepper, about ⅔ cup of the tomato sauce and a bit of red wine and let it simmer for a few more minutes.

While it’s simmering, cut the bacon and season the ground meat with salt and pepper (and/or red pepper). Add the bacon and a little more tomato sauce and reduce the heat to low for a while. Add the turkey and be sure to keep an eye on the texture of the sauce. 

If the mixture gets too dry add some wine and beer to soften the sauce. If it gets too liquidy let it boil with the lid off. Continue to stir the sauce occasionally, because the turkey is drier than the beef and pork it tends to collect into clusters. 

Pull them apart them with a fork if needed so that the meat is evenly distributed in the sauce. Let it boil and develop flavor for as long as time allows. Keep in mind that the sauce is going to the oven later and shouldn’t be too liquidy or too dry when you put it in the dish, look for the happy medium. 

The scent coming from the pan starts making everybody in the kitchen very happy and you should use that cue to start peeling the potatoes for the purée. The number of potatoes you need will depend upon the size of baking dish you’ll use. Remember that a good purée always seems to shrink in the pan, so get some extra potatoes peeled and if by chance you have too much you can always make potato pancakes the next morning.  

After the purée is done and the meat sauce is at the right point, transfer the meat to your baking dish and cover it with the purée. Bake it for 15 minutes at 350ºF then remove and add the cheese, grated or artistically cut. Return to the oven and bake for 20 more minutes. Let cool a bit before serving and Bom apetite!

The night’s selection: 

From Mendocino Brewery Company we chose one of their Select Collection, the IPA White Hawk. We found it at a good price and decided to give it a try. With a 7% alcohol volume, it pleases with the first intense punch of the hops and a bouquet that lingers for quite a while. Now we will be on the lookout for their Imperial IPA.

For the soundtrack to this recipe we choose the Corações de Atum 2011 double album “Romance Hardcore / Hardcore Romance”. This very unusual album features ear-catching lyrics by the peculiar almost candidate to the Portuguese Presidency Manuel João Vieira. The album includes two versions of songs like this one, with the first CD offering 12 songs appropriate for radio broadcast and the second CD including 9 songs with much more colorful language. It’s worthwhile to learn the language just to be able to translate the lyrics of this great Portuguese artist.

Curried Lentil Soup

This soup couldn't have arrived in my life at a better time. It was the day before moving day and my sweet sister-in-law brought it over to finish simmering while she helped me with packing. It could have been because I was famished and exhausted or just because it is truly delicious, but I fell in love with it. She found the recipe in bon appétit and we really haven't done much to improve upon it other than add a bit more carrot and of course, a lot more garlic. The unique thing about this soup is the garbanzo mixture that you add towards the end. It gives the soup great body and a hint of creaminess. The curry rounds things out with a lovely warmth that pushes it over the edge into yummytown. 

3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 for sautéing & 2 for the garbanzo mixture

1 medium onion, chopped

1-2 medium carrots, chopped

2 (or more to taste) large garlic cloves, chopped, divided - we used about 5

2 tablespoons (or more to taste) curry powder

1 cup French green lentils- we had regular green on hand which work also

4 1/4 cups (or more) water, divided

1 15- to 16-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained, rinsed

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter- you can always leave this out to cut the fat a bit

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 lemon, cut into 6 wedges

Sauté the onion and carrot in 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil for about 5 minutes or until onion is translucent. Add half of the chopped garlic and cook for another 5 minutes. Add curry powder and stir for 1 minute. We always soak our lentils for a little while but it’s really not necessary if you’re in a hurry. 

Add lentils and 4 cups water. You can always add more water later if the soup is too thick for your 

liking. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer for about 30 minutes or until lentils are tender- this will depend on what type of lentils you are using. We used green which tend to cook a bit faster than french green. 

While the lentils are simmering get your garbanzo mix-in ready. Puree them with the remaining garlic and olive oil, ¼ cup water and lemon juice. This ends up being almost like a hummus minus the tahini. 

Once lentils are tender add in the garbanzo puree and the butter. Season to taste with salt, pepper and additional curry powder, if desired. If you would like to thin the soup a bit, now is the time to do it. Start with ¼ cup water at a time until you reach the consistency you are looking for. We usually keep it on the thick side.

Garnish with sliced green onions and serve with a lemon wedge. Bom proveito. 

