Massa Sovada (Portuguese Sweet Bread)

A while ago, I was missing the Azores and some of the food, so I made this homemade Massa Sovada Bread and Canja.  The kids were very excited to come home and find the dough in the kitchen.  In fact, they got into the action of punching it down.  They LOVED doing that, lol.  

You need to plan ahead for this quite a bit, as it takes all day long to rise.  Then, quite a long time to bake, since the loaves are so big. This wasn't quite like the Massa Sovada I had back in the Azores so often, but it was almost as good.  It might have been my fault; maybe I added too much flour or something.  But it was still very, very good.  (My homemade bread is never as light and fluffy as store-bought stuff.)  I've made this once before, but wanted to try another recipe this time.  

Massa Sovada (Portuguese Sweet Bread)

adapted from Azores Gal

I cut recipe in half- makes two round loaves

2 cups milk 1 teaspoon salt 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter 4 teaspoons yeast 2 1/2 pounds flour 6 large eggs 2 cups sugar 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for glaze, optional 1.  In a saucepan combine the milk, salt, and lard and bring to a boil. Set aside.  In a small bowl combine the yeast, 1 cup of the flour, and 1/2 cup warm water and set aside. 2.  In a large bowl, with a whisk, combine the eggs, and sugar, and mix thoroughly. Add the milk mixture, yeast mixture, and remaining flour and thoroughly combine. (I kneaded here.) Set aside to rise, kneading 6 times every half hour. The bread will take 6 hours to rise. 3.  Prepare 2 round loaf pans with butter or lard. Divide the batter among the pans (pans should be half full). Press the dough evenly in the pan and let it rise again until it reaches the top of the pan. 4.  Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Brush with beaten egg and bake for about 1 hour, until golden brown. (I usually skip egg wash). Yield: 2 loaves

Canja de Galinha (Portuguese Chicken & Rice Soup)

I have made Canja once before, when I first moved to the Azores.  I just used a regular Portuguese cookbook, though, not an Azorean one, and the recipes are quite different.  The one I made before was really simple and had mint.  This one is still simple, but more hearty.  This is the closest to the Canja from my fave Pastelaria there.  (I love that place, but they wouldn't give me their Canja recipe. Sheesh.)  I made homemade Massa Sovada- Portuguese Sweet Bread- to go with it.  I'll share that recipe later.  It's from the same blog.    I think the Pastelaria sometimes added chopped hard-boiled eggs to theirs, but I don't remember anymore.  :(

Canja de Galinha (Portuguese Chicken & Rice Soup)
adapted from Azores Gal

3 bay leaves
10 whole allspice
1 clove of garlic cut small/minced
1 medium onion, finely diced
1/2 of a chicken ( or whole if you wish)
1-2 teaspoons of sea salt ( salt and taste the water to your liking)
12 cups of water ( + 5 more cups, if needed to add during cooking the chicken)
½ cup of white rice (can use up to 1 cup)

lemons, optional

1.  Put 12 cups of water, bay leaves, allspice, salt, garlic, onion, and chicken in a pot, cover with the lid. Bring to the boil. Let boil until chicken is cooked, about an hour. During cooking time, check to see if you need to add some water, as it will reduce as it boils. Remove the chicken when it's cooked, and shred or cut into bite-size pieces and set aside.

2.  Taste the broth, and adjust the salt to your liking. To the broth now add in the rice, and let it cook for about 20 minutes, simmer on low heat. Do not cover with the lid, as this sometimes, will make it boil over. After the 20 minutes, remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes, the rice will finish cooking. At this time add in the shredded chicken. It´s now ready to serve! You can squeeze some lemon juice in your bowl (this is the best!) or add a splash of vinegar.

**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

Our Faves From "Our" Pastelaria

We flew out of the Azores today; headed for Italy.  We're resting at a hotel right now; dividing our trip up so as not to do too much in one day (plus, that's just how the flights worked out... lol).  I meant to do this post before moving, but I'll do it now.  I didn't have time in the last few days.  I wanted to just post some pics of the food my family use to get at our fave little cafe there.  We'd go at least once a month, probably, and hardly ever eat out anywhere else.  I also met friends for lunch there frequently.  I will miss it- I loved the location, the decor, the people there, and of course the food was delish (and cheap!)  We first found this Pastelaria on accident when we moved to the Azores 6 years ago and I posted about it back then.  Who knew that we'd be going here so regularly and it'd be our favorite place!!  

These are pics of our "usuals".  First pic is a sandwich I loved; bacon and cream cheese with egg, corn, lettuce, tomato, and onion.  I tried to re-create it once, but it wasn't nearly as good.  They have good freshly-squeezed orange juice, and I'd sometimes share a plate of fries with my husband.  I'd always order a bowl of soup; they had different ones every day.  My favorite was Canja, chicken, rice and lemon.  The pic above is carrot soup.  It was only about 1 Euro a bowl, and always good.  I asked for the recipe for Canja but they said no.  :(  At least I have an Azorean cookbook with some Canja I can try.

