Customer Reviews

Food of Portugal

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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My Luso-Americano husband bought me this cookbook when I expressed my desire to try to learn to cook Portuguese food for him like his mother and grandmother did. I pulled off a few good meals and loved reading about the country and the Portuguese way of life. A few years later we moved to Portugal to work there, and I found out for myself just how delicious virtually every dish really is! Jean Anderson's book became even more helpful to me, as I was able to translate the ingredients I was buying, understand the reason for combining certain flavors, and taste the original inspirations for Jean's choices. Portugal is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and its people (and cuisine) are friendly and accessible -- I wish everyone who wants to experience a truly unique culture would visit. It is NOT Spain or a poor imitation of Spain, and does not deserve to be lumped into all of those travelogues as if it were. We lived there for 4 1/2 years and I can tell you that Jean Anderson's recipes will give you as close a taste to being there as is possible! (Jean, if you're out there I'd love to compare notes some day -- please write to me!)

I was born in Portugal and came to the United States at the age of 6. Being able to speak and write the language fluently is something that I am very grateful to my parents for. However my one fault is the inability to convert the European to American measurements. Well my mother has a wonderful cookbook on traditional Portuguese cuisine but it is all in Portuguese. Therefor I decided to use the WEB to find a Portuguese cookbook with the recipes in English to avoid the conversion issue. Well, I found "Food Of Portugal" and figured why not order it and see. After all if I didn't like I would and could return it. That was months ago. I love this cookbook. It is the best Portuguese cookbook, with recipes in English, I have found so far. It has all of the traditinal dishes which I grew up eating and many more. I would recommend this book to anyone Portuguese or not. My sincere congratulations to the author for a job very well done.

The Food of Portugal is the most complete and authentic Portuguese cookbook I've ever had the pleasure of coming across. Being Portuguese, I was doubtful that anyone could capture the food I grew up eating. But recipe after recipe proved me wrong. Even my mother begrudgingly admitted they were delicious. And that's no small feat.

I am Portuguese and this was my first Portuguese cookbook. My family was amazed with our Sunday dinners. Even my mother-inlaw was impressed. The recipes were easily prepared and even the wine section helped me to pair the right dish with the right wine. I know my vavo would be proud.

The equivalent of the "Joy of Cooking" in Portugal is the book known as "Tesouro das Cozinheiras." But if you can't read Portuguese fluently, and/or don't know how to cook with european measurements, this wonderful book by Jean Anderson is your answer.

According to the author, she went to Portugal and hobnobbed with the best Portuguese cooks, and brought back their recipes (in some cases making some minor changes) ready to be used by everyone.

I've personally used several of the recipes, and they are authentic, yummy, and easy to follow. I highly recommend this book!

Jean Anderson has a love affair with Portugal and the Portuguese, and this has translated into an extremely well researched and written book about a relatively unknown cuisine and culture. She not only provides clear, concise recipes, but even better, she explains the history of the cuisine, wine and culture of the country as well. This book would also be useful for the prospective visitor to Portugal, since Ms. Anderson intersperses her discussions with lodging and travel tips based on years of travel to the country.

My Luso-Americano husband bought me this cookbook when I expressed my desire to try to learn to cook Portuguese food for him like his mother and grandmother did. I pulled off a few good meals and loved reading about the country and the Portuguese way of life. A few years later we moved to Portugal to work there, and I found out for myself just how delicious virtually every dish really is! Jean Anderson's book became even more helpful to me, as I was able to translate the ingredients I was buying, understand the reason for combining certain flavors, and taste the original inspirations for Jean's choices. Portugal is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and its people (and cuisine) are friendly and accessible -- I wish everyone who wants to experience a truly unique culture would visit. It is NOT Spain or a poor imitation of Spain, and does not deserve to be lumped into all of those travelogues as if it were. We lived there for 4 1/2 years and I can tell you that Jean Anderson's recipes will give you as close a taste to being there as is possible! (Jean, if you're out there I'd love to compare notes some day -- please write to me!)

I long for the days when I could smell the aroma of my mother cooking her portuguese food in the kitchen. The smell of portuguese food brings back memories of my Parents,Portugal, and Traditional values long gone.Finally I have found a portuguese book in english that rekindled that aroma so well. If anyone out there needs to rekindle memories of Portugal, "The Food of Portugal" will bring that great aroma back into your kitchen again.

Jean Anderson is a member of `old school' cookbook authors and culinary educators such as Barbara Kafka, Marion Cunningham, Sheila Lukins, and Sara Moulton who edit major cookbooks such as the `American Century Cookbook' and the `Fanny Farmer Cookbook' and who edit major newspaper columns, all addressed to the average American family member who needs to cook and who doesn't have a lot of time to go out of their way to find culinary advice.

