Portuguese Cuisine

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Portuguese Food Safari

Food Safari plunges into the fiery passionate world of Portuguese food where all the best food has a close relationship with fire, starting with the now famous Portuguese charcoal chicken. Food author and explorer Maeve O'Meara prizes a recipe for the famous marinated flattened chicken with peri peri sauce from her friend Luis Fernandes (Portuguese Charcoal Chicken) whose family brought the recipe from Angola to the world - simple, delicious and made for the great Australian barbie!

Exclusive caterer Fatima Barroso who started the first Portuguese restaurant in Australia guides Maeve through the essential ingredients to make Portuguese food - how to choose the best oil, paprika, bay leaves, the famous cod or bacchalau and how to cook it to beautiful white-fleshed flakey perfection in a dish called baccalhau a broa - flaked cod on a bed of baby potatoes baked with a crust of cornbread, garlic and parsley, scattered with black Portuguese olives and red capsicum. We visit the Alves family (Talho Portugues) who make and smoke their own chourico, one of the staples of the cuisine, see how baker Carlos Fernandes bakes the traditional bread of Portugal - broa - made with cornmeal, then meet young homecook Andrea de Souza who whips up a simple delicious salad that wows her Aussie friends - using golden fried cornbread crumbs, pinenuts, black eyed peas and a fine chopped kale - Portugal's favourite green vegetable - the nearest substitute which Andrea uses is Chinese broccoli.

Then Cidalia Rendeiro who has been making the simple food of her homeland for many decades shows the tenderest easiest lamb dish using the cheapest cuts of meat - they're marinated in wine and spices then slow-cooked to falling off the bone perfection. Baker Fernando Ramos shows how to appreciate a good pasteis de nata (custard tart) then pastry chef John de Almaeda shows a foolproof way of making the national dessert creme caramel using a handful of ingredients.