Portuguese

We love hash browns for their delicious contradiction—the way the outer crunch of skillet–fried potatoes gives way to an inner creaminess. Throw in some nuggets of spicy Spanish chorizo (left over from Corn–Bread and Chorizo Stuffing ) and things only get better.

The Portuguese soup caldo verde is ideal cool weather comfort food. It is full of good-for-you greens and potatoes, while sausage keeps things porky and satisfying.

The legacy of San Francisco's Italian and Portuguese immigrants—many of them fishermen—lives on in this fuss-free take on the North Beach favorite, with fresh fennel adding a subtle touch of anise to the tomato-based seafood stew.

For this Spanish-inspired pasta, you break the dried noodles and cook them more like rice — the result is a silky mix speckled with crunchy almonds, smoky chorizo, and aromatic saffron.

We like to bake this lightly spiced bread, filled with bits of flavorful candied fruit, in small loaves — perfect for gift-giving. Mild honey lends sweetness, while molasses adds notes of caramel.

Clams and pork are a classic Portuguese combination. The briny sweetness of the bivalves and a tomato sauce studded with zesty chorizo bring out the richness of the chops.

(Sericaia à la Ritz) Editor's note: This recipe is adapted from Jean Anderson. Anderson also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Anderson and Portuguese cuisine, click here. The recipe for this unusually light Portuguese "egg sweet" is adapted from the Varanda Restaurant of the Ritz Four Seasons Hotel in Lisbon. At the restaurant, an ice cream made from ameixas d'Elvas (sugarplums from the city of Elvas near the Spanish border) is scooped alongside. However, the sericaia is equally delicious served plain.

(Feijão Verde com Coentro e Alho) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Jean Anderson's book The Food of Portugal. Anderson also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Anderson and Portuguese cuisine, click here. There's a reason for adding the lemon juice and vinegar to the green beans after they've marinated. If you mix these acids in too soon, the beans will turn an unappetizing shade of brown.

(Amêijoas na Cataplana Casa Velha) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Jean Anderson's book The Food of Portugal. Anderson also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Anderson and Portuguese cuisine, click here. The Portuguese ingenuity for combining pork and shellfish in a single dish dates back, it's been said, to one of the darker chapters of Iberian history — the Inquisition. Amêijoas na Cataplana, together with a number of other pork-shellfish combinations, were invented as a sort of culinary double-whammy to test one's Christian zeal (pork and shellfish being proscribed to both Jew and Moslems). On a recent swing through the Algarve Province, where this popular cataplana recipe originated, I tried to verify the theory, without success. Manuel Paulino Revéz and Esteban Medel do Carmo, assistant directors at Faro's Escola de Hotelaria e Turismo do Algarve (Algarve Hotel and Tourism School), both doubt that there's any connection between the Inquisition and the creation of Portugal's many pork and shellfish combinations. They do admit, however, that Amêijoas na Cataplana is a recipe so old that its genesis is clouded by the dust of ages. Whatever its origin, the gloriously soupy mélange of unshucked baby clams, ham, and sausages in garlicky tomato sauce is supremely successful. This particular version comes from Casa Velha, once one of the Algarve's top restaurants. Now closed, alas, it was located in a historic, heavily beamed farmhouse amid the umbrella pines and luxury estates of Quinta do Lago near Faro. Note: Portuguese clams are tiny, thin-shelled, and uncommonly sweet. The best substitutes are West Coast butter clams or, failing them, the smallest littlenecks you can find. This dish need not be prepared in a cataplana, a hinged metal container shaped like a giant clam shell that can be clamped shut; any kettle with a tight-fitting lid works well. Finally, this is a naturally salty dish, so add no extra salt before tasting.

(Pão) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Jean Anderson's book Process This!. Anderson also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Anderson and Portuguese cuisine, click here. What I wanted to do here was turn the food processor into a bread machine, that is, to see if I could proof the yeast, mix and knead the dough, even let it rise in the processor. I'm pleased to say that it worked perfectly. I don't recommend this technique for bigger batches of yeast dough, for more complex recipes, and certainly not for wimpy food processors with small work bowls (you need at least an 11-cup capacity). For this simple five-ingredient loaf, however, a big, powerful machine does it all. This "daily bread" of Portugal is both crusty and chewy thanks to the steam ovens in which it's baked (I bake my bread at very high temperature over a shallow pan of water). Because Portuguese flours are milled of hard wheat, I've fortified our softer-wheat all-purpose flour with semolina and find the texture exactly right. This dough is unusually stiff and for that reason I use the metal chopping blade throughout — the stubby dough blade merely spins the dough against the sides of the work bowl. I also use high-speed churning throughout (the ON button) instead of a "dough mode" because it does a better job of developing the gluten (wheat protein) that forms the framework of this bread.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Potato, Pepper, and Chorizo Empanadas .

If you soak the dried chiles in the morning, they'll be ready by evening.

The potatoes are poached in olive oil as they often are in Spain — only some oil is absorbed; the rest is drained off. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

If you would rather use swordfish or sea bass, by all means do. Whatever the choice, grill some zucchini that have been quartered lengthwise, and toss egg noodles with butter and fresh black pepper. Then finish the meal with sliced strawberries topped with sour cream and brown sugar. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This dish is named after the copper Portuguese cooking vessel, the cataplana, in which it is traditionally cooked.

This main-course soup is ideal for winter evenings. It originated in Portugal's Ribatejo province, famed for its horses, bulls and bullfighters. The soup gets its name from the kidney beans, which are referred to as "stones" by the Portuguese.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. The cuisine of Goa, a former Portuguese colony, is an exuberant amalgam of Portugal and India. Liberal use of Portuguese vinegar, along with hot chiles (an import from the New World) and spices, produces the scarlet-hued vindaloo curries typical of this state. The following outstanding Goan seafood curry — a milder variation of vindaloo, and with lime juice replacing the vinegar — features clams steamed with sautéed onion, spices, and fresh coconut milk. They are then tossed with grated coconut, cilantro, and a squirt of lime juice and are generally accompanied by a pao, a soft, warm roll (another Portuguese contribution) for sopping up the juices. This dish is equally good with mussels or oysters.

This Portuguese classic cooked in the style of the Ribatejo region, consists of pork and shellfish in a red wine sauce. The recipe comes from Antonio's restaurant, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they accompany the stew with fried potatoes.

Known as coca, this is the traditional street food of Palma. The name derives from the Latin verb coquere, which means "to cook". Shaped in a long oval or rectangle, baked in a wood-fired oven and sold in room-temperature squares, coca is usually eaten as a snack, but it can also be a great starter for a casual meal. Unlike its Italian counterpart, it is covered only with vegetables, never with cheese. There are sweet cocas and special holiday versions, too. When made with frozen bread dough, coca is a snap to prepare.

Papas con Fideos This recipe is from Delia Marcus, who was taught how to feed her Gypsy husband properly by her mother-in-law. Marcus founded flamencarte.com, a referral service for flamenco-oriented visits to Seville.

These clams in garlicky broth were named after Bulhão Pato, a 19th-century Portuguese poet. Although his verses have been largely forgotten, the dish remains popular throughout Lisbon. Serve it as the first course of an elegant meal or as the main course of a light lunch.