Portuguese Gastronomy by Rodrigo José Morgado Pereira

Leitão à Bairrada

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:24:50 UTC

Ingredients:

1 piglet weighing about 6 kg

Orange slices for garnish

lots of pepper

1 bunch of parsley

minced garlic

Coarse salt

lard

Preparation:

Clean:

1 - Once dead, dip the piglet in boiling water and scrape it off with a knife, rubbing it with a rough cloth to remove the hair, then wash it very well. Open the piglet and remove the casings. Wash the piglet again and hang it on a nail, where it should be left to dry for 4 hours.

Preparation of the Leitão à Bairrada:

2 - Put the suckling pig on a skewer and pass the lard mixture, crushed garlic cloves, salt and pepper inside, being filled with the sauce inside. Sew the pork with a needle and kitchen thread, while heating the oven to cook.

Bake:

3 - Put the suckling pig in the oven, placing the container under it to catch the dripping fat. Every ½ hour, remove the suckling pig from the oven and rub the skin with a cloth to remove excess fat.

Finalization:

4 - When you take the pig out and clean it, it suffers a cold shock, which will cause the roast to have a hard and crispy skin. Cooking time varies between 1 hour and ½ to 2 hours. After roasting, remove from the skewer and place on a platter.

The origin of Leitão à Bairrada:

The first record of Leitão da Bairrada is from the year 1743, from a recipe published by the Monastery of Lorvão or by the Monastery of Vacariça.

However, it is estimated that the dish may be older, as the Bairrada region gained prominence in the country for the creation of piglets in the 17th century.

The commercialization of Leitão da Bairrada gained strength from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century, being found in the municipalities of Mealhada, Anadia, Águeda, Oliveira do Bairro, Cantanhede and in the north of the municipality of Coimbra.

In 1995, the Confraria Gastronómica do Leitão da Bairrada was founded, with the aim of regulating and defending the commercialization of the dish within the Bairrada region.

Recently, in 2011, Leitão da Bairrada was recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of Portuguese Gastronomy, forming part of the country's historical and gastronomic heritage.

Leitão à Bairrada is from the city of Mealhada.

Aveiro District.

Confection:

Traditionally, Bairrada suckling pig is arranged before being cooked. However, if you buy a piglet that has already been cleaned, you will not need to take the first steps indicated in the recipe. Anyway, to make it, you should have a wood oven.

Dip the piglet in boiling water and scrape it off with a knife. Rub it with a rough cloth to remove the hairs, then wash it very well.

Open the piglet and remove its guts.

Wash it again and hang it on a nail, letting it dry for four hours.

Meanwhile, crush the mortar spices well. Add the butter, stirring constantly until you get a regular dough. Finally, add the oil and fold it into the seasoning dough.

Place the piglet in a long aspect and tie the legs to the skewer pole with a thin wire, leaving the hands free.

Coat the piglet well, both inside and outside, with the seasoning, introducing what is left in the belly area and in all the empty parts. Traditionally, the thighs and shoulders are also seasoned where there is meat with more height, giving a few stings, with the sewing needle, properly bathed with the seasoning.

A needle called a “pigtail needle”, a type of bag sewing but smaller, and a linen or cotton thread, better known as spool thread or north thread, are then sewn. That said, the piglet is ready to go into the oven.

Light the oven and, while it heats up, with a needle and kitchen thread, sew the open tears in the belly and between the hands or neck of the animal.

Put the suckling pig in the oven for one to two hours, placing a container underneath to collect the fat that will spill out when cooking.

Watch the paste at ½ hour intervals and “constipate” the piglet, that is, remove it from the oven and pass a cloth over the skin to clean the excess fat.

When you take the suckling pig out of the oven, it suffers a cold shock, which will leave it with a hard and crispy skin (characteristic of the traditional recipe).

Once roasted, remove the suckling pig from the skewer, place it on a platter and serve hot, garnished with orange wheels and lettuce.

Accompany boiled potatoes with skin.

Cidade Mealhada

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:25:44 UTC

Aveiro district

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:26:40 UTC

Raia Enjambrada

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:37:29 UTC

Ingredients:

• 2 kg of ray

• 200 ml of olive oil

• 6 to 8 unpeeled garlic cloves

• pepper q.s.

• salt q.s. for the potatoes

• 1 kg of potatoes for roasting

Preparation:

Morning and wash the ray well. sprinkle with salt for an hour and hang in a covered place and well ventilated, turning, from time to time, until be completely dry. The chosen location for this treatment it has to be insect free and dust. When the stingray skin presents itself. Wrinkled, it's ready to grill. serve the lane grilled and shredded, seasoned with fine olive oil,garlic and pepper. Follow up normally with the mashed potatoes.

