Whenever I want to show what Portuguese cuisine means in only one dish (a task which is both difficult and stifling) I think of … “Cozido à Portuguesa” (literally translated: “Boilt a la Portuguese”).
Do not be fooled by its simple name though, this is considered by many to be the national dish (I cannot say 100% of Portuguese agree with this, but then again, try getting two Portuguese to decide what is the best sweet made in Portugal and you could be in for hours of discussion).
Cozido À Portuguesa recipe
This dish is composed of a great variety of ingredients cooked in abundant amounts of water: different types of “greens” (kale, savoy cabbage, “tronchuda”, etc), rice, potatoes (yes, we love our carbs), beans, turnips, carrots, sausages (“chouriço”, “farinheira”, “moura”, etc), other types of meat (usually, pork) and sometimes with added bits of chicken (yes, we like our meat!).
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Ingredients for 6 people:
- 500g of beef
- 1 pig’s foot
- 1 pig’s ear
- 300g of pork chops
- 1 chouriço
- 1 meat chouriço (it has a lot more meat in it than the regular chouriço)
- 1 blood sausage
- 2 puddings (look for blood sausages such as Morcela or Moira)
- 1 rice pudding (a special type of blood sausage in which the stuffing also contains rice)
- 1800g of savoy cabbage
- 800g of Portuguese cabbage
- 2 turnips
- 4 potatoes
- 4 carrots
- 300g of rice
- 1 meat flavoured bouillon
- 1 chicken-flavored bouillon
- 1 vegetable-flavored bouillon
- Cooking salt (as much as you like it)
- Cloves (as much as you like them)
- 1 can of white kidney beans (cooked)
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Cozido À Portuguesa recipe
- Put the 3 bouillons, salt, cloves, and the chouriço on a big pot with water and let them boil.
- Clean the meats (beef, pork chops, pigs foot, pig’s ear, and meat “chouriço”) and add them to the pot to boil.
- Once all the meats are cooked, remove them from the pot and plate them.
- Wash the vegetables and add them to the water that was used to cook the meat. Let them boil for 5 minutes.
- Add the rice pudding, the turnips, and the carrots after cutting them into quarters. Let them boil for 5 minutes.
- In the meanwhile add the rice and some of the stock from the meats into another pot. Cook the rice as you normally would.
- Add the potatoes cut in half to the pot with the vegetables.
- Pierce the puddings and the “chouriço” with a toothpick and add them to the pot.
- After 4 minutes remove the blood sausage.
- Remove some of the stock to another pot and add the beans, letting them cook for 2 minutes.
- When everything is cooked, cut the meats and plate everything.
Not visual enough?
Book a Food Tour today and get unique access to an online show cooking class where you’ll learn how to make Cozido À Portuguesa. Always with the guidance of our food-obsessed tour guides.
