I bought some asparagus at a local organic farmers’ market yesterday, but we have a tiny balcony, and grills are forbidden, and I got rid of the tall thin pot and all the wide metal fry/saute pans in the move (I have nothing that can fit an unbroken piece of spaghetti from the start!). The microwave was the best option. It really made me miss the gas grill we had in NYC (I do not have the patience for charcoal). I have a Searzall and a Bernzomatic TS 8000 brought from the US, and propane canisters I obtained at great expense from the Netherlands because the Portuguese do not believe in such things, apparently, and next time I will take the trouble to fire it all up and scorch the stalks a bit, at least.
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yeah i did the aubergine on the flames before the meat - everything tastes better to me if its a little bit burnt
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cheers man, we had to have her in laws over and its been fifteen years since we hosted anything for them all in one go in our house so we pushed the boat out
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Wow! That is quite a beautiful feast!
Couple questions:
- Are the “tomahawk” bone cuts… beef? lamb?
- What are the square-ish white things on the bottom right of second pic?
Everything looks incredible. Burgers look fat and juicy. Kebabs looks great.
Okay, third and fourth questions:
- What’s in the kebabs?
- What type of sausages?
Fifth question:
- Enough questions for ya?
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Hmm. I think it’s time to move. I’ll be over next month with my truck to help with the furniture.
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Oh, no. There is a housing crisis here in Lisbon (as in many places). It took my partner three solid months of searching to find our first properly-leased place (I didn’t have my visa yet, could not help except by watching for possibilities online from afar) and it proved to be miserable in a whole whack of ways, primarily because Portuguese construction standards are pretty low. We lucked into a “luxury” place for not much more (landlord is a Chinese national who bought the apartment as a hedge / possible bolthole and lived in it for the required two weeks a year) that, while it still has issues (they do not believe in insulation here, it seems), is probably the nicest place we have ever lived in. So unless you can find us something better for the same price, which would be a major miracle, I’ll live with not having a grill.
There are so many weird food issues here. Ground pork was unavailable for the first year, and then it appeared at multiple retailers, and now it is gone again. I can only get mixed ground pork/beef, or pure beef. Same with daikon (except at the Chinese supermarket downtown). Scallions are rare and expensive. I have never seen Asian basil, though some restaurants will use a few leaves, so someone is growing it. Peppers: only green and red bells, and one kind of little hot ones. Supposedly someone out in Cascais (an hour’s train ride to the west) sells jalapeños, but I don’t like them, anyway. I want poblanos, which are hopeless. Brussels sprouts are available for a few weeks around Christmas. I think the issue is that Portugal is small and peripheral, and the Portuguese are conservative, insular, and largely uninterested in other cuisines, except as an occasional novelty, whose specific details don’t matter so much to them.
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lamb chops!
halloumi cheese!
kebabs are either minced lamb (slightly fatter) or minced beef (slightly slimmer)!
Sausages are boerewors and merguez!
All good!!
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Man oh man do I love to eat grilled halloumi cheese.
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Thanks for the follow up. Wow! That all sounds incredible. I had to look up the sausage varieties.
Okay, the cheese was throwing me. I can see it now. I’ve actually grilled halloumi before but I couldn’t recognize it in the pic. I get it now.
I know that’s a huge effort to source, prep, and cook all that. I hope the fam enjoyed everything and had a good time!
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@Bitsnbobs that all looks amazing!
Embarrassed to even post this now! Grilled trout filets(store bought) last night! So good!
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You know I’m just messing with ya. Don’t mean to rub salt in the wound. Second best solution is to make friends with locals who BBQ all the time. What’s better than owning a boat? Having a friend who owns a boat!
more ramblings to read if you're bored
I’ve heard multiple stories now, from various sources, about lack of insulation, mold problems, and other weird things relating to Portuguese construction techniques. Weird. Sorry you are having to deal with that.
Very interesting to hear about the lack of ingredients we Americans tend to take for granted. I’m very glad there is no shortage of jalapeños or poblanos here!
Most of the time I go shopping in these airplane hangar sized grocery stores here I’m simultaneously impressed and disgusted at the amount and variety of products.