The nights selection: 

To go with so much warmth and flavor we needed to have some nice white wine to balance things out. We chose a 14.5% chardonnay called Toasted Head. The bouquet is strong which marries well with the full spectrum of flavor in the lentil soup. We felt that the sounds for the evening should have the same characteristics, so we chose Yo La Tengo’s 2000 album, “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out”, just like the soup, it offers a great range of flavors to satisfy your hunger. Yum yum double yum.

Ahi Tuna Puffs - Empadas de Atum

This fish stuffed pastry was introduced to me as an appetizer or first course many years ago. Finding the puff pastry is easy, it’s usually fairly inexpensive and making the fish filling couldn’t be too hard, so we decided to give it a try with some frozen Ahi tuna steaks. The fish filling was a little improvised and mostly based around the white wine sauce, but it turned out well enough to share it with you. As the saucy fish filling is the part that takes the most time and attention, you can always make a bit extra for warming up later. 

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Chili peppers- dried 

Onion- ½ - ¾ of one, minced finely

White wine

Garlic- minced or pressed, to taste 

Bayleaf- dried 

Parsley- ¼ cup fresh and minced, or less to taste

Tomato sauce- a small amount, a ½ cup or so

Tuna steak- we used 2 good sized ones

Puff pastry

Feta Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Egg - for brushing on pastry 

Start the olive oil and add the onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Add enough tomato sauce to give some color to the mix and spice it up with some dried chili peppers. Add some white wine and let it simmer for a bit. 

Depending on the kind of pastry you find, remove it from the freezer and follow the appropriate thawing instructions. The shells we used needed about an hour for defrosting and then required an initial baking of about 20 minutes at 425ºF (220ºC). Once the pastry is done, remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Carefully remove the little lid (found on the shell type) and it’s ready for stuffing. If you get the traditional flat sheets of puff pastry, you do not need to do an initial baking and can form an attractive envelope or turnover style shape around the fish stuffing. 

Put the thawed (or fresh) fish in to the boiling sauce and let it cook until the fish starts to flake apart 

and you are able to combine it well with the sauce. Add some more white wine to help develop a good texture. Continue to let it simmer until the fish has become part of the sauce. 

Your best friend here is the white wine, which allows you to simmer the stuffing for the time needed to give it flavor while still maintaining a moist yet hearty consistency that will hold up well in the pastry. It should be dry enough to stuff the pastry but saucy enough that it still can maintain moisture after being baked in the shells. 

Stuff the pastry with the fish sauce and add a little bit of feta (or your personal favorite) cheese and pepper before putting back on the little pastry top. After all the puffs are stuffed brush some beaten egg on their tops. Add some parmesan and bake at 425ºF (220ºC) for around 20 minutes and serve with a nice green salad. Yum.  

The nights selection: 

Back onto our favorite IPA’s, we chose the the Hop Ottin’ IPA from Anderson Valley Brewery Company. It’s a first choice both on tap and at the supermarket. Strong and with a huge bouquet, just like we like it. We can’t wait to go to Anderson Valley to visit the magic labrotory and enjoy a tasting. The found that the last The Dø album “Both Ways Open Jaws”, goes well with both the meal and the beer. We can’t stop listening to it since it came out worldwide in the end of 2011. This French/Finnish duo, was already was part of our playlist with their debut album “A Mouthful” and now they’re back on heavy rotation. Enjoy!

Kale Soup à la Californian-Portuguese

My mom is a saver of things, and this is usually something I might complain about, but in this case it's a good thing. The inspiration for this recipe comes from the Caldo Verde recipe in the Diamond Jubilee cookbook circa 1973. My grandfather, Fernando, was associated with the S.P.R.S.I., and the ladies of the organization created the book as a fundraiser. It's chock full of all sorts of good classic American and Portuguese (a lot of them Azorean) recipes. It is obvious that these ladies were all sorts of awesome, with “recipes for kindness” and “household hints” included in their offerings. I would be thrilled to sit at any one of their 1970's tables. They may not have known that kale was a “super-food”, but they knew it was good stuff. And so, we bring their recipe to the here and now, and of course, update it just a little bit. 

This soup is a staple at our house, and in the appropriate season, sees the table almost once a week. This is the first time (after many years!) that onion was added to the recipe and it was definitely a nice addition, but it is also great without any. The original version calls for linguiça, choriço or any seasoned and smoked sausage, but I've ALWAYS used soyrizo. We've tried a few different brands and the Trader Joe's one is both tasty and priced very well. We really like the flavor and appreciate the lack of limp nodes and salivary glands, like in the traditional beef varieties. Sometimes fake is good. 

Ingredients:

1 good sized bunch of kale. Our favorite is dino.

1/2 package of soyrizo (or 4oz of linguiça or other sausage)

3 medium-sized potatoes (about 1lb) peeled and sliced to 1/4 inch rounds

6 cups (or a wee bit more) good water

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil (you can use less, of course)

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Optional: 1 medium onion, sliced finely

Serves 4-6

Wash the kale under cold running water. With a sharp knife cut along the stem on both sides and discard it.This takes a little bit of time, but it's worth it. Bunch the trimmed leaves together and cut them into the smallest strips possible. Set aside. 

Sauteé the onion (if using) in a small amount of olive oil for a few minutes and then add the soyrizo. I use my magic pan (thanks, Aunt Wendy!) for this, which is medium sized. Cook for about 5-8 minutes until onion is translucent and soyrizo begins to crisp. Remove from heat. 

Combine the potatoes, water and salt in a good sized saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes when tested, can easily be mashed against the side of the pan. Use a slotted spoon, and transfer the potatoes to a bowl and mash them to a smooth puree. 

Pour the cooking liquid from the potatoes into the pan you cooked the soyrizo and onion in. Return the mashed potatoes to the liquid (now in the soyrizo pan) and combine, stir in the olive oil and pepper and bring to a boil over high heat. You could add a litte more salt here if desired but this all depends on the saltiness of your soyrizo/sausage, so be careful. Add the kale and boil uncovered for about 7 minutes. Serve immediately accompanied by just about anything: grilled cheese, crusty french bread, broa or cornbread… it all works.

The nights selection: 

To go with this warming and slightly spicy soup we chose the smooth red blend by Bear Flag. This soup is reliably delicious and so is this wine. It’s a lovely blend of several varietals including Touriga, Tempranillo and Alicante Bouschet.  In addition to tasting yummy, the bottle is a looker! Do yourself a favor and bring some home. 

Our sounds for the night were provided by The Slip, and their 2002 album “Angels Come on Time”. This Indie-Rock, Jazzy-Folk trio from Boston provide some peppy fun with a side of sweet melodies. They have helped us cook many a meal, check em out.

Bacalhau à Zé do Pipo

The rough translation for the name of this recipe would be Barrel Joe’s Style Codfish. This one is a rockstar amongst the hundreds of ways that the Portuguese cook cod and according to a reliable source it came from Porto, in the north of Portugal. My mother has made it since I can remember. According to her, it’s a recipe that can sit and wait to be done and needs plenty of oven time. This makes it a great option when you are serving a lot of people and there are always those who never arrive on time, kind of the opposite of a souffle.

It’s pleases the masses because it has mashed potatoes, and is prettier than normal codfish dishes, which is partially due to the garnish of mayonnaise (my mother’s recipe also adds mustard). This preparation of the codfish truly highlights its best flavors . This time we were cooking for 6 people, so as a true Portuguese I planned enough food for 10 hungry men. For 6 people one tray is enough, but it’s also a good idea to make extra and have food for the next couple of days. You can’t get enough of a good Bacalhau à Zé do Pipo.

Ingredients:

- Salted Codfish (from Norway, Canada or anyplace you can find)

- Onions

- Olive Oil

- Pepper

- Salt

- White wine

- Milk

- Flour

- Garlic 

- Bay leaf

- Mayonnaise

- Mustard

for the Mashed Potatoes:

- Potatoes 

- Milk

- Eggs

- Butter

- Salt

The Cod Code:

- Put the codfish in a large bowl and cover it with water the day before cooking. Try to change the water every 6 hours or so, depending on how thick the pieces of cod are. The soaking will help to rehydrate the fish and get rid of excess salt. Try to use only the central parts so that you have only the main big fishbone. You can save the smaller pieces for another recipe. We will share an appropriate one, soon.

- Cook the codfish in enough milk to cover all the fish, this will depend on the size of your pan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and let simmer in the milk for half an hour.

- While the codfish is boiling you can get your potatoes cooking and ready for mashing.

- Put the flour and the beaten egg on plates and dredge the codfish before frying in olive oil. Fry on each side for approximately 1-2 minutes until a light crust develops. Set aside.

