travel-inspired eating - Portugal

porco à Alentejana

They had some very nice hjerteskjell (cockles) at the fish monger's, so I made this traditional Portuguese dish for dinner last night. I used a version of the following recipe. I used 1/2 a (400 g) can of tomatoes instead of tomato paste, and olive oil instead of butter...

I served the dish with oven-roasted potatoes, a salad, and a lovely Portuguese white wine...

Ingredients
300 ml white wine
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp paprika
1 clove
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper

450 g loin of pork, cut into 1 inch cubes
450 g leg of pork cut the same way

110 g lard (or 2-4 Tb butter)

1 tsp concentrated tomato paste (or 1 sun-dried tomato, soaked, mashed)
2 Tb olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 sprigs parsley, chopped
675 g (1 1/2 lb) cockles (Long Island littleneck clams, or any small clams)

Procedure
Marinate the meat 4-5 hours. Drain meat, reserving marinade, & fry
gently in lard until golden brown all over. Strain the marinade &
add to pan. Cover & boil with the meat until it is very tender and
the sauce is reduced by half.

Meanwhile, make another sauce with the tomato paste, oil, onion,
parsley, salt & pepper, simmering it on low heat for 6-8 minutes.

Add the cockles & simmer until they open (discard any that do not
open). Shake the pan & transger contents to the top of the meat.
Cover. Simmer gently for 3 mins & serve in same pan.

Source

other versions of the same recipe