This recipe comes from Rebecca Seal's picturesque cookbook 

Lisbon: Recipes from the Heart of Portugal

. Think of it as a Scotch egg minus the meat, or a deep-fried deviled egg, with a filling of parsley and white wine vinegar. The filling does not have mayo, like a traditional deviled egg, but the snack tastes very good dipped in a spicy mayonnaise. To make piri piri mayonnaise (for dipping), mix a little bit of piri piri sauce (or another hot sauce of your choice) to mayo and adjust for taste. Featured In: 

How to Eat Snacks for Dinner, the Portuguese Way

Ovos Verdes (Portuguese "Green Eggs")

If you’re on the hunt for the softest, fluffiest dessert, castella takes the cake. I find this cake style spongier than Victoria sponges, more refined than genoises, and more pillowy and cloudlike than chiffons.

Castella cakes hail from Japan, but are said to have landed there by way of an eggy, fluffy Portuguese cake called pão de Castela or pão de ló, introduced to the Japanese population by merchants during the 16th-century Age of Exploration. By the 20th century, the cake took off in Taiwan, where traditional bakeries and cake shops put their own spin on it, baking the castella cakes in large-format, arm-span-wide cake trays. This Taiwanese version then catalyzed a bigger popularity boom, spreading the cult of castella cake across Asia. At one point in the late 2010s, there were at least a dozen castella cake specialty shops in the neighborhoods around me in Malaysia, each touting to have the jiggliest, fluffiest one.

Despite the air miles on castella cake, the technique largely remained the same. At its most basic, the batter is made with flour, sugar, milk, and beaten separated eggs (the whites of which provide fluffy levity of the cake). The batter is baked low and slow until it springs up into a jiggly, airy dome, with the insides light as a down pillow.

The flavor of castella, on the other hand, has seen countless riffs. I’ve encountered (and eaten) traditional vanilla-scented ones, chocolate- and matcha-flavored, hyper-localized versions infused with pandan and durian, even savory versions with pops of melted cheese. As a personal addition to the catalog of castella flavors, I developed a recipe for Neapolitan castella cake. Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry cake batters are layered into the same baking tin to get a tri-colored, tri-flavored cake.

It might take a little longer to make than most castellas—you have to split the batter in thirds and flavor each separately—but just as Neapolitan ice cream is the dream flavor for those who love variety (or are just indecisive), this Neapolitan castella cake will elicit the same delight.

Note: Sometimes the three batters might not stay in neat layers, which depends mostly on how much the batter is folded, You want to fold the batter until the meringue is fully incorporated without any whitish pockets of whipped egg whites, but not fold it so much that it deflates and turns soupy, which will encourage the layers to bleed into each other. If your cake should marble and melt into a Dalí-like work of art, don’t fret: It will be just as tasty. 

Neapolitan Castella Cake

Slightly adapted from the recipe of Chef Jose Avillez and inspired by the bacalhau à brás I ate at a restaurant called 

 in Porto, Portugal. Don't forget to soak the salt cod overnight, replacing the water one or two times, to make sure the cod isn't too salty.

Bacalhau à Brás (Salt Cod With Potatoes & Eggs)

"Cataplana" is the word for both the dish and the spherical pot it's cooked and served in. This pork and seafood stew is found in the Algarve, in Portugal. You don't need a cataplana to make this; a Dutch oven or large pot with a tight-fitting lid does the trick (though it may not be quite the same). The shrimp stock recipe was adapted from 

 by George Mendes. The cataplana recipe was inspired by 

Portuguese Cataplana

I grew up in a household that was both Italian American and Portuguese American. My mom’s side of the family is Portuguese, and I was lucky enough to eat her delicious Portuguese food throughout my entire childhood. She was not alone; all of my many tias (aunts) were very active in the kitchen, and when the whole family got together, the feasting was unparalleled. (Please don’t tell anyone on the Italian side of my family that I said that, okay?) 

One of my favorite dishes that Mom made was her Portuguese rice. Variations on this dish exist throughout Portuguese cuisine, and like most things, everyone adds their own special touch. The star ingredient here is linguiça, which is a smoked pork sausage flavored with paprika and garlic. It’s a perfect one-pot situation and very much a “mom” recipe, which is probably why we ate it so often. 

I recently got together with my mom, and we embarked on the journey of re-creating her Portuguese rice recipe, which, of course, was never written down, like so many of the best recipes. We called a few tias and got their takes on it, and then set a course recipe-testing together. We didn’t stop until we were transported back in time to our kitchen table, enjoying a meal together as a family, my face covered in rice and hers covered in a smile. 

This recipe was featured on our new cook-along podcast 

. Listen as Dan Pelosi cooks his way through this recipe, offering insider tips and backstory along the way.

Mom’s Portuguese Rice 

This is a riff on the classic Portuguese Caldo Verde, a deceptively simple soup of olive oil, potatoes, Linguica sausage, and kale. I got the idea to substitute cauliflower for the potatoes from a mashed-potato alternative of cauliflower, fennel seed, and white beans my father used to make. I roast the cauliflower with smoked paprika and cumin for added depth of flavor.

Caldo Verde (Portuguese Soup with Cauliflower)

A couple of years ago, my husband and I went to Portugal with friends. We traveled all over the country, and often for lunch, we found small, family-run restaurants where the husband fished, and the wife made a stew out of whatever was fresh-caught that day. These were some of our favorite meals—super fresh seafood prepared simply in a flavorful broth. 

 has since become one of our favorite suppers. Served with a green salad, a loaf of rustic bread, and lots of wine, this stew makes for a homey dinner with friends.

Portuguese Seafood Stew that Reminds Us of Portugal

This dish is inspired by Rachel Laudan's linguiça recipe in "The Food of Paradise." To make a classic Hawaiian breakfast plate, pile desired number of sausage rounds onto a plate with rice and eggs your way. 

Portuguese Sausage (Linguiça)

The Macanese have two types of Batatada: one with white potatoes and one with sweet potatoes. In both cases, Batatada is so moist from the potatoes that it is typically served unadorned, enjoyed as a dessert or a teatime snack. In the following pages we have included our recipes for both. Here is a very modernized interpretation of the white potato Batatada served to us at Dona Aida de Jesus’s Riquexó. The texture of Dona Aida’s Batatada was reminiscent of a dense cheesecake, so we ran with that and incorporated coconut yogurt for a little zing and seasonal fruit for garnish. We are probably going to authenticity hell for this, but we even added salted potato chips for crunch. Sorry, Aida... it’s delicious! 

That being said, it is great enjoyed on its own with tea, as the Macanese do. Or treat this as a blank canvas for in-season fruits: We shot this book in the fall and used cape gooseberries, fresh figs, and pomegranate.

Reprinted with permission from The Adventures of Fat Rice by Abraham Conlon, Adrienne Lo, and Hugh Amano, copyright © 2016. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House LLC.


Batatada (Macanese Potato Cake)

Let me begin by first asking for your help in getting through the gigantic stash of bebinca I have in my fridge right now. It really is absolutely insane. Over the past few days I have tested and tweaked this bebinca recipe no less than five times, trying to inject as much coconut flavor into this dessert as I possibly can. Now I have a fridge overflowing with bebinca, displayed in a baking dish, in a brownie pan, in four ramekins and a spring-form pan. Someone send help, please?! (On the positive side though, my house smells amazing!)

It all started when I saw Atul Kochhar make bebinca on TV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXSob5JfqjI). Unfortunately, he didn’t provide a complete recipe. However, the dish looked so good, and each bite seemed so scrumptious, I knew I had to try replicating it. And thus began four days of tussling with a recipe where I played with the ratio of flour, coconut milk, sugar, and eggs until I got the texture and flavor that I loved! Trying to make the batter too pancake-y (as talked about on the show) ended up in a dense cake, so I veered towards a lighter, more crepe-like batter. This batter worked far better and yielded layers that were delicate yet full of flavor. I added the lime zest and juice to cut through some of the sweetness and also added some cardamom powder, which pairs so well with coconut.

Don’t let the seven individual layers stop you from making this dessert. You are going to love it! :) 

Bebinca: Goan Layered Coconut Cake

This recipe came from one of those Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard moments.  Originally I made it with 2 oz. of pancetta because that is what we had, the next time I had linguica on hand.  Jim and the kids prefer the linguica, I prefer the pancetta.  I leave that choice up to you. 

Breakfast Polenta with Linguica (or Pancetta) and Fried Rosemary

Christmas is always spent with my family in Portugal, eating traditional Portuguese food and desserts. By the 23rd I’m starting the first of 3 or 4 King’s Cakes. No matter how big I make it, it disappears in 24 hours. 
I dedicate this recipe to my father who was my number 1 fan and who would eat my King's Cake for dessert, breakfast, tea and just one more slice before going to bed. 
Although we eat it for Christmas and you can even find it in pastry shops all year round, King's Cake was traditionally offered to people on King’s Day (6th of January). Apart from it's ingredients, this cake has a very curious particularity – being an offering, in respect to the Three Wise Men, it has 2 things inside - a small gift wrapped in parchment paper (normally a little metal saint or a coin) and a dry broad bean. The person who gets the slice with the gift keeps it. The person who gets the dry broad been will have to pay for next year's cake. So you can imagine, as a child, how many slices we went through to get to the gift. 
Basically, it’s a brioche dough to which you add dried nuts, dried and candied fruit and you shape it as a crown with a hole in the middle. In the past years, a new version has come up without the candied fruits because so many people don't like them. This new version is called Queen's Cake. If making the Queen's Cake, omit all the candied fruit. - Maria Teresa Jorge

Christmas King's Cake - Bolo Rei (Portugal)

PALLAPPAM (Crisp Laced Rice Pancakes)
A classic Kerala bread, this is supposed to have been introduced by the Portuguese centuries ago, from Ceylon. It was for many years a typical Syrian Christian food. It s still served in Christian families for breakfast. It has also developed appeal among other peoples of Kerala too, and is regularly served as a starter for lunch and dinner. I recently  changed the family version recipe and this   made and excellent result 


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