In season

May produce

Tap any item to find recipes that use it.

Asparagus 0Rhubarb 0Peas 0Broad beans 0Radish 0Lettuce 0New potato 0Spring onion 0Watercress 0Sorrel 0
Bifana

Bifana

Bifanas are Portugal's national lunch sandwich, sold at every counter from Lisbon to Porto. Slices of pork loin (paper-thin, across the grain) marinate for a couple of hours in white wine, garlic, paprika, bay and black pepper, then go into a screaming-hot pan with olive oil and a knob of butter for sixty seconds a side. The marinade reduces in the pan to a salty, winey sauce, which gets ladled over a halved papo-seco roll along with the pork. Add mustard, or a squirt of piri-piri, and you've nailed it. Eaten standing at the counter with a glass of Sagres beer, or in Porto with a Super Bock.

Portuguese 2 hours 30 minutes Serves4
Boudin Balls

Boudin Balls

Boudin filling combines pork shoulder, pork liver (optional, traditional), cooked rice, onion, celery, garlic, parsley, green onion, cayenne, salt, pepper. Either bought ready-made boudin (casings removed) or made from scratch by simmering then mincing pork shoulder with the aromatics. Filling rolls into walnut-sized balls; chills for 30 min so they hold shape. Dredges in flour, egg, then seasoned breadcrumbs. Deep-fries for 3-4 minutes at 175°C.

Snacks 1 hour 7 minutes Serves16
Cataplana de Marisco

Cataplana de Marisco

A cataplana is a hinged copper clamshell pan, and the seafood stew named after it is one of those dishes where the cookware does the work. You build a base of onions, peppers, sliced chouriço, smoked paprika, tomato and white wine in the bottom of the cataplana, then layer clams, mussels, prawns and chunks of firm white fish on top, clamp the lid shut, and steam it all for less than ten minutes. The lid lifts at the table to release a cloud of paprika-and-wine-scented steam, which is the entire point of the dish. If you do not have a cataplana, any wide pan with a tight lid does the same job. Coriander and lemon at the end, crusty bread for the broth, and vinho verde for everything else.

Portuguese 55 minutes Serves4
Chicharrones

Chicharrones

Pork skin (the back-fat skin sold at butchers, or any thick skin from a fresh pork side) is scraped clean of all subcutaneous fat, this is the critical step; remaining fat prevents puffing. The clean skin then dries: either oven-dry at low heat for several hours, or air-dry in the fridge for 1-2 days, until completely brittle and almost translucent. The dried skin is then plunged into hot oil (200°C) where it puffs dramatically in 5-10 seconds into the characteristic crackling clouds. The pork is drained, seasoned with salt and chilli salt, and eaten warm. Some Mexican versions add a final spritz of lime juice + chilli powder + Tajín after frying.

Snacks 30 minutes Serves6
Choripán Chileno

Choripán Chileno

Chile's street sandwich and the food that fuels any Sunday football game or summer picnic. You take a Chilean longaniza (or any good fresh pork sausage), split it lengthways but leave it attached at one end so it opens like a butterfly, and grill it six minutes per side until the surface is charred and the inside still juicy. Marraqueta rolls split and toast briefly on the grill, the sausage tucks into the roll, and a generous spoonful of pebre goes on top. Some hands add a dab of mayo or mustard. Eaten immediately, standing up, with a beer in the other hand.

Snacks 27 minutes Serves4
Chorrillana

Chorrillana

The Valparaíso bar classic, the giant shareable platter that lands in the middle of the table at every port-city watering hole. You deep-fry thick-cut chips until they're crisp and gold, sear thinly-sliced sirloin (lomo) hot in a wide pan, soften and lightly char onion in the same fat, and fry eggs sunny-side up. Everything piles into a single wide platter: chips on the bottom, steak and onion on top, eggs cracked over the lot so the yolks can run down. Some versions add slices of chorizo. Eaten communally with forks reaching from every side and a cold beer doing the rounds.

Chilean 1 hour 5 minutes Serves4
← Prev Page 1 of 5 Next →