Portuguese Home Cooking by Ana Patuleia Ortins

When it comes to Portuguese cookbooks, you will be pressed to find that many in your local bookstore. Portugal has a wealth of food to offer. There is a magical aroma around the foods that are passed down from generation to generation. The sea-faring country delves into oceanic traditions to hark back to the old days that seem to be trapped in a timeless loop in mainland Portugal. If you are looking for a unique Mediterranean diet besides Greek or Italian, look no further. Portugal is your destination. Ana Patuleia Ortins shares the best that Portugal has to offer in food and lore. Portuguese food is more than food it is a tradition in itself. There is more to sardines and cod in the diets of this overpassed country. Portuguese Home Cooking by Ana Patuleia Ortins is a food journey your mouth will never forget. Get ready to get conquered by foods that your mouth will welcome in delight. Once you have the crusty rolls (papo secos) you will never go back to other rolls in your life.

The Mediterranean diet is famed for its fresh and vibrant cuisine. In this book, Ana Patuleia Ortins invites you to discover or revisit the soul-comforting, peasant food of Portugal, just as vibrant, yet distinct from that of its neighbors. Peppered with a lifetime of anecdotes from a passionate cook, Portuguese Home Cooking draws us into an immigrant kitchen where traditional culinary methods were handed down from father to daughter, shared and refined with the help of the family and friends who watched, chopped, and tasted. The recipes in this cookbook are of dishes prepared as they are in Portugal—with the measurements tried and tested, and the ingredients and methods fully explained.

With warmth and gusto, Ana Patuleia Ortins shares garden-fresh salads, hearty wine and garlic braises, legumes and leafy greens, meat and shellfish dishes, rustic bread, and the luscious desserts for which Portugal is known. Beautiful food and location photography will transport you to Portugal’s picturesque countryside, and novices and experienced chefs alike will delight in the culture and cuisine, whether nostalgic for home, or discovering it for the first time.

Ana Patuleia Ortins was Born and raised in Peabody, Massachusetts. In the 1930s, her father Rufino and his family emigrated to the United States from Galveias, a small town in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Rufino shared his culinary talent and passion for Portuguese food with Ana from an early age, showing her how to gut sardines and cut kale for the Caldo Verde soup. His tutelage, coupled with a zest for the traditional dishes inherited from her mother Filomena, who died when Ana was young, inspired her to learn as much as she could about her culinary roots and to document the recipes of Portuguese immigrants in her first book Portuguese Homestyle Cooking.

Hiltrud Schulz is a Massachusetts-based food and travel photographer. Recent books she photographed include Kilimanjaro: A Photographic Journey to the Roof of Africa and Puerto Rico: On the Road History.