weekly update
Monday 26th January ‘09 Tuesday’s cookery course was good fun – