Francesinha

Francesinha is a very popular dish in Oporto, invented by Daniel David Silva, a former immigrant in France. Back to Portugal, missing the famous croque-monsieur, he came up with a big hot sandwich on a plate stuffed with sausages, beef and ham, topped by a fried egg and covered with melted cheese and spicy sauce made out of beer and tomatoes. It usually comes with french fries on the side.

In Oporto and cities nearby, people like to have it for dinner, specially if they can dance it off later, and, obviously, there are many many places all over the city specialized in francesinha and no consensus on which restaurant makes the best one, so we have to go and try some of them.

Last weekend I went to a place near the river Douro and ate the biggest francesinha I had ever seen. Although I appreciated the fact that the bread had been previously toasted, I couldn't finish it. Still, I recommend Verso em Pedra. Just don't ask for the soft sauce: instead, ask for the regular one, not too spicy.

Chicken fricassee with gratinated asparagus

Yesterday evening I wanted a cosy and romantic week dinner. It couldn't take too long to cook but it should be tasty and very comfortable. It's one of the best things about being a couple with no children, yet: enjoying those little moments that normally we don't care much about and make it the best moment of our lives. And food really helps.

Ingredients:

1 pack of chicken fricassee

Big and chunky white asparagus (as many as you want)

Goat and/or emmental cheese

Recipe:

Season the chicken pieces with salt, lemon juice and a bit of lemon zest, paprika and pepper. Add enough cooking white wine and place it in the hoven at 180ºC for about 30 minutes.

Place the asparagus in a glass pyrex and cover it with cheese. Let it gratinate for about 10 minutes also at 180ºC.

It's a very simple yet tasty dish that can be served with a glass of wine.

Internship-for-a-honeymon report - Street food

Soupe à l'oignon gratinée / French onion soup / Sopa de cebola gratinada

One of the best things about Paris is its multiplicity of cultures, which allows us to see, try, listen and experience many things about other countries without actually having to go there.

One of the best things about Paris is the enormous offer of street food, which includes national and international gastronomy that people can eat during the day, whether they're going to work or they're visiting around.

 So one of the best things about Paris is that you can easily try many different flavours, picking up snacks in a boulangerie or in one of the markets you can find in almost every neighborhood. You just can't be picky nor germophobic! 

Viennoise au chocolat - I really love this sweet bread with chocolate chips
Adoro este pão doce com pepitas de chocolate

(Keep reading for more pictures)

Tomato tower

Saturday dinner is my favourite one. You have spent the day doing whatever you like and, as a bonus, you have plenty of time to prepare a nice dinner and to enjoy it for as long as you want. It's a great way to relax after and before a week full of work, where your time is counted and you have almost no time to properly appreciate your meals.

That's why I put an extra effort to this saturday's meal and started out with a vegetarian appetizer that went great with a glass of red wine.

Ingredients:

1 or 2 plum tomatoes

1 big chunk of a salty goat cheese

Fried onions (from Ikea)

Some basil leaves

Recipe:

Wash the tomatoes and the basil leaves. Slice the tomatoes and place them on a plate. On top of each slice put a bit of cheese, one tea spoon of fried onions and, for a perfect combination of tastes, one or half of a basil leaf.

Don't add any salt, but you can't say no to a pinch of pepper.

Lemon mousse

For a cosy dinner at a friendly couple's place I made lemon mousse, by request.

It's a very soft but sweet dessert, with a nice citrine fragrance and very fresh, good for those hot summer days.

There is still a very small cup in my fridge, waiting for me to take care of it.

Ingredients:

1 big can of condensed milk or 2 small/regular cans

4 lemons

2 plain yoghurts

Recipe:

Grate the zest of two big lemons and squeeze the juice of the four of it.

In a bowl pour the condensed milk, the yoghurts and the lemon juice and mix it until you get a creamy mixture. Then place it in a nice serving bowl and pinch the lemon zest on top of it.

Take it to the fridge for at least two hours.

Serve it cold and enjoy.

Internship-for-a-honeymoon report - Crepes

Au P'tit Grec - The most delicious salty crepes

One of my favourite components of tourism is the local gastronomy, which includes all the foreign restaurants and markets that immigrants have in every city.

For my internship-for-a-real-honeymoon I went with my husband to Paris, where we met five years ago, to relive every place, every street, every corner, every smell and every memory and it was a very pleasant weekend. One of the best things about going back to a place you know so well is that you don't have to get into every single museum, you don't need to make a pit stop in every single touristic point and you can choose the ones you already know you like the best. And that's what we did.

We also knew where and what we wanted to eat or to taste, so it was a high caloric trip, but also very tasty.

There's a very nice place in Rue Mouffetard called Au P'tit Grec, where a group of five greek men make sweet and salty crepes but I, for one, think it's a shame to go there and not trying at least a salty one, since they are so good and so big they can be very nice dinner. I had the same I always did: mushrooms and lots and lots of emmental cheese; and my husband tried one with egg, ham and also lots and lots of emmental cheese. They all come with lettuce, tomato and onion, but this time I didn't want the tomato.

It was an explosion of taste I hadn't felt again in four years and that I was craving for, for a long time.

Cheeseballs

Since the wedding is over and so is my very strict diet, I can restart cooking. And the best thing about a portuguese wedding is that, afterwards, you have your fridge completely full of fruit, meat, desserts and cheese.

For my coming back to the kitchen I baked cheeseballs with some of the leftovers. I really don't know what cheese I used but it was a really soft one, not very salty, and you can use almost any kind of cheese you like.

Ingredients:

200g of grated cheese

150g of butter or margarine

150g of wheat flour

1 pinch of salt (if the cheese is not salty enough)

Recipe:

Preheat the oven at 150ºC.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with your hands until you get a moist mixture.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper and form medals with the dough. Place them apart on the paper and take it to the oven for about 20-30 minutes.