Raia Enjambrada is from Figueira da Foz.

Coimbra District.

Confection and origin:

Being one of the most appreciated snacks and lunches, also used as a meal for fishermen, we cannot fail to mention the raia das tranqueiras (dry ray) that used to scenography the walls of Buarcos. For its preparation, half dried ray is used by means of salting. The recipe, most commonly associated with the parish of Buarcos, is present in local gastronomic events and occasionally appears in local restaurants. This fish, fresh, dried and salted, is sold in the municipal market and in several commercial establishments in the municipality. Figueira da Foz saw the birth of the Gastronomic Association “Campanha da Raia” in 2012, in the service of defending the ray as a gastronomic heritage. It lists in its objectives the possibility of captivating the designation of Raia for this region. They propose to establish with other entities, associations, confraternities or groups, effective ways of promoting the local gastronomic heritage. Its initiative in creating markedly innovative recipes with the streak as the protagonist is noteworthy. Ray pastries; Lower Mondego style streak; Chora of ray; Pão de raia or Empadas de raia are, from now, the most requested in the gastronomic events promoted by the Company.

Figueira da Foz

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:37:53 UTC

Coimbra district

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:38:23 UTC

Colhões de SãoGonçalo/Caralhinhos

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:49:21 UTC

Ingredients:

20 g of yeast for bread

7 tablespoons of sugar

3 tablespoons butter at room temperature

1 pinch of salt

2 eggs

300 ml of milk

About 800 g of flour

Preparation:

Add all the ingredients in a bowl except the flour and beat a little with your hand to combine them.
Add the flour little by little, until the dough comes off the bowl (you may need a little more flour).
Knead a little until the dough comes off the hands and bowl (about 5 minutes).
Let the dough rest for about 40 minutes to 1 hour (it should double in volume).
Take a ball of dough, and shape it into a long cylinder.
Make a cut with a knife on one end and roll the ends into two balls, one on each side.
Fold the dough a little at the other end, pressing down.

8. Brush with egg yolk and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.

To the roof:

Place three tablespoons of powdered sugar in a bowl and add a few drops of lemon juice to melt the sugar.

2. Brush the cakes with this syrup and let dry.

Colhões de São Gonçalo/Caralhinhos is from Amarante.

Porto district.

Origin:The phallic sweets are a regular feature of the Pilgrimages of Amarante and are linked to the cult of S. Gonçalo, the patron saint of the county.

There are several names for this amaranthine sweet. Phallic sweets is what best describes it with sweet words. But there are more, and less obvious. In the end, the word that popularized it was the one we highlight – Colhões de São Gonçalo, or, alternatively, Caralhinhos.

Anyone who sees the origin of these sweets in the region's recent past as a bad joke in the city's pastry shops is wrong. Those looking for the origin in the cult of Saint Gonçalo, who spent most of his life here, are also wrong, because, although ancient, he does not go far enough in the explanation.

To arrive at true justification, it is necessary to go to a more hazy, pre-Christian, and influential time than what would later become in the Amarantine devotion to its patron saint.

The truth is that Gonçalo (who is blessed, the attribution of saint came from the people and not from the church) was known for the weddings he helped to perform. And this story was fundamental for the saint's image as a substitute for old rites linked to fertility.

His fame as a matchmaker – as happened with Santo António – came in handy, in a way of merging the pagan with the Christianity that had been institutionalized in the meantime.

It was thus linked to ancient religious services, of worshiping the fecundity of the earth. Saves old ladies from widowhood, helping them to remarry. He helps the impotence of men, who prayed to him to ask for a solution. Single women brush their bodies at the saint's tomb in order to become fertile or find a husband.

And they began to honor it with a symbol as old as human existence, the phallus, which is made here with the originality of traditional sweets, and which we started to call, very graphically, caralhinhos or colhões or even quilhõezinhos de São Gonçalo.

And the old women pray to Saint Gonçalo:

“Saint Gonçalo de Amarante

old woman matchmaker

Why not marry the new ones

What harm did they do to you?

Sao Goncalo de Amarante

marry me you can

I already have cobwebs

In what you know"

São Gonçalo

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:50:12 UTC

Amarante

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:52:39 UTC

Porto

a115463 — 2022-06-09 09:52:57 UTC

a115463 — 2022-06-09 14:06:44 UTC

Profa: Maria Saudade Pola
Work done by: Rodrigo Pereira Nº 22 10ºF