Various gastronomic events bring to the daily life of appreciators coming from all over the most characteristic elements in Alentejan cooking, in large part fruit of the imagination which poor country people have applied to the business of providing food.
To mention first the most essential element, bread. Present at every meal, it is baked in a wood oven and has a dense texture. It is central to migas (bread puree, often accompanying pork and soaked in the pork liqueur), açordas (dishes and main-course soups with a bread base), ensopados (stews with a bread base) and fatias douradas (slices of bread rolled in milk and fried in eggs whisked with sugar).
The variety of savoury titbits to accompany a drink, savouring of the seasons and the toil of the fields. Aromatic herbs fill the air around the houses and escape from the cooking pot: coriander, pennyroyal, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary. Thanks to them, the palate experiences a melange of delightful sensations, the result of what was a desire, in bygone days, to relieve the tedium of poverty or simply a means of preserving fresh food.
Add a drizzle of pure, virgin olive oil, which accompanies most things perfectly. Alentejan cheeses and wines have consolidated their fame as excellent starters and even better desserts.
Their variety and quality pleasantly surprise those who go looking for them. Denomination of origin has had a notable effect in the diversification of artisanal produce.
The wines have been typified in this way since the 80’s: the average quality improved instantly and meant that each one could be easily recognised according to vineyard and location. The reserve wines from some of the most highly regarded labels, and therefore of limited production, go to better quality restaurants or are exported, so it is a good idea to seek them out in the finer hotels, so as to sample these exquisite nectars that do not reach the public at large. At the same time, the programme Rota dos Vinhos do Alentej (wine route of the Alentejo) has opened wineries to visitors, so that they may taste the wine at the vineyard of the actual producer.
Cured meats are another regional speciality – highly specialised, to tell the truth, due to the fine nuances in the skill that creates them, as well as the variety in seasoning. The person doing the smoking undoubtedly affects the outcome. It is a job requiring patience, and it is plodding work and should not be done in haste.
Fresh from the ocean, fish arrive at the auction and disappear in boxes. Nowadays, the freshness of catches is guaranteed by modern cold storage techniques, even in the hot interior. But tradition still dictates caldeirada (fish stew) on the coast, dog-fish and river fish inland, and eels and marinated sardines everywhere. Is it time for lunch yet?
At the end of any afternoon establishments selling beer and seafood bring all sorts of connoisseurs together.
Goose barnacles, prawns and crabs are so linked to the leisure time of a group of friends, just like love is to a romantic encounter, that it is hours before they wend their way homewards.
Pork, lamb and beef, all from livestock reared in open spaces and not fed at a stable trough. The meat has an intense, natural flavour! These are beasts which know nothing of fixed rations but which
graze during all seasons at any time of the day or night, wandering in the meadows.
And for those who appreciate wild boar, hare, partridge and wood pigeon, they can sample from fine menus, when the season is favourable, some of the famous delicacies from the montado (cork woodland combined with pasture).
Eggs, sugar or honey, almonds, pine nuts, gourd, all turned into miraculous recipes in convents, cooked with great patience and some secret ingredients, continue to afford moments of unequal pleasure, in equal measure in the shape of cakes and puddings.
Meals go on forever. At times, one seems to merge into the next one, if the conversation and company are good. Time becomes intoxicated, the senses languid, satisfied.
by turismoportugal
