Wine and Portuguese Cooking

By: Mimi ©

I am not a cook and I did not like wine. I had no idea where Portugal fit in the scheme of things. What better way to learn about what I knew nothing about than putting both of my feet into the frying pan and learn about Portuguese Cooking and Their Wines.

I quit my job and put my life-savings into opening and operating a Portuguese Restaurant with my Portuguese boyfriend in a city as unaware as I was of this culture.

Just the aromas coming from the kitchen were enough to convince me that I was into this for the long haul. Then there were the never-to-forget flavors.
My mother-in-law and her son worked their magic in the back, while I taught our reluctant customers how to 'just give it a try'.
That went for eating fish that still had their heads on to daringly drinking a Portuguese wine. I mean, was it possible that Portugal exported wines other than Mateus Rosé?

I soon became aware that the secret of Portuguese cooking was its simplicity.

Fresh ingredients are a given in the Portuguese style of cooking. It is cooking from scratch every time! I have no idea how many hundreds and thousands of pounds of potatoes we peeled over the years; never did a frozen alternative come into the recipe.

And then there were the wine-based marinades. I never dreamed that one would cook with wine; I was just learning how to appreciate drinking it!
Oh, and the sea-salt. There was no measuring…just a small or a larger handful went into the pot.
Customers kept asking why was the food so tasty and when I mentioned the salt and the wine, their eyes widened. Some said they were allergic to wine; others said that they were on salt-free diets. But for some reason, they kept coming back because omitting those ingredients changed the taste of the dish that they craved!

The boyfriend became a husband and some customers became friends. Some even insisted on coming with us to Portugal just in case Wine and Portuguese Cooking was not just a product of our imagination.
They had a first hand experience of both: Portuguese Cooking and the Wines of Portugal. Small local Restaurants, open air Fairs and Winery visits were all part of our itinerairy.