Portuguese Easter

Since I can’t be in Portugal for a traditional Portuguese Easter, I decided to bring some of the tradition to me. On a Portuguese table, codfish is a must, it represents abundance, it has a festive symbol and is part of Portuguese culture, along with the Portuguese custard tarts and the traditional music called Fado. Thus, I chose a codfish recipe that you could definitely have it, if you would go to Portugal, it’s called: Bacalhau a Gomes de Sa. It doesn’t have a translation, besides bacalhau, which means codfish, but Gomes de Sa, it’s a person’s name, hence it can’t be translated. Before I get to the recipe, I googled why it has a person’s name, in case you are curious as much as I was and this is what it says in wikipedia:

Gomes de Sá was the son of a rich 19th century merchant (apparently he dealt with cod) in Porto. The family fortune dwindled and the son had to find a job at Lisbonense Restaurant, a restaurant in downtown Porto where he created this recipe.

On to the recipe – Bacalhau a Gomes Sa

Ingredients for 2 people

• 500gr of potatoes
• 4 cod fillets boneless and skinless
• 200gr of milk
• 1 big onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 bay leave
• 2 eggs
• fresh parsley
• 1dl of Olive Oil
• 2 teaspoons of vinegar
• salt and pepper
• 50gr of black olives

Preparation:

• Peel and wash the potatoes. Boiled them in water seasoned with salt for 20 minutes.

• Also cook the cod in boiling water mixed with the 200gr of milk with the bay leave for 10 minutes. Let cool in the broth.

• At the same time, place the eggs to be boiled for 6 minutes in boiling water seasoned with salt.

• Meanwhile, sizzle the onions and garlic cut in thin slices in olive oil and distribute this preparation over the potatoes that have already been cooked and cut into slices.

• Add the cod roughly shredded, without skins and bones.

• After mixing all the ingredients above, add salt and pepper.

• Drizzle with vinegar and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

• Wrap everything and serve decorated with slices of boiled egg and black olives.

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As a sweet tooth, I could not include a Portuguese dessert too. A very traditional dessert recipe in Portuguese Easter is called pão-de-ló which is like a sponge or madeira cake. There is different versions and the best for me comes from a city in centre of Portugal, called Ovar.

Ovar pão-de-ló is a sponge cake filled with a sweet tasty egg layer that melts easily in your mouth. To make this recipe even more irresistible, I transformed it into a chocolate Ovar pão-de-ló. This is how it looks like:

All that chocolate dripping from the cake it’s a perfect temptation for Easter, right? Here goes the recipe.

Chocolate Ovar pão-de-ló

Ingredients for 5 people

• 4 eggs
• 5 yolks
• 90gr of dark brown sugar
• 45gr of self rising flour
• 10gr of cocoa powder
• 20gr of hot chocolate powder

Ingredients for cake glaze (optional)

• 300ml extra thick double fresh cream
• 10gr of cocoa powder
• 20gr of dark brown sugar
• Colourful cake flakes

Preparation

• Butter a cake pan without a hole and line with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 200º C.

• Beat the eggs with the sugar with an electric mixer, for 5 minutes without stopping or until the dough triples in volume.

• Apart, beat the egg yolks well and add them to the previous preparation, beating for another 3 minutes.

• Sift the flour, cocoa and chocolate and gently wrap the dough with the help of a balloon whisk;

• Bake in the oven for 8 minutes.

For the cake glaze

• With an electric mixer, beat the extra thick double cream together with the cocoa powder and sugar for just 1 minute. Avoid the mixture getting too thick

• Glaze cake with mixture and sprinkle with some colourful cake flakes

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Which recipe do you feel like trying? Let me know in the comments bellow. Or if you have a recipe from your home country that deserves to be shared, DM on my Instagram.

Wish you a very happy Easter, full of Easter eggs, laughter and love Xx