Helen and Peter in Portugal

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...