A Portuguese speciality? our Pesticos!
Everyone knows Spanish tapas.... Portugal has nothing to envy on this point to its great neighbour and offers, for its part, extraordinary " Petiscos". At first, very popular, Petiscos are now at the top of the list of the most sought-after cafés, pubs, and restaurants.
★ Rissóis de Camarão
Rissóis are small fried doughnuts tasted cold or hot. There are two main types of them: The "rissóis de camarão" (shrimp fritters) and the "rissóis de leitão" (piglet meat fritters). We are interested here in the rissóis de camarão
Preparation of the stuffing
- Brown finely chopped onion in olive oil with a little flour.
- Add the milk and the cooking water from the shrimps and cook until the cream is thick.
- Remove from the heat and let cool a little before adding egg yolks and the cooked shrimps.
- Season with salt and pepper and cook again on a very low heat, without boiling.
- Remove from the heat, mix well, your stuffing is ready.
Preparation of the dough
- Bring the milk or the mix milk/shrimp cooking water to a boil with butter and a little salt.
- As soon as the milk starts to boil, add the flour and mix vigorously, then reduce the heat and cook the flour while you continue to mix.
- Remove from heat, put the dough on the table and knead it until it cools and let it rest for about 20 minutes.
- Spread the very thin dough on the table, using a rolling pin of pastry, sprinkling the work surface with flour if necessary.
- Cut the dough with a cookie cutter or glass to form half moons.
- Place the stuffing on the pieces of dough and close them, then roll them first in the beaten egg and then in breadcrumbs before frying them in very hot oil.
★ Peixinhos da horta
Peixinhos da horta are literally the "little green fish of the vegetable garden", in reality they are green beans that are coated with dough and fried. The recipe is very simple and very fast
- Wash the green beans, remove the threads and ends.
- Cook them for about 3 minutes in boiling salted water and drain well.
- Prepare the batter by mixing whole eggs with flour, a little white wine and olive oil, not forgetting to season with salt and pepper.
- Heat the frying oil (olive oil of course) and dip the beans in the batter before dipping them for about 30 seconds in the frying pan.
- Remove the beans when they are golden on both sides.
- Drain the Peixinhos da horta on absorbent paper and serve
★ Pimentos Padron
The simplest recipe!
- Wash the peppers, peel and wash the garlic cloves and chop them finely.
- Put a frying pan on the fire with olive oil and let it heat up.
- Add the garlic cloves and then, a little later, the peppers.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, until the peppers are tender.
- Season with coarse salt and pepper and serve.
★ Pica-pau
- Cut the meat into small dices so that they can be easily pricked with a toothpick
- Put the pieces of meat in a dish with salt, chilli, 4 cloves of minced garlic and beer and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour
- In a frying pan, fry the meat on both sides, add olive oil and 2 crushed garlic cloves
- Once the meat dices are golden brown, pour the marinade over the meat and cook on high heat for about 10 minutes.
- Add 2 tablespoons of mustard and adjust the seasoning to suit your taste
- Just before serving, add pickles and olives, mix everything together and it's ready to serve.
★ Croquetes de vitela
Very easy and quick recipe to make breaded meat croquettes.
Ingrédients
- 200 g minced meat (brisket or tenderloin)
- 300 g fresh sausage without skin
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Breadcrumbs
- Coarsely chopped green olives
- 1 egg
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- Flour
- Oil for frying
Préparation
- Add the minced meat with the sausage and season with salt, pepper, garlic and lemon zest.
- In a small frying pan, sauté the onion in butter until dry.
- Add to the meat and sausage mixture with the breadcrumbs, olives and egg.
- Mix well until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Form the croquettes with 1 tablespoon of dough and bread them by first passing them through the beaten egg and then through the breadcrumbs.
- Fry them in abundant hot oil, a few at a time, until they are golden brown and let them drain on absorbent paper.
★ Camarões à la guilho
Literally, shrimp on the guillotine... Delicious way to accommodate shrimp by cooking them in garlic and deglazing them with Brandy.
Ingrédients
- 800 g medium shrimp
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 200 ml of oil
- 100 ml brandy
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt and pepper
Préparation
- Shell the shrimp, keeping their tails.
- Peel the garlic cloves and crush them.
- Heat a frying pan with the olive oil, add the garlic and brown.
- Add the prawns and bay leaf and sauté for a few minutes until the prawns turn orange.
- Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with cognac, simmer and serve immediately.