Portuguese Sweet Rice
Submitted by: John Pacheco
My mom would always make this delicious, creamy rice pudding when we were kids. If a thicker rice is desired, increase rice to 1 1/4 cups and add another egg.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Servings: 8

Ingredients:
1 1/2 quarts milk
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten

Directions:
1. In a large saucepan over high heat combine sugar and milk.  When bubbles form at the edges, stir in rice and reduce heat to medium-low.  Cook 60 minutes, stirring often, until rice is tender.  Do not allow to boil.
2. Remove from heat and vigorously stir in beaten eggs, a little at a time, until well incorporated.  Serve warm.

Portuguese Sweet Bread IV
Submitted by: John Pacheco
This is an original recipe for Massa Savada. It's from my Portuguese
Grandmother 'Vova' who was from Sao Miguel in the Azores. This recipe is
very large; you may want to divide it in half.
Servings: 72

Ingredients:
3 cups milk
1 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
5 cups white sugar
3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
12 eggs, beaten
16 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons water

Directions:
1. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles. Mix in the butter and shortening; stir until melted. Place sugar in a very large bowl, pour milk over sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Let cool until lukewarm. In a small bowl, stir yeast into warm water.
2. Stir 12 eggs and yeast mixture into milk and sugar; beat well. Pour all of the flour into the milk/eggs/sugar mixture; stir well to combine. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic; about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Deflate dough and let rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.
3. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into six equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
4. In a small bowl, beat together 1 egg and 2 tablespoons water and brush on the risen loaves. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bottom of loaves sound hollow when tapped.

Chourico & Peppers
Courtesy of: www.portuguese-recipes.com

Ingredients:
1 lb.of chourico,cut into rings
1 large can of tomato sauce
1 large onion, chopped
2 med. size green peppers, cut into strips
red wine or red cooking wine( this depends on your taste for alcohol)
Crusty buns

Directions:
Fry the onion. add the chourico, peppers, and tomato sauce. Add wine to taste somewhere around a cup is normal. Cook in a covered pan for 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour. Serve with crusty buns.

Portuguese Walnut Squares
Submitted by: John Pacheco
These are chewy walnut bars made by my Titia Albertina in Sao Miguel, Azores. They have a wonderful flavor that comes from Port wine.
Servings: 16

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons port wine
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons port wine
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 tablespoon port wine
2 drops red food coloring

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla, milk and 2 tablespoons Port wine. Combine the flour, chopped walnuts and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Brush the top with 2 tablespoons of the Port wine as soon as it comes out of the oven. Let cool to room temperature before glazing.
4. To make the glaze, beat together the confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon
of butter, and 1 tablespoon of port wine until smooth and spreadable. Spread
over the cooled bars.

Portuguese Favas
Submitted by: John Pacheco
Fava beans with a Portuguese style sauce.
Servings: 8

Ingredients:
5 tablespoons olive oil
3 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 cups hot water
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
2 (19 ounce) cans fava beans

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until golden brown. Stir in red pepper flakes, tomato sauce, hot water, parsley, salt, pepper and paprika. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Gently stir in fava beans. Remove from heat and let stand for several minutes to allow flavors to meld.

Portuguese Beef - Cacoila
Submitted by: John J. Pacheco
This is marinated beef, Portuguese style. As a variation to cooking, I place all ingredients in a slow cooker on high, stirring often, and cook for about 3 hours, until meat shreds itself.
Servings: 6

Ingredients:
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 oranges, juiced
1/4 cup white wine
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Rinse beef, and place in large bowl. Pour in orange juice, wine, oil and pepper sauce. Season with bay leaves, garlic, paprika, allspice, salt and pepper. Mix, to coat beef. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
2. Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook beef and marinade until beef shreds easily, about 1 hour. Add water as needed.

Portuguese Clam & Pork Stew

Ingredients:
3 pounds boneless pork loin
2 pounds hard-shell clams, such as littlenecks
1 pound tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1 large onion
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 dash (or more) Tabasco sauce
Garnish: Lemon, parsley

Marinade:
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1½ tablespoons paprika
Salt, pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1½ cups dry white wine

Directions:
Trim excess fat from pork. Cut meat lengthwise into thick strips, then cut crosswise into 1-inch cubes.

Marinade:
1. Peel garlic and chop fine. Transfer to a large non-metallic bowl. Crumble bay leaf into bowl with garlic; discard the central stem of the leaf. Add paprika, plenty of black pepper, 1 tablespoon oil and the wine; whisk to combine. Add pork; mix well. Cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, 24 hours.
2. Scrub clams under cold water. Discard any with broken shells or that do not close when tapped.
3. Core tomatoes and score an X on each. Immerse in boiling water until the skins split, 8 to 15 seconds. Transfer to cold water. Peel, halve and seed them; coarsely chop each half.
4. Peel and finely chop garlic. Peel onion, leaving a little of the root attached, then halve it lengthwise. Cut each half across into thin slices.
5. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Transfer meat from the marinade to a plate lined with paper towels; reserve the marinade. Pat the meat dry with paper towels.
6. Heat remaining oil in the large casserole. Add the pork and brown well on all sides. Transfer meat to a bowl.
7. Lower heat and add onions and garlic, with a little salt, and pepper. Cover and cook very gently, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon until onions are very soft and brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
8. Add chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, Tabasco and pork. Pour in reserved marinade; stir well. Cover and cook in oven until pork is tender, stirring occasionally, 1½ to 1 3/4 hours. Add more wine if stew becomes dry.
9. Meanwhile, cut lemon into wedges. Strip parsley leaves from stems; coarsely chop the leaves.
10. Arrange clams on top of pork, cover and cook in oven until clams open, 15 to 20 minutes longer. Discard any clams that are still closed after cooking.
11. Transfer stew to a warmed serving bowl. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve lemon wedges in a separate bowl. Serves 6 to 8.