- Use the olive oil that you fried the codfish in to start cooking the onion. Add garlic, bay leaf, salt, white wine and let it simmer until the onion is cooked.

- Put the codfish in a baking pan (we used two 9x13" ones), cover it with the onion and olive oil mixture and put it in a 200ºC/400ºF oven to bake for about 15 minutes.

- Finish the mashed potatoes mixing, salt, milk, butter and beaten eggs.

- Take the codfish from the oven and cover it with the mashed potatoes adding the mayonnaise and the mustard in a creative way. You will need to know later if the onions and codfish are boiling, so leave a space in the middle of the potatoes so that you can still see it.

- Put the potato-topped codfish in the oven and check after approximately 30 minutes. After you see that the onions are boiling, you will only need to let it cook another 20 minutes before turning it off. It can wait in the oven for a while (just don’t forget about it) and the extra time will help to reduce the onion sauce that surrounds the codfish and improves the flavor of the whole thing. 

The nights selection:

This savory and filling meal requires a full flavored wine so we chose the 2009 Quinta de Cabriz. Blending the varietals of Touriga Nacional, Afrocheiro, and Tinta Roriz, this wine shows all the possible flavors of Dão, one the most interesting wine regions of Portugal. To go with all this, we strongly recommend listening to some tunes by Deolinda, one of the most talented modern Portuguese bands. Their melodies bring new life to traditionally inspired Portuguese music, and their songstress Ana Bacalhau shares her name with our main ingredient, it’s naturally a perfect accompaniment.

Three-Bean Chili

It all began on a cold winter night. We had dinner guests coming the following evening and got the grand idea to think ahead and make chili for the meal. It’s even tastier the second day so it’s the perfect plan-ahead. We made a good size pot so that we could “taste” it that night. The smell warmed the house and right as the chili was coming to hot bubbling perfection, a friend stopped by just in time to help us with our taste test. It was such a hit that we were left with only two small portions the next day. All was not lost, we came up with a tasty on-the-fly meal for our guests that will be shared soon. 

Ingredients:

1 medium red onion

1/2 - 3/4 of an orange pepper (yellow and red also work well)

2-3 cloves of garlic (pressed) to taste- we used 5 

1lb (approx) of ground turkey

1 can black beans 

1 can kidney beans

1 can whole pinto beans

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 bottle of good beer:  we used Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

1-2 TB Chili Powder to taste

Ground Cinnamon- just a few dashes

Crushed red pepper to taste: we used some from the farmer’s market that we dried  

Salt & Pepper to taste 

Olive Oil for sautéing

Garnish:

Grated cheese

Green onion- sliced

Bean me up, Scotty! 

Slice the onion and chop the yellow pepper. Sauté for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and sauté 2 minutes more. Add the ground turkey and salt and pepper and cook until turkey is close to done. 

Meanwhile, rinse the beans. It helps to remove excess sodium and we don’t need the extra liquid. We have beer for that. 

Once turkey is close to done add the can of tomatoes, including their liquid. Combine and then add the beans. 

Now it’s time for the magic, add the beer. Yes, the whole beer. No test sips, all of it. Combine and then add the chili powder, red peppers, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste. 

Simmer 30 to 40 minutes or until you can’t wait any longer. 

Garnish with cheese & green onion and enjoy. Add salad and Cornbread and you’ve got yourself a meal that will warm any cold belly. 

The inspiration for this recipe, most specifically the use of beer as a broth, came from a recipe I found in Rachael Ray’s 30- minute meals about 10 years ago. My version has changed a lot over the years. It started meatless and it works quite well that way for my veggie loving friends. You could definitely call this version more of a soup than an actual chili.  If you prefer it a bit thicker you can substitute the whole pintos for a can of refried beans. I admit that I’d really love to have the time to cook fresh beans, but currently that’s just not happening, so the cans will have to do. You can adjust the level of heat and garlic to taste to your preference. Disclaimer 1: we lean to spicy and garlicky in most all things. Disclaimer 2: use GOOD beer. It makes the difference. Really. 

The nights selection:

The Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA pairs nicely with strong flavours. It’s easy for us to find and is priced nicely for a good quality IPA. The bouquet is hoppy and fresh, full of character and with a 7.2% punch from Chico. To go with it, we chose Pomplamoose, an eclectic Bay Area duo that we truly appreciate and listen to often. Check out their youtube channel for lots of great video songs like If You Think You Need Some Lovin’.