So, yesterday was my last day in Porto and I had a Pastel de Nata making class in the morning. The father and son team (Thierry and Odin) from Thursday’s trip to the Douro Valley was also part of the class. Unfortunately, Tina from New York, couldn’t get into the class as it was already full. But the four of us have created a group together for continuing our chats and have been making plans to visit one another over the next year - Thierry and Odin will be back in France this weekend and Tina will be back in New York but is moving to Scotland in the fall. Now I’ve got places to go and wonderful friends to see!
If I haven’t already made this clear in previous posts - it is necessary and imperative for all of us to get out and see the world, meet people from different worldviews and learn how the world is really just a small global village. We need each other. No country is an island (well, figuratively speaking, anyway!) Seriously, I have met some of the most wonderful caring people on this trip.
Here are some pictures from our Pastel de Nata class. It is a very typical pastry in Portugal. You can get them just about everywhere. Ines, our host, asked her grandmother for the recipe she uses in her class remembering the wonderful times she had making them with her when she was a child. Her grandmother said, “Why do you want to make them from scratch? Now you can buy them already made at the store.” Ines shared, “This is true, there’s really no need to make them anymore. But there is something about making them at home and sharing them with your family and friends that just changes a typical breakfast pastry into something more.” I couldn’t agree more!
The dough is a puff pastry dough and again, you can certainly buy puff pastry dough at the supermarket now and save some time. But, honestly, with Ines great teaching, puff pastry dough is not that hard to make. I was so involved in creating my dough that I completely forgot to take pictures of those steps. However, the end result was a coil of laminated layers of dough and margarine (which is actually the key), no butter! She explained that the fat content of the butter lets it melt too quickly and burn at high temperatures. The oil content of margarine allows the layers to flake better under heat because it doesn’t melt or burn so easily.
The syrup (a combo of water and sugar, lemon peel and cinnamon stick), along with the base sauce of milk and flour are cooked and ready to be combined. After being combined, the egg yolks are tempered slightly by adding just a bit of the warm sauce to the eggs and then slowly adding the sauce and whisking.
12-15 minutes later in a really hot oven (450) degrees Fahrenheit or hotter and they are done. Here’s a picture of Odin and Thierry holding up our creations.
When Ines heard that I was headed to the airport after our class she offered to drive me there herself so that I wouldn’t have to hassle with a taxi or other public transportation. It was so sweet of her, especially since she had another online class to teach not long after ours. We had a great chat in the car and she refused to take any money for driving me there.
It got me to the airport a little earlier than I had planned, but that ended up being a blessing as (in these Covid times) there is still a lot of paperwork to fill out (online), forms to upload, Covid tests to take, etc… and every country’s requirements are different when you cross borders. It also depends on where you originated from and where your vaccination certificate is from. So, there is some (a lot) of research involved as well.
The flight from Porto, Portugal to Barcelona, Spain ended up being backed up due to weather issues elsewhere, but I arrived in Barcelona around 10pm, got to my new apartment and finally went out to get something to eat around 11pm as I hadn’t had anything but Pastel de Natas all day. I arrived at the closest restaurant to the apartment, hoping that they’d still be open or if not to find a supermarket nearby. Of course they were open; this is Spain, after all. At 11pm they were bustling inside and out. It ended up being a sushi restaurant, which was fine with me.
I sat at the bar, as all the tables were taken, and even the bar was full, but it allowed me to watch the Sushi chefs at work.
Edamame:
A coconut and cachaca cocktail:
My sushi platter being made in the background!
And of course dessert! A passionfruit purée gelatin over rich cream and raspberry syrup in the bottom. It was so good!
This morning I was a bit slow to move about, after eating so late and not being able to immediately nod off to sleep. However, when I popped up at a random metro stop to do some exploring, a parade was going on. I asked a number of people what the parade was for - nobody knew. Carnival is next weekend, so maybe a prelude to that?
The Spanish and Portuguese seem to love potatoes and serve them at nearly every meal. Here is a combo that will not be to everyone’s liking. It is basically potato salad, tuna fish and cooked carrots mixed together, topped with some kind of mayo based sauce and olives - Ensaladilla Rusa.
Pesto Pasta with green beans, pine nuts, and…..tiny cubes of potato.
Tomorrow I’m off to Monserrat for a 24 hour silent retreat, so I won’t post again until Monday evening, before heading back to the US on Tuesday. Time to begin processing everything I’ve experienced and learned.
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