On what seems to be the strength of an exceptionally strong personal love for Portugal and its food, Ms. Anderson has also joined the ranks of interpreters of important national cuisines such as Diane Kochilas (Greece), Penelope Casas (Spain), Lydia Bastianich (Italy) and Nancy Harmon Jenkins (Mediterranean). While Ms. Anderson has written about both Portuguese and German cooking, the interest in the latter seems to be simply another job, while the interest in the former is based on a lifetime of affection for this cuisine.

Each of the four other interpreters of selected regional cuisines take a somewhat different approach to interpreting their subject. For example, Ms. Kochilas deals with Greece by region, as there are major variations in cuisine from Macedonia to the Dodecanese Islands. Ms. Jenkins and other writers dissect Italy and the Mediterranean by major food resource such as salt, olives, grapes, and wheat. Ms. Anderson's approach is most similar to that of Lydia Bastianich, with the difference that Ms. Anderson has no stories of a childhood growing up in Portugal. Both Ms. Bastianich and Ms. Anderson focus on the characteristic recipe methods of their subject.

Portugal should probably be considered an honorary Mediterranean country. It has no coastline on the Mediterranean, however, it's all of its principle foods were identified by Nancy Harmon Jenkins in `The Essential Mediterranean'. These are olives, grapes, pork, salt, seafood, milk, and beans. Only wheat appears to be missing from the major staples, as Portugal seems to not have the land for wheat fields like Apulia or Egypt. The very first thing Ms. Anderson points out is that Portuguese cuisine is not the same as Spanish cuisine. The differences can easily be traced to the differences in exploration and colonization in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. While Spain was playing catch-up with the daring westerly trip of Columbus, Portugal was well on its way to establishing trade with India, China, and the'Spice Islands' by way of the route around the bottom of Africa. Ms. Anderson cements the notion of these differences by opening with a truly daunting dictionary of Portuguese culinary terms. The highlights of this catalogue are `Acordas' and `Migas' (Dry soups and stews); `Bacalhau' (Dried Salt Cod); cheeses (lots of these), coffees (note that former Portuguese colonies, Brazil, Angola, and Timor are all important coffee producers); egg sweets; fish and shellfish; herbs, spices, and flavorings (almonds, paprika, and pimento are distinctly important); olive oils; sausages and hams (with analogues to many of the famous Spanish and Italian Charcuterie); and beer.

Possibly the two most distinctive Portuguese culinary products are the fortified wines, Port and Madeira. Portugal has many other important wines, but these two have been made and have been popular for thousands of years. The production of Port can be traced back to Roman times, and it is a great favorite with the English and a major competitor for aperitif use to Spain's sherries. While Port and Madeira are famous Portuguese exports, there are many important Portuguese products such as its cheeses that you simply cannot get outside of the country. The author slyly suggests this is a very good thing, intimating that a trip to Portugal will bring much culinary novelty to your life.

The recipe chapters are organized in a very conventional manner, giving us Appetizers and Condiments; Soups; Meats; Poultry; Fish and Shellfish; Vegetables, Rice and Salads; Breads; and Sweets. There is a recipe for Portuguese empanadas, but the author gives no hint of an important `tapas' culture. Most appetizers are variations on familiar themes seen in Provence and Italy. Portugal seems to take the thick Tuscan style of soup to a new level with their `dry' soups. A soup, `caldo verde' is also the national dish of Portugal, as we have seen Emeril Lagasse make on several occasions. One thing that stands out with Portuguese soup recipes is that very few seem to use prepared stocks. Rather, many of the soups seem to rely on including starchy potatoes to lend body to the soup. Wine is used as much or more frequently as a flavoring than are stocks. It seems like wine is in practically every soup recipe.

Many other recipes seem to have distinctive twists, such as the roasted turkey recipe that calls for no basting, but rubbing the skin with salt and roasting at a constant temperature.

All the bread recipes use the very familiar active dry yeast for leavening, so if you are the least adept at blooming those little foil packets of yeast, there should be no challenges here at all. Several bread recipes include eggs and scalded milk, products common in rustic Greek breads as well.

In place of Italy's sabayon and France's custards, Portugal revels in variations on sweet soft eggs or `ovos moles'. The author describes Portuguese egg pastries as `achingly sweet'. I suspect you may want to try one or two of these as a substitute for your crème brulee, but don't make too much if you are watching your waistline.

National and regional cookbooks can be done badly, especially when for locales such as Rumania and the Philippines, there is no competition. Ms. Anderson has done us foodies a great service with this book. It is not as deep as Paula Wolfert's Morocco or as analytical as Erica De Mane's southern Italy, but it is very good. The fact that there are no sources given at the back of the book says a lot for what you may need to do to taste some of this food.

The recipes in this book produce food just like I ate in Portugal. Delicious and easy to make, with an unusual combination of seasoning that consistently impresses my dinner guests. My only complaint is the high fat content of many of the recipes (many dishes call for lard, for which you are told not to make substitutions)... but that's probably why they taste so good. I highly recommend this book to those looking for something tasty and different.