Impressed, by the logistics involved to grow, raise, source, and transport such massive quantities of food.
Disgusted, by the knowledge that a ton of it is inevitably thrown away once it gets anywhere near the expiration date. It’s just sooo much stuff. I don’t understand who is buying all of this! And it’s expensive. And the average salary is not great around here. Don’t know how much longer this system will/can continue.
I can imagine a time in the future when tales will be told by elders around a campfire. “And there were gigantic cold warehouses full of food as far as the eye can see! Creatures from the sea, the land, the air, and every type of plant imaginable! And strange products with ingredients created in labs with names we couldn’t even pronounce! But they were delicious. Oh, my kingdom for one last bag of Doritos!”
“Okay, grandpa. Whatever. We’ve heard this bullshit twenty times before. Shut up and pay attention. You’re burning the pigeon.”
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Yeah, and that’s just the stuff we can see in the supermarket, that isn’t there the next day. There must be similar or worse waste all along the supply chain. For this reason, I’m not going to complain too loudly about seasonality or lack of choice. The world isn’t arranged for my convenience. I probably appreciate those Brussels sprouts more, for the few weeks that I can get them now.
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Some recent meals
Tacos Gobernador (basically, shrimp tacos/quesadillas) with refried beans, sliced avo, rice, and creamy salsa verde.
Notes
Shrimp, sauteed onions and poblanos, glued together with plenty of Oaxacan cheese. Toasted on the plancha until crispy. Sides - refried beans with onion, garlic and poblano. Mexican rice. Creamy salsa verde - avo, cilantro, lime, jalapenos, garlic, salt, beer, avo oil.
This salsa verde is always my favorite thing. I could probably skip everything else and just hide in a corner with this and a bag of chips.
Steak and chicken Fajitas with roasted salsa roja, refried beans, rice, queso fundido, guac, etc.
Notes
Fajitas. I always thought fajitas were the dumbest thing on any Mexican menu but I decided to try and make them at home as we had people coming over and I wanted a simple and safe crowd pleaser. What can I say? They are great. Easy to make. Clean simple tastes. And people love them. Why let my snobbery get in the way?
I sliced and marinated skirt steak and chicken tenders overnight in lime juice, W sauce, onion, garlic, avo oil. Chopped a shitload of poblanos, onions, and bells. griddle all of it. Couldn’t be easier. A keeper recipe.
Salsa. Roasted roma tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, garlic. Rehydrated some ancho (5-6) and arbol chiles (2). Blended it all up with some avo oil, salt, and lime juice. Not the hottest salsa I’ver made, but full of flavor.
Beans. Sauteed onions, poblano, and garlic in some pork fat. Add in two cans of pinto beans. Semi-smashed until desired consistency. I like mine mushy but with some identifiable beans left.
Mexican rice. Toasted some rice in avo oil. Stirred in tomatoes, peppers, chicken bouillon, salt, etc. Added chicken broth. Great flavor. Need to cook longer next time. A bit too much moisture left.
Queso fundido. Not very photogenic, I admit. But what a great flavor combo! Grated a ton of Oaxacan, Jack, and Moz cheese, cooked down some chorizo, onions, and poblanos. It’s a big gooey delicious mess. We ate it on flour tortillas like a taco and/or dipped a tortilla chip in it.
Toppings: guac, crema, Cholula, cilantro, lime, salsa, queso fresco, etc.
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Yep. The modern tendency, in some places, to only select and display produce that looks flawless on shelves leaves a ton of perfectly good items to rot. Whole varieties are no longer even grown because they don’t transport well, ripen conveniently, or have innate blemishes. Maybe somebody along the chain gets to keep the imperfect items. Hope so.
There might come a time, whether we like it or not, when we all just have to savor seasonal things while we got 'em, and remember the brief window in history when we could taste a cherry tomato in December from halfway around the world! Crazy to think about. Nothing new here. Just shit I think about, and I know others do too.
Edit: And hell yeah, I will appreciate my exorbitant usage of poblanos and jalapeños, and all sorts of other peppers, more than ever now!
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a lot leaner and healthier than mine and looks delish!
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CHIPS IN NAGA SPICE SAUCE omg omg omg
have some yogurt on hand