My husband usually got some kind of burger; they make really good ones here.  The buns are fresh; the produce is good and in the summertime, looks like it's fresh from someone's garden.  For reals.  Eating here, my fam started to really like mixing mayo and ketchup for fry dipping.  We should have eaten our fries with a fork, like the locals.  Maybe in Italy....

My daughter was so adventurous (lol) and always got a baguette with butter, fries, and a fresh orange juice or orange Fanta.  (Orange Fanta is so good in Europe.... it has real juice it in.  Not like in the US.  And I don't' mean to say that in a snotty way; it's just true.)

My son always had a baguette with Sao Jorge cheese (pic above and below).  He's not crazy about fries, so he wouldn't get those, usually.  Sao Jorge cheese is super strong, but he loves it and it's one of his fave kinds of cheese.  It's made on Sao Jorge island, in the Azores.  

My second son always, always got a hamburger and fries.  If we went to another restaurant and he ordered a hamburger, he said he didn't' like it because it didn't taste like the "Pastelaria hamburgers". I hope he's ok going to another country and trying their hamburgers!  (Poor guy.)  The waitresses knew he only wanted lettuce on it; no onions or tomatoes.  

For my youngest, the baby of the fam, we started ordering him torrada, or toast with butter.  It took us like 5 years to figure out what torrada was, by the way; and it's on all the cafe menus here.  When we did figure it out, we were very happy, because we finally had something easy to order for the baby.  It's only like 80 cents, too.  But.... you have to say it correctly.  Until a few weeks ago, we'd been saying "torada" with one R, which means bullfight.... lol!!!  Someone at a different restaurant corrected us a few weeks ago, after looking utterly confused when we asked for a torada for the baby.  You have to make the double R sound, which is hard for me to make.  I think the Patelaria had just been humoring us, the clueless Americans, for the last year every time we asked for a bullfight.  So anyway... it's torrada, not torada.  

We ate here many times without getting dessert, but if we did get it, I always enjoyed this caramel tart, which tasted just like Dulce de Leche to me.  I will definitely miss our favorite Pastelaria!!  It's closed on Sundays, but if it was not, I bet they'd be enjoying watching Portugal play against the US in the World Cup today.  :) Have a great weekend; I'll be writing from Italy next time!

                                                          **This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

Spotlight: Bolo Levedos

I wanted to talk about a few more local food items before we moved.  My family LOVES these bolo levedos; we call them Portuguese English Muffins, lol.  They are so good- like American English muffins but better- better flavor, and larger.  Usually we just split them, toast them and eat them with butter, but after Easter, we made delicious egg-ham-cheese breakfast sandwiches with them, pictured above.  (Split, toast, butter, optional, add fried egg, cheddar cheese, and ham warmed up on the a pan or griddle.)  This is one of my kids' favorite foods here.  I will really, really miss these.  Although, there are recipes online for these, and I just bought this cookbook, and it contains the recipe for these.  

**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

My 1,000th Post- Farewell to the Azores

We have a little over a month left here, and I do plan to post more about the Azores in that time, but for my 1000th post, I thought I'd do a little tribute to the island we've lived on for the past 6 years and what we love about it.  I already get homesick thinking about flying away from here for the last time, and maybe never coming back.  I'll miss so many things, and here are some of them, in pictures. (I'm posting a LOT of pictures!  Some of them have made it on the blog before, but not most of them.)

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Homemade Wood-Fired Pizza

Many of the local homes here have an outdoor wood-burning oven.  Sometimes they are little stand-alone ones, or built into an outdoor cooking area.  One of our neighbors recently installed one in his yard, and constructed a nice little building for it, too, so that they can prepare food, cook and eat out there!  And a few weeks ago, he invited us over for a wood-fired pizza party.  Both families prepared a batch of dough and gathered some toppings and went to work.  The adults made the food while the kids from both families had a blast playing outside in their large yard.  In total, we made about 9 pizzas, each with a different combo of toppings.  It was so fun and the pizza was absolutely delicious.  Following are some photos of the fun. 

*This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

12 Days of Christmas- Azores Style

Yesterday we had a family "12 Days of Christmas, Azores-Style" scavenger hunt.  It was very fun, and took all day.  We didn't tell the kids about it until it started, and started the day at our favorite Pastelaria/Cafe for breakfast (where we also photographed the Pasteis de Nata). Merry Christmas!

Twelve cows a' walking.

Eleven ducks a' quacking.

Ten boats in the Marina.

Nine Pasteis de Nata.

Eight Spirit Houses.

Seven Miradouros (lookouts/ viewpoints)

Six Deer a' Feeding.

Five Kinder Eggs! (Da dum dum)

Four Swimming Holes

Three Cathedrals

Two Abandoned Houses

And a Portuguese Flag to see!

** This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **