Vila Nova de Gaia (or simply Gaia) is a city across the river from Porto. All the cellars (locally known as “caves”) where the port is stored and aged are there. This was our base for our last week in Portugal.
Category: Cuisine
We went to Portugal in February and it was the most incredible holiday. We loved the country – the beautiful landscapes, beaches, architecture, people and of course the glorious food !
This dish almost seems Arabic instead of European with the use of sultanas and pine nuts. This is not surprising as Sicily was under Arab rule from 827 to 1061 and Sicilian cuisine was strongly influenced by the Arabs.
Vietnamese caramelised pork belly is a dish traditionally served during Tết (Vietnamese New Year). Pork is marinated in a salty sweet sauce and cooked in coconut juice – Vietnamese comfort food at its best.
“Kook en Geniet” is the most successful South African cookbook ever published. First published in 1951 and over a million copies later, this is the cookbook to use if you are looking for authentic South African recipes. Adrienne received a copy as a gift a while ago and decided to make lamb sosaties.
We’ve had a beautiful springbok loin in the freezer for a while now, just begging to be cooked. I could not decide on just one sauce to make for it, so ended up making four. My choices were a blackberry, chocolate, gin and juniper and whiskey cream sauce.
Here in South Africa we tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to making curry. Chicken, lamb and beef are usually the meat of choice, whether we are making an Indian or a traditional South African curry.
As goat curry is a very popular dish in India, we decided to make a curry with some of the springbok that we have in our freezer.
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Legend has it that in 1574 there was a glassmaker’s assistant in Milan whose nickname was Zaffereno (Saffron). He always mixed a bit of saffron into the colours for the stained glass to make it more vivid. The glassmaker used to joke that he’ll be putting it into risotto next. When the glassmaker’s daughter got married he did just that. The steaming pots of golden rice was a huge success with the guests and it became a classic Milanese dish.