Portugal - oh, about a year later...oops.

So, here is the endeavour to update the AlphaG website. We have now visited Portugal, Quebec, Italy (Redux) and, most recently, Russia. Over the next few days, I'll try to get up all the recipes and photos. We are spotty on photos for Quebec but definitely have photos from the others. And man, they were all awfully tasty!

Here are the links for the Portugal appetizers...we made several things and were on the fullish side before starting the main course. Likely, we could have gone for only two apps but curiosity with food got the best of us :).

Black Olive Pate(Portuguese)

The above recipe is from Food.com and is quite tasty. It is VERY garlicky as it calls for a whole head of garlic. Best to go with Canadian garlic rather than the imported from China kind...the Canadian garlic has a softer flavour which is less bitter due to less time in a shipping container.

We liked this recipe so much that we've made it a few times - it takes only about 5 minutes to make if you have one of the little mini blenders that attach to a submersible hand blender. Sorry, no photos as we ate it too fast!

Garlic Pate (Pasta De Alho)

Yes, I read this and thought "not an appetizer," too. I was wrong. It is also from Food.com and has very little preparation time. It instantly rewards when spread on fresh baguette. Thank you, Pan Chancho! If you aren't lucky enough to live in Kingston for easy access to Pan Chancho it's too bad for you! However, just look for the freshest and most wonderful baguette you can find...then you'll be close.



















Finally, the piece de resistance for the appetizers was the mussels.

Mussels with Piri Piri Sauce

This recipe is courtesy of Emeril Lagasse and The Food Network. I can't say I'm usually a huge fan of Emeril, however, this recipe was a hit! A few photos follow: