Feasting Natal

The many meals over two days of Christmas in Portugal

The magical Portuguese family table; it’s always as long as it needs to be.

Craig and I are still sleepy and full from yesterday.

The Entradas (Or as I like to call it, "Dinner #1)

This is the meal before the meal and is at all Portuguese dinners and even restaurants. It can be a few olives and cheese or, like last night, a bounty of meats and cheeses and breads. First there was the beautifully cured presunto, that leg of ham kept on the counter in a wooden device and cut as needed. There there are various sausages and cheeses. Then there are the cheesy creations, like Marisa's cheese and bacon, baked into a scooped out loaf of bread or camembert with homemade red pepper jelly. It is all washed down with wine and followed by dinners 2, 3 and 4.

Nelson gives me a lesson in cutting the presunto very thinly.

The thinly sliced presunto on broa, the moist and delicious cornbread.

The entradas. We start nibbling on this a couple of hours before dinner

Marisa works on her yummy bread loaf full of cheese, bacon, sausage, etc.

Marisa’s creation. I’m going to need the recipe for this.

Camembert with homemade red pepper jelly

The Traditional Christmas Eve Meal (Dinner #2)

This meal begins at the place in Portugal that thrills my heart every time: the long Portuguese family table. This one seated 18, but there was room for more, if needed. Portuguese houses are set up for this and have the tables, chairs, table cloths, napkins, dishes and glasses for it. We actually got new dishes between courses. It was my dream to sit at these tables when we moved here and there we are with our own Portuguese family.

This meal varies a bit according to region, but in our region, this meal is a nod to simpler times. Salt cod (bacalhau) has been the national dish for hundreds of years, but has always come from the cold waters in the north and has never been cheap. So, on Christmas Eve, while still fasting from meat, the poorer people would buy the cheaper cod head, so they could at least enjoy this favorite. In the head, though, are the cod cheeks and these little ovals of fish are especially delicious. Rounding out the meal would be things from their gardens: cabbage, potatoes and carrots, all sprinkled over with olive oil and chopped fresh garlic. This is the exact meal we had and it was fun knowing we were eating the same meal as the Portuguese people throughout the country. Click through for explanations.

Salt cod head

Most anyone with any land grows this kind of “cabbage,” which seems more like kale to me.

Here is the couve (cabbage) growing. They eat a lot of this is several different dishes, so it is a great source of nutrition in the Portuguese diet.

This is the meal being eaten all over the country: salt cod head, potatoes, carrots and cabbage with raw garlic and olive oil. We also had salt cod filets.

Traditional "After Mass" Christmas Eve Dinner (Dinner #3)

Traditionally, one could not have meat until after midnight mass on Christmas Eve, but we don't go to mass, so after our fish course, we can have our meat course which, for this family, is leitão, a whole roast baby pig. This is a smaller meal, although it is all you can eat leitão and shrimp, a thing that's great if there's any room left in your tummy. The pork is always eaten with orange slices and this family has its own traditional delicacy that we all love: homemade potato crisps or chips, whichever way you say it. Everyone enjoys these and they are such a treat! I washed it all down with vinho verde, that crisp fruity white wine made from unripened grapes.

The leitão (roast baby pig)

“The white Vinho Verde is very fresh, due to its natural acidity, with fruity and floral aromas that depend on the grape variety. The white wines are lemon- or straw-coloured, around 8.5 to 11% alcohol, and are made from local grape varieties Loureiro, Arinto, Trajadura, Avesso, and Azal. At less than one bar of CO₂ pressure, they do not quite qualify as semi-sparkling wines but are nonetheless slightly sparkling.”

The Dessert Round or Dinner #4

I'm not even going to try to explain all of this. I was practically in a coma. These are all very traditional and there must have been 15 kinds. It’s truly going to take years for me to try them all, because dinners 1-3 fill me up too much. I’ll just have to If there is something you want to know, ask, and one of my friends will explain it for you.

This is my favorite. It’s cookies stacked up.

The golden stuff is sweet egg threads. So pretty!

This is the most tempting of all

Pastel de Nata Pie

This was like French toast

I could manage these three. I liked the round one. It is a “sausage” made out of cookies.

Christmas Day and Dinner #5

This is my favorite of the dinners. It is the soup dinner and there is fish soup and chicken noodle soup. Both soups are absolutely delicious. There is lovely bread to eat with it too.

Fish soup with sea bass or red fish and shrimp and carrot with just a touch of piri piri peppers for a bit of warmth. It is garnished with cilantro.

Canja de galinha or chicken soup. If a person had a cold and ate this scrumptious brothy soup, they would be well instantly. I enjoy the round little pasta.

Dinner #6 Kiddin’ around.

Why is this little guy still as stone out in the garden? He knew that this meal is baked kid!

Celeste and Suzete keep a close eye on the roast kid and potatoes so they are just the perfect color. See the beautiful bread?

The perfect color

I have kid, which I really enjoy, potatoes and sweet potatoes, turnip greens (Grelos de nabo)

Meal #7 Even more desserts

Craig made his famous cheesecake

Craig also made little gooseberry pies, a tradition of his family and of Kansas.

Another addition for Day #2 was rice pudding. Mine was marked with an M, but I turned it upside down so it would be for Wilson.

On the third day we slept. And, for some reason, the only thing I felt like eating was pickles.