About Me

 

 

Welcome to my blog. I am a wife, mother to two grown sons and grateful to God for every gift I have. My personal hobbies include a love of writing, reading, cooking in every form and a never ending cycle of dieting!

When my children were young, we travelled to Portugal with a stop over in the Algarve. There I met a delightful lady who introduced me to bakers who produced their best selling Almond Tarts. Little did I realise that day was to spark a new venture in my life. After a short stint in joining a home industry, I parted and opened my catering business. It was enormously successful and this led to writing a Portuguese recipe book, which I will share with everyone on my blog.

 

 

 

Here you will discover the hidden secrets of Portuguese food and my own recipes stemming from my catering business. My mother-in-law, Alegria, was more than kind to share and give insight to many tips, which you won't easily uncover in recipe books.

 

My love of food includes baking, refresments and table decor.

 

 
 I invite you to share my love of reading and writing. May this be the beginning of a wonderful journey.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My youngest son, Shaul, has proved to be an accomplished cook and baker. He prepares Christmas lunch each year and my one request, is his peri-peri chicken with chourico stuffing. Enjoy xxx

 



 

 

Peri Peri Roast Chicken with Portuguese style stuffing

The Marinade (mix all together in a bottle/jar)

2 teaspoons of chilli powder
1 teaspooon of salt 

About 2 tablespoons of crushed garlic

200ml  of olive oil

100ml lemon juice

 

(This is for marinating the chicken after its been filled with the stuffing).

 

The Filling

 

1 loaf of white bread (minus the crust), soaked in milk (not for too long, you need it to be soft without getting watery/soggy.

1 chopped onion

Crushed garlic to taste

Salt to taste

Chopped tomatoes (one small tin is enough), or if you prefer to manually chop fresh tomatoes - use 2 large tomatoes.

Italian parsley (a handful)

1 Chourico sausage sliced

A handful of pitted black olives

One or two sliced Jalapenos if you like it tangy

 

For the filling

 

Mix all the ingredients together (excluding the bread) with a bit of olive oil in a pot and fry them up until the onions are cooked (about 10 minutes)

After its all cooked - let it cool down a bit and mix in the bread - do not include any of the left over milk as it will become too runny.

What you should have in the pot, is a porridge looking substance.

 

The Chicken

 

Clean a whole chicken, making sure the inside is cleaned as well (you might need to gouge out bits of the lungs, etc, which are still stuck to the rib cage.

Fill the cavity of the chicken with some of the bread mix.

Take normal string (not nylon based) and sew the flaps of the chicken closed, there is normally excess skin around the neck area and the "other" side, that can be sewn shut.

You will need to use a large needle for this - the kind you would thread wool or thick string with.

Once you are happy with your work of art, marinade the chicken, then place in a marinade bag and leave over night in the fridge.

Roast the chicken in a roasting pan the next day until golden brown (about 1 hour 30 minutes).

Place the remainder of the stuffing in a second roasting pan and roast until lightly golden (remember this stuffing has already been cooked). 

 

Serve with a mixed salad.