Portuguese Custard Tarts - Pasteis de Nata
Submitted by: John J. Pacheco
These are delicious Portuguese Custard Tarts.
Servings: 12

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cup white sugar
6 egg yolks
1 (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.) Lightly grease 12 muffin cups and line bottom and sides with puff pastry.
2. In a saucepan, combine milk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Place egg yolks in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk 1/2 cup of hot milk mixture into egg yolks. Gradually add egg yolk mixture back to remaining milk mixture, whisking constantly. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes, or until thickened. Remove vanilla bean.
3. Fill pastry-lined muffin cups with mixture and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and filling is lightly browned on top.

Ingredients:
Frozen puff pastry; at room temperature
500 ml heavy cream
8 egg yolks
2 T flour
150 g sugar
lemon zest

Directions:
1. Mix together all the custard ingredients. Stir constantly and bring to a full boil.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
2.Use a rolling pin to roll out dough as thin as possible. 
3.Flatten out cupcake paper and cut dough to fit.
4.Press dough onto cupcake
paper, pierce dough all with fork and put in cupcake pan.
5.Divide the cooled custard among the pastry shells. Do not try to fill, these are tartlets, not cupcakes.
6.Bake in a very hot oven 250°C for 10-15 min.

These are sometimes served sprinkled with confectioner's sugar
and cinnamon.

Easy Portuguese Cookies
Submitted by: John J. Pacheco
This crisp little sugar cookie is a family recipe from the island of St. Michael in the Azores.
Servings: 24

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cornstarch and white sugar. Add the butter and cream well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the sugar mixture until a dough forms. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto an unprepared cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are golden brown at the edges. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Stuffed Quahogs

Ingredients:
1 pail large quahogs (10 quarts)
1/2 pound linquica or chourico
4 stalks celery
3 to 4 small hot red peppers
2 medium onions
4 to 6 dashes hot sauce
2 loaves white bread

Directions:
Open quahogs, saving shell halves. Yield should be 4 to 6 cups of
drained meat. Save juice.

Grind quahogs, celery, onions, linquica and peppers in a meat grinder.

Cut bread into small squares. Add hot sauce and mix all ingredients in a large bowl. More bread may be necessary. If too dry, add small amounts of clam juice. If too moist, add more bread.

Spoon mixture onto the shell halves, mounding to fill. Place on cookie sheet, sprinkle with paprika and bake at 375F (190C) for 25 minutes. Small shells may take only 20 minutes.

Yields 36 servings.

Portuguese Burnt Sugar Candy
Submitted by: John J. Pacheco
Recipe is from Sao Miguel, Azores
Sweet, tart candies that are usually made around the holidays - especially at Christmas
Servings: 50

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Directions:
1. In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, water and vinegar. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium-high heat. Continue to boil for about 15
minutes, or until the mixture turns a deep golden brown, or use a candy thermometer. The temperature should reach 300 degrees F (149 degrees C). Remove from the heat, and pour onto two well buttered heavy dinner plates.
2. When the candy begins to harden, pull from around the edges of the plates. Stretch into long ropes and cut into pieces with kitchen scissors, giving each piece a twist. Cool completely before storing in an airtight tin. Be careful! The candy will be very hot while pulling and cutting.

Portuguese Licoro de Leite
Submitted by: John Pacheco
This homemade liqueur recipe originates from the island of St. Michael in
the Azores. It is a family favorite at Christmas time.
Servings: 50

Ingredients:
1 quart whiskey
1/2 lemon
4 1/2 cups white sugar
1 quart milk
6 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
2 vanilla beans

Directions:
1. In a gallon container combine whiskey, lemon, sugar, milk, chocolate
squares and vanilla beans. Keep at room temperature for 10 days, stirring
once a day.
2. After 10 days, remove the lemon half, chocolate and vanilla beans. Insert
a coffee filter into a large funnel. pour the liquid through the filter into
a gallon jug. Change filter as needed. A clear yellow solution should
result. This liqueur can be stored in a sealed bottle at room temperature.

Portuguese Muffins - Bolo Levedo
Submitted by: John J. Pacheco
These are tasty muffin-like pancakes - from Titia Teolinda in St Micheal, the Azores. This is more like an English muffin than an American muffin.
Servings: 15

Ingredients:
1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water with a pinch of the sugar.
Set aside to ferment, about 10 minutes.
2. Transfer the yeast mixture to a large bowl, and stir in the sugar, eggs, salt, flour, and milk until the dough comes together. Stir in the melted
butter, then turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Cover dough with a cloth and set aside to rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
3. Divide dough into about 15 to 20 pieces, and shape them into flat round cakes about 1/2 inch thick. Place a cloth on the table and dust it with flour. Arrange the cakes on the cloth, allowing space for rising. Allow them to set for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Place the cakes in a heavy ungreased skillet, and cook over low heat. Fry
the cakes on each side until golden.

"I LOVE your website - I have been looking for a cacoila recipe (Portuguese beef) for over 20 years - yes, really - just found it on your web site a couple of days ago...used to get cacoila sandwiches at the Portuguese Festival in West Warwick every Fall, and I miss them terribly.I was pronouncing and spelling cacoila as caserla - go figya! It turns out there are many different recipes for "caserla" and I've already made one, which was not quite as good - but at least I have finally gotten access to them and can keep trying thanks to your web site.! Thanks again for your great site!"

Cyndy Manning cmanning@score.com

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