Tagged: Sandwich

Appetizers / Photo Gallery / Recipes / sandwich / Traditional customs

Romeo and Juliet Sandwich

cheese and marmelade The Romeo and Juliet – Cheese and Marmelade Sandwich

The love story of the perfect couple; Romeo and Juliet, inspired the name for this perfect sandwich combination of tangy Sao Jorge cheese from the Azores, Portugal and sweet Quince Marmelada.

However, feel free to use any of your favorite sharp cheese if you can’t get the Sao Jorge type.

sao jorge cheese

The true Portuguese love story of Ines de Castro and King Pedro happened long before Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet but it is said, that this story of love – tragedy – and of a haunting, may have been Shakespeare’s inspiration.

Prince Pedro, the son of King Afonso IV was the heir to the Portuguese throne.  When he was 19 his father had him marry Constança of Castile (Spain) in order to build an alliance in 1340.

Ines de Castro,a daughter of a nobleman from Castile, was a lady-in-waiting to the Princess Constance. Ines was a radiant beauty who stole Pedro’s heart and they quickly fell madly in love.

Click on the image below for the love story.

inesandpedro

 

Recipe for Marmelada – Quince Marmelade

quince fruitIngredients:

4 and ½ pounds Quince

2 and ½ cups sugar

1 cinnamon stick

Water as needed

Preparation:

Wash, peel and remove pits from fruit and cut into chunks. Place fruit in a pan and cover with water. Add cinnamon stick and cook until cooked. Drain and remove cinnamon stick.

Puree with immersion blender until creamy. In the same pan, add sugar and cook on medium heat stirring often until a clear line forms in the center of pan with a wooden spoon.

Cool and place in plastic containers. Store up to 3 months in refrigerator.

 

 

Appetizers / Main Dish / Photo Gallery / sandwich / Side Dish

Chourico a Cavalo – Chourico on Horseback

This is my husbands favorite sandwich. He is definitely a chouricoholic and never says no to anything with chourco! This recipe is simply easy to cook and the best part is it’s so delicious. A perfect easy dish for breakfast, lunch or dinner!   Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 small chourico sausage (sliced lengthwise)

1/2 small onion (finely sliced)

1 egg

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon white wine

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 Portuguese roll or any favorite bread

Preparation:

In a small skillet on medium heat place 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat until hot, but not smoky. Add the chourico and cook until golden brown and slightly crispy on both sides.

Remove from pan when done and add the onions. Cook onions on medium until golden brown stirring often. If the pan is to hot lower heat.  I like my onions slightly undercooked but you cook them more or less to your preference.

Add the wine and cook for about 2 minutes stirring often. Remove onions from heat and set aside while you cook the egg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a nonstick skillet on medium heat. When the oil is hot but not smoky, add the egg and fry until the edges are crispy. Lower heat if necessary.

Turn off heat and remove pan from burner.

Place the chourico on bread with the onions on top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add the fried egg on top of the onions and serve with the bread over it or on the side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appetizers / Main Dish / Photo Gallery / Recipes / Side Dish

Easy Sliders on Sweet Rolls

I made these slider using King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. The bread tastes like my recipe; classic Portuguese Sweet Bread, so be warned that the rolls are delicious and you’ll eat the whole bag in one day! The bread has it’s beginnings in the 1950’s in Hilo, Hawaii where Robert Taira, the Hawaiian-born son of Japanese immigrants opened his first bakeshop.

Portuguese Sweet Bread is famous in Hawaii, visit this website Kona Historical Society where you’ll find the history of the Portuguese and the sweet bread in Hawaii. Maybe these King’s Hawaiian rolls were inspired by the Portuguese recipe.

 

The sliders were easy to make because instead of making small patties one by one, I simply formed the meat into meatballs and then flattened them with a spatula. They all come out perfectly shaped tiny sliders.

Sliders:

16 Hawaiian buns or Sliders buns

4 hamburgers

Toppings:

Cheese

Lettuce

Onion

Sliced Tomato

Ketchup

Sesame seeds

melted butter 

Cook burgers and cut into fourths. Top with cheese and turn off heat. Set aside and keep warm until ready to assemble sliders.

Main Dish / Photo Gallery / Sauces and Jams

Francesinha – Little Frenchie Portuguese Sandwich

It is said that the now famous;  Francesinha was invented in the city of Porto, Portugal, in the 1960’s by  Daniel da Silva, a returned emigrant from France who tried to adapt the croque-monsieur  to Portuguese tastes.  There is no standard recipe for the sandwich which is typically made with ham, Portuguese sausage, and steak but there are many adaptations using different types of ham, sausages and various roasted meats other than steak. The rich beer and tomato based sauce that covers the sandwich is a secret but there are many variations. Some use a tomatoes, while others use various ingredients to create the sauce with different levels of spiciness added.

The sandwich is famous throughout the city of Porto and featured at many restaurants. Visit the “For the Love of Port” website for their article “Best Fransicinha in Porto”; A comprehensive tasting and find the very best preparation of the sandwich throughout the city.

Here are 2 interesting videos of how the recipe is made which I enjoyed watching.

Recipe from Portuguese Soul Food:

Recipe from Saborintenso in Portuguese:

 

 

Recipe by pratos-e-travessas.blogspot.com

Image credit: http://pratos-e-travessas.blogspot.com

Ingredients: 1 francesinha
2 slices of white, but not to soft, slices with aprox. 2 cm/0.8 inches thickness (I buy a whole loaf and cut it into slices)
1 linguiça
1 fresh sausage
1 small veal steak
2 slices of mild ham
7 to 8 thin slices of cheese
1 egg

Sauce: serves 4 or 5
6,6 dl beer (2 cans)
4 dl semi skimmed milk
1 dl whisky
2 dl tomato passata
1 bay leaf
1 medium carrot, peeled
1 small veal steak
2 cubes of meat stock
2 tsps corn starch dissolved in a bit of milk
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Piri Piri (portuguese hot chili sauce)

Fries:
Potatoes cut into
Corn, soy or sunflower oil to fry

Preparation:
*Place all the ingredients for the sauce (except the corn starch and the piri piri) inside a heavy bottomed pan and take to the heat. Cook for aprox. 30 minutes in meddium heat. Season with salt and pepper and remove the carrot, bay leaf and steak.
*Add the dissolved corn starch to the sauce a bit at a time, stir, let it come to a boil and if it´s still to runny add a bit more. Don´t make a very thick sauce, it should fall from the wooden spoon in a constant thread, ending up in thick drops.
*Remove from the heat and add the piri piri to taste, which in my case means lots of it.
*Grill the meats, I use a press grill because it´s easier to cook the sausage and linguiça. Cut the sausage and linguiça in half and then in 4 equal parts.
Fries:
*Cover the potatoes with cold water and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes or up to a day.
*Fill a deep frying pan up to 2/3 with oil and heat it very well, drain the potatoes and clean them with a kitchen towel. Fry in small batches until golden. Drain on top of kitchen paper.
*This way the fries will be crisp outside and soft on the inside.
Assembly:
*On top of a slice of bread place first a slice of cheese, on top place a slice of ham, then the 4 pieces of linguiça, on top the steak, followed by the fresh sausage, another slice of ham and another slice of cheese, top with the other slice of bread and on top a slice of cheese. Place one slice of cheese in each side of the sandwich – You can hold the cheese with skewers and remove them once the cheese is melted, later – and place one more on top.
*Put the sandwich inside a preheated oven for a couple of minutes just so the cheese starts to melt but let it toast. If you used skewers now is time to remove them.
*Fry the egg in a bit of hot oil.
*Remove from the oven, put the fried egg on top of the sandwich and immediately pour the very hot sauce over it – you want the bottom of the sandwich immerse in sauce – and serve with the fries and a cold, cold beer.
*Keep a bowl with the sauce near so you can add more as you go.