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The Portuguese Conspiracy Supperclub – Session 1
Menu
Starters
Tostas de queijo da serra e mel, com tâmaras enroladas em presunto.
Mountain goat cheese & honey canapes served with dates wrapped in dried cured ham.
The king of Portuguese cheese – Queijo da Serra da Estrela. This raw sheep’s milk mountain cheese is produced in one of the coldest and highest regions in Portugal (a plateau 2,000 meters above sea level) during March and November every year. Production is strictly controlled and everything is done by hand – even the curds are made by hand from the milk of the Bordaleira sheep that are still herded by shepherds of the Serra da Estrela Mountains in Beira.
Wine:Quinta da Palmirinha Loureiro 2010
Organic, Biodynamic, production 2500 bottles per year; Grape Varieties: Loureiro, 100%. Produced with philosophy of balance of mineral, vegetable and animal, this wine from Vinho Verde is a lot more serious than its typical siblings. Will clean your pallate with citrusy freshness, but the finish will echo for ages with its complex notes.
Main Courses
Folhado de alheira com grelos.
Game “Alheira“ with sautéed sprouts nestled in a crispy filo pastry.
Traditionally smoked, it owes it’s name to one of its main ingredients: Alho (garlic) and was originally conceived to deceive the 15th century Portuguese Catholic inquisition, the “Alheira” worked out to be the perfect camouflage …
Wine: Duas Vinhas 2010 red Vinho Verde
This is a slightly spritzy amazing explosion of crunchy spicy fruit. Can not be topped to go with game Alheira (Organic production 20000 bottles per year; Grape Varieties: Tinta Nacional, 100%. )
Bacalhau com Natas.
Layers of salted dried codfish, onion, diced potatoes with cream and white sauce.
Dried, salted codfish “Bacalhau” has been present in Portuguese cuisine for about 500 years (a long time indeed). Throughout the centuries the art of making Bacalhau has been mastered and expanded by kitchen artists. In Portugal there are 1001 ways to cook cod, it’s a fundamental part of our history, our gastronomy and even cultural identity.
Wine: Bafarela Reserva Douro Red 2010
Delicious sophisticated evolve-in-the-glass, with nice fruitiness but also with lactic tones to go with creaminess of com natas sauce and rich mouthwatering minerality to compliment the saltiness of the cod.
Desserts
Pão de Ló de Alfeizeirão.
Sponge cake with a thin layer of runny sweet egg yolk under the baked topping
Alfeizerão is one of the most popular Portuguese recipes for sponge cake, whose fame extends well beyond the borders of its traditional origins. Its characteristically dry appearance conceals the richness and complexity of the underlying layer of creamy egg yolk. More on this Pão-de-Ló here
Requeijão com doce de Abóbora e nozes.
Curd cheese with homemade pumpkin&walnuts jam
Curd cheese is the result of Serra da Estrela cheese production by precipitation or draining (trough heat) of the proteins contained in the whey.Toped with homemade pumpkin and walnut jam this is an explosion of freshness and one of the most vivid examples of the tradicional Portuguese desserts:Simple but powerful:-)
Wines: Quinta do Prado Late Harvest 2011
The fruit is left to mature for longer and the harvest can take place as late as in the 4rd week of October. This allows the grapes to be covered with noble rot. Noble rot is a fungal condition that affects grapes only in a few exclusive regions around the world, due to their climatic uniqueness where wet conditions are followed by dry, like Tokaj and Sauternes.
Port Wine:Morgadio da Calcada 2007
Late Bottled Vintage Beautiful structured port, with sweetness that is not everpowering, still having the tannins and acidity to cut the rich desert with the freshness.