Tag Archive for: meat

Offal

Portuguese consume twice the recommended calories !

Some foods in Portugal still feature a ‘snout-to-tail’ culinary tradition, a practise of cooking that utilizes every edible part of the animal. Organ meats like liver, heart, kidney, tongue, tripe (stomach) are often hidden in sausages or served in specific regional varieties.

Iscas com Elas is iconic to Lisbon, where it was brought by the Galicians, who arrived in the 18th century to work in the capital. A traditional dish consisting of thinly sliced liver marinated in garlic and wine and cooked with onions. They are served with boiled potatoes (referred to as ‘elas’, meaning ‘them’).

Arroz de Cabidela – rabbit or chicken rice cooked with the animals blood and vinegar -is a traditional speciality from the northern Minho region of the country and documented since the 16th century. 

Tripas à Moda do Porto is a thick stew of white beans, sausages and pork stomach, famously associated with the city of Porto but widely known across the country, where it is called Dobrada.

Sarrabulho, a traditional northern Portuguese stew or thick soup – when thickened with flour called Papas de Sarrabulho – made from pork offal (liver, heart and kidney), and seasoned with cumin and animal blood.

Chicken feet is a traditional ingredient in the Portuguese cuisine, used to make rich broth for soups,  such as canja de galinha (chicken soup) or stewed with garlic, onion and spices.

Moelas is a spicy dish made with tender chicken stomachs, slow cooked in a rich sauce made of tomato, onion, garlic, white wine and piri-piri peppers.

—>The perfect accompaniment to Portuguese meals are cheese and bread.

According to the Taste Atlas the Alentejo bread is part of the Top 10 best breads in the world. Its ‘rustic and thick crust that contrasts with the soft and airy crumb inside’ earned it 7th place on that gastronomic platform last year.

The top cheese from Portugal – Queijo da Estrela – was two years ago called the best sheep cheese in the world. A semi-soft cheese made from the milk of Bordaleira Serra da Estrela and Churra Mondegueira breed of sheep. Milking is done by hand, after which the milk is heated, salted and curled using thistle extract.

The cheese has a creamy interior, yellowish-white in color, while its flavor is sweet and slightly sour. It is the country’s oldest traditional food product with international acclaim. In the 13th century, the king of Portugal opened the first cheese market in Celorico da Beira, in the Serra da Estrela mountain range, where the cheese is still produced today.

 The Portuguese are among those, who spend the most on food in the EU. Eurostat data – reported by the weekly newspaper Expresso – show that the country ranks 1st among  the 27 member states, if the costs of living were the same all over Europe. 

 One wonders if all that eating has any relation with the fact that 6 in every 10 Portuguese are missing teeth?

Enjoy the week                     Aproveite a semana      (pic Tasteatlas)

 

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Women-2

‘Nothing about women without us’ – Xiomara Castro, President of Honduras

Despite low healthy life expectancy in later life, barriers in career progression, underpayment, increased unemployment, and a substantial risk of becoming a victim of gender-based violence – as discussed before – there are also some positive developments as far as Portuguese women are concerned. 


Women represent almost 50% of the authors of scientific articles in Portugal, placing the country in Europe at the forefront of the reduction of the gender gap in research.


Although women make up more than half of the doctorates, scientists, and engineers and – according to Census 21 – 60% of the professionals with training and tertiary employment, they still represent less than 30% of the Heads of Institutions in Higher Education and less than 15% of Executive Board Members in the country’s 50 biggest companies.



Women’s meat diets are responsible for less climate-heating emissions than those of men, according to a UK study published in the Guardian. One found animal products (mainly meat and dairy) were responsible for almost half of the diet’s greenhouse gas emissions. Men’s diets cause 40% more greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to eating more meat. One can speculate that it could be because men generally eat more food than women or that men may eat more traditional meat-based diets.


But maybe the best news for the empowerment of women last year was the marketing of a new brand of virgin olive oil called Clítoris, a name most probably deriving from the Greek kleitoris  (‘small hill’). The designer – whose family owns a 40-hectare property in Oliveira do Hospital – told Centro TV that ‘olive oil is all about pleasure’ and that the longitudinal cut of an olive reminded him of that vital part of the female anatomy.





FELIZ ANO NOVO         HAPPY NEW YEAR                  (pic Público/Sapo)









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Pork

The pig in Chinese astrology is tolerant and understanding, sympathetic and truthful. Pigs maintain order and authority and believe in justice.

Although Portuguese eat the most fish in the EU – over a kilo per person per week – pork remains extremely popular, especially in the north of the country. There – in Gimonde, near Bragança – you can even find a real pork museum (Museu do Bísaro), which says a lot about the national love for the beast.

Popular pork dishes are Leitão no forno (suckling pig – cooked for hours in wood-fired ovens with aromatic herbs), Bifana (pork steak in thin slices, often eaten on wheat bread called molete) and Rojões (cuts of pork from the thigh or belly, fried with lard and eaten with sauce of boiled blood and tripe).

There are many types of sausages (enchidos), encompassing an array of textures and tastes. Alheira, includes bread, chopped meat, and garlic. Morcela (or black pudding) is encased in jelly-textured blood, giving the sausage its consistency and dark colouring. Chouriça is a horseshoe-shaped smoked sausage, containing meat, blood, and pork fat of the indigenous Bísaro breed. Salpicão is also smoked but made primarily with pork loin.

In ancient Egypt, the pig was considered sacred and offered to the Moon, the Greeks honoured the goddess Porca and the Romans feasted on roasted piglets with honey.
Pigs – which descend from the wild boar (javali) – have been eaten worldwide for centuries, except by Jews and Muslims, who consider pork unclean.

Pig production in Europe is concentrated in a few countries. Denmark has the highest number of pigs per inhabitant, Portugal ten times less.

In recent years meat consumption has been placed under a magnifying glass in view of climate change –  pork production generates four times fewer greenhouse emissions than beef – and carcinogenicity.

The consumption of red and processed meat – any meat that has been modified by salting, drying or smoking to improve its taste or extend its shelf life – has been extensively evaluated by the World Health Organization, which concluded that 50 gram eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer. These findings support the most recent scientific recommendations to limit the intake of meat as much as possible. The less the better!

Bom fim de semana            Enjoy the weekend           (pic SAPO/Observador)

 

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