Helen and Peter in Portugal

What is it about nuns that they feel compelled to mix eggs and sugar and pastry together and invent sweet treats?  Convent sweets (Doçes Conventuais) are a big thing in Portugal, each region has its own specialties, but it is all versions of a theme.  Mix egg yolks and sugar until a yellow paste forms and then shape, then that yellow paste is either encased in pastry or dough. Convents and Monasteries  started to churn out sweet treats in the middle ages, when sugar was made available in Portugal through the Portuguese world-wide trade routes.  Eggs play a major part in the cake making process, as egg whites were used to starch clothes, nuns habits and alike.  Egg whites were also used to clarify home made wine and beer.  What was left over was the egg yolk.  So what do you do with all that egg?  You simply add sugar.  Nuns used their initiative and in the spirit of making money for the church started to sell sweets....

There is a slight chill at 8am when I walk the dog these mornings, that and the acorns falling, the blackberry is out and the wasps are starting to get drunk on the figs fermenting in the trees...It's Autumn on its way and my favorite season.  This year there has been no veg patch work, a month away in the key month of June put stop to any ideas of growing our own vegetables this year.  The raspberry, white currant and black currant  all died off due to lack of watering, so this year there's been no making jams, juices or cocktails.  There's a tree in a neighbour's patch which produces some of the best figs, I like them just as the bit of juice starts to leak from the underneath and the wasps are circling the tree.  It's then they are at their best I think.   So I scrumped some today to make fig preserve and fig roll.  I've also started to harvest the walnuts from our tree.  It's a tedious job really (although not as bad as the ...

A recent day trip out to an artist in residence village in the mountains has got me thinking…when is art, actually art and when is it a craft?  I mean knitting is a craft, but I think of my friend Jackie creating intricate patterns, putting these on paper then making them up into garments, I think that there is a real ‘art’ to that.   So, I looked it up:  Art noun 1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. 2. the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art; an art collection. Craft noun, plural 1. an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill, especially manual skill: the craft of a mason. 2. skill; dexterity: The silversmith worked with great craft.    OK so an craft is an art, but related to a special skill….hmm I am still none the wiser really.  I...

I’d judged Caldas de Rainha from the ring road surrounding it.   We’d passed round the town many times before on our road trips.   From the ring road, Caldas seems like a town in need of some love, large supermarkets of every brand, petrol forecourts, modern apartment blocks abandoned and large areas of wispy grass gone yellow in the sun.     One day we took a detour from the ring road and into the centre of what is a charming town.   The town (city in fact) was founded in the 15c by Queen Leonor because it has naturally forming hot springs.   Around these springs a hospital was built, where patients are still sent by their doctors to take in the natural healing properties of this water.   Back in the 15c the queen believed in the healing properties of this stinky egg smelling water so much that she sold her jewels to pay for the hospital. Like so many Portuguese towns, the historic centre is in need of a bit more love.  ...

The words of Mr Paul Hollywood ring in my ears as I write this post, as he said to a Great British Bake Off Contestant in 'Bagel Week' - 'what you've made there is bread'. In the second edition of the Great Portuguese Bake Off, my friend and I decided to have a go at Bagels.   We took a recipe from Dan Lepard,  but I do have to say Mr Lepard is a little short on the descriptions of how and what your dough should look like to make it a good recipe. So, half blind from the lack of descriptive text we started the test.  Old school vs New school.  I used traditional strong white flour, slow acting yeast and a lot of hand kneading and my friend used, ready to bake bread mix and a Kenwood and substituted the tablespoon of vinegar for bicarb of soda. OLD SCHOOL It started well, things often do.   Our dough looked similar.  Nice and firm although my friends was a bit sticky following the Kenwood.   We left them to rise.  Mine dou...

Waiting for a doctor in Portugal is a bit of a pain.  Whether it's a scan, a check up, an examination or something else, the Portuguese wait for hours. I'm not saying that the health service is bad in Portugal as the health care you receive as a foreigner here is excellent.  It's the 'service' element that needs some attention. Portugal's health service has a real problem, especially in our central location.  A very aging population combined with a serious amount of chronic diseases, cuts in funding, doctors moving overseas to earn more money, all go to add up to a system which from the outside view is in crisis.  As an EU Citizen living in Portugal, you are entitled, automatically, to the same care a Portuguese person would get.  This includes a family doctor, emergency service and hospital care should the worst happen.   However, a visit to the doctor means at least a 3 hour wait in my experience and a visit to a health care service as an o...

There’s a few things happening down in the woods at the moment.    Firstly spring has arrived and with that the procession of the killer caterpillars.    These processionary pine caterpillars live high up in nests on the pine trees.   The first spring we had in Portugal we were overrun by thousands of these, in recent years I have seen less and less as the weather has not been quite right for them (too much rain I expect), but this year we’ve had an increase.      These little hairy things are trouble, their hair is very irritating and produces a severe allergic reaction.    So severe that it can kill dogs and cats and send humans into anaphylactic shock.      I have been told a way to treat a dog who has licked or trodden on one of these pests is to give the animal orange juice.   All very well but for anyone who has tried to get a tablet down a dog I think they know making a dog drink orange juice i...

Peter has a new toy.   A video camera.  He wants to share the stunning landscapes and way of life here in Central Portugal through video.    He seems to be pretty good at taking some lovely images, but there is a lot to choose from round here. This video shows the amazing landscape right outside our back door.  The clouds going by at a speedy pace (only one sequence was sped up)... We've had so much rain recently, we must have had about three day's worth of rain in a few hours.  While that has caused problems for the river beaches, with car parks being washed out and whole trees making their way down the river to the river beach, it has made for some lovely tranquil water images complete with some plinky plonky music. Finally, more water.   We took the dog for a walk up to the mountain top the other day.  I walked on my own as Peter was off filming waterfall footage and the dog ended up wanting to chase goats. ...

Having seen Julie and Julia over Christmas we were almost inspired to devote this blog to working through the Piri Piri Starfish book by Tessa Kiros.  One of the best Portuguese cookery books available. Instead I thought I'd pick one of my favorite Portuguese dishes and do a little research,  and by research I mean eating it in lots of places so I can tell you where to buy the best version! Migas is a Portuguese side dish, made with cabbage, fried bread and black eye beans.   It's a simple dish but with the right amount of garlic, salt and pepper it is delicious.  Often made with cabbage shredded very finely by the old ladies in the market (the same cabbage in another favorite - Caldo Verde Soup).    It is fried in the pan with the seasoning and garlic then pre-cooked black eye beans are added along with cubes of fried bread (often corn bread). The other way to make this, and something you find in a lot of traditional restaurant...