Showing posts with label portuguese cuisine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portuguese cuisine. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2015

If you are a cheese lover - Tomato jam / Для влюбленных в сыр - Джем из помидор

Hello folks!

In my last blogpost 'Summer Summary' I promised to share Tomato jam recipe. All I knews about Tomato jam last year is that's a traditional portuguese jam - sweet and tasty. I couldn't cook it last year as couldn't find good tomatoes but this year I made it.  In my opinion that's the best jam you can eat with any kind of cheese.



The recipe is a very simple

Tomatoes (try to find pulpy tomatoes with less seeds)
Sugar
Lemon rind
Cinnamon stick

Peel and coarsely chop tomatoes removing as much seeds as possible. For 900 gr peeled tomatoes without seeds I used around 300-350 gr sugar. Put tomatoes to a large pot, add cinnamon stick, lemon rind and a bit water, not more than 50 gr. Boil tomatoes on a big heat for 10 minutes and don't forget to stir time to time. Then turn the heat to a middle heat, add sugar and boil tomatoes for 30 min and don't forget to stir the jam all the time. After 30 min you'll see how the tomatoes puree will became thick. Remove cinnamon stick and put the jam into prepared jars, close them and let them chill. When the jars become cold you can put them into a fridge. If you take more tomatoes the time of cooking can be longer.

How to prepare jars
The jars must be clean and dry so it's better to wash them in advance not right before you start to make a jam. (I don't use a towel to dry jars coz the towel can leave some fibres which is not good - it can damage your jam) I take jars and put them near the pot I use to make a jam thus jars become warm and you can be less carefull when add jam into jars. That's all I do to prepare jars.

Hope you'll be brave enough to try this jam and will like it :) Feel fre to ask any question.

Всем привет!

В прошлом блогпосте 'Летнее итого' я пообещала поделиться рецептом Джема из помидор. Все что я знала об этом джеме в прошлом году то, что он относится к португальской кухне, что он сладкий и вкусный. К сожалению, рецепт попал мне в руки уже поздно и я не смогла найти подходящие помидоры и приготовление пришлось отложить до этого года. На мой взгляд это идеальный джем для любого сыра, который Вы любите.

Рецепт очень простой
Помидоры (желательно найти мясистые помидоры в которых мало семян)
Сахар
Цедра лимона
Палочка корицы

Очистите помидоры от кожицы, нарежьте на крупные кусочки и удалите все семена. На 900 гр очищенных и освобожденных от семян помидор я использовала порядка 300-350 гр сахара.
Положите очищенные помидоры в большой таз, добавьте палочку корицы, цедру лимона и немного воды - не больше 50 гр. Доведите томаты до кипения на большом огне и варите, постоянно помешивая 10 минут. После этого уменьшите огонь до среднего, добавьте сахар и варите 30 минут, постоянно помешивая. Через 30 минут Вы увидите как пюре из помидор станет густым. Выньте палочку корицы и положите джем в заранее подготовленные банки, закройте крышками и после того, как банки остынут их можно ставить в холодильник. Если Вы берете больший объем помидор, то время готовки может увеличиться.

Как подготовить банки
Банки должны быть чистыми и сухими, так что вымойте банки заранее. Я не вытираю банки полотенцем, т.к полотенце может оставить мелкие ворсинки и из-за них варенье может испортиться. Обычно во время варки варенья я размещаю банки рядом с тазом, в котором варю варенье - таким образом банки прогреваются и подготавливаются для раскладки джема.

Надеюсь у Вас хватит смелости, чтобы приготовить этот джем и надеюсь, что он Вам понравится. :) Если у Вас есть вопросы - готова на них ответить.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

A dream that came true

 Hello folks!

There where no posts recently as I was travelling - to Porto, Portugal and Malta.
Today's post is about Porto - the city I wanted to visit for a long time and finally spent few days there.
And I can say only few words - I am in Love!!!!

I stayed at MyStay Hotel - a very good hotel in the city centre with a kitchen in a room. The room itself is very clean and nice. The hotel is pretty small and doesn't have an elevator but for me that's not very important. My room had a small balcony and here you can see few photos I made from my balkony :) MyStay besides the good rooms has also very helpfull staff and the price is also very reasonable! If you decide to visit Porto I highly recommend you to choose this hotel. They also provide transfer service from and to the airport.

Before I came to Porto I saw some pics in internet and in reality Porto is the same as on the pics. All these red tile roofs... river Douro...the ocean... A friend of mine Ana Pina has a lovely blog and there I found a lot of amazing photos of Porto. And these pics made me to think that it's possible to find and show the beauty of the town you live in to everyone. I mean when you live somewhere sometimes you don't see the beauty coz you take your city for granted. And it made think that I should try to do the same - find something I've never noticed before about the city I live in.
When you plane is landing you see red tile roofs and the ocean. And I have to confess I haven't noticed the ocean as in the beginning decided it was some clouds ))))))

The best way to explore any city for me is to walk. For Porto you need comfortable shoes (even though I noticed that some women wear high heels) and be ready that the streets are always go up and down and some of them are pretty narrow. Almost each and every building is covered by azulejos. It was so nice to walk around the city and enjoy old and modern buildings. I visited Clerigos tower and saw the city from the top of it - just breathtaking!

Of course I couldn't miss an oportunity to visit a wine cellar as I like port wine and it was interesting. All wine cellars are located in Vila Nova de Gaia - just on the other side of the river Douro and all you need is to cross Dom Luis Bridge. You can visit any wine cellar you want to but a girl from a wine shop suggested me to visit Burmester wine cellar as they don't have too many people for a wine cellar tour and as a result you'll get more attention and will be able to ask everything you wanna know about the port wine. Every tour includes a wine sampling - usually two port wines.
I wanted to buy some port wine and was lucky enough as I bumped into a nice wine shop with a very professional girl inside. She let me to try different port wines and now I know that I'm a colheita person )))) But even though I prefer colheita to vintage I bought vintage port wine that was produced in 2011 year as it was a very good year and in few years the bottle will cost more than I payed. BUT! if you open a vintage porto wine you MUST drink it in 2-3 days or you'll get a very expensive vinegar :)

In my opinion people in Porto are friendly and it's easier to find someone who speaks English in Porto than in Moscow. People communicate pretty easily and I even met some people that was giving free hugs :) I hope you remember the story about free hugs :)

Beside shopping for port wine in Porto you'll also find variety of shoes, local cheeses, olives and olive oil. I also bought very funny socks - just couldn't pass the shop with such colorfull socks inside :) I was also lucky to buy leather shoeses but port wine won anyway with the score 3-2 (3 bottles porto wine and only 2 pairs of shoes) :) :) :) Even though I told myself that I'm not going  buy an olive oil I couldn't resist and brought home a bottle :)

I also have to say few words about food. Guys it's really tasty!!!!! I doubt that I tried all national dishes but I tried few of them and they are delicious! I got my Francesinha  in Santiago cafe and it was just perfect! I also tried a very delicious and not tooo sweet dessert Pastel de Nata. Another meal that just knocked me down just coz of its taste is Prego em pão - just some grilled meat that they put into a brown bread and also add some cheese inside. Guys it's pretty simple but sooooo tasty!!!!! I wanna try to cook this meal at home and hope I'll be succesfull :) Another thing I noticed  - you always can get a very strong and good coffee, no matter if you order it in a simple small cafe or such cafe as Majestic. I also recommend you to visit a small family restaurant Taberna St Antonio. The restaurant is pretty small so if you don't wanna wait in a line you'd better to come earlier than other people. I noticed that there wheren't a lot of tourists but a lot of local people. The food is really good and the price is more than reasonable!

I think almost everyone heard about  Fado music or about Cesaria Evora. Unfortunatelly I didn't visit any cafe with live music but on the last day I heard some live music from a cafe near my hotel. The windows where open and you could hear everything like you are inside the cafe. It was just amazing.....

I'm happy that I visited Porto not only coz of all its sightseeings but also coz of people I met there.  And it was a real pleasure to talk to them.
I hope I'll be back one day again.


This view I had everyday and enjoyed it!
Lovely shop with handmade stuff

The ocean in Matosinhos

Dom Luis Bridge and a view to Vila Nova de Gaia














Dom Luis Bridge and a view to Porto




















































































This scheme helps to understand port wine







Pretty ordinary view in Porto




































































I am ready for my Francesinha




New building near Clerigos tower
View from Clerigos Tower
Old tram near Clerigos tower
Clerigos tower
















Free hugs for everyone!


Night in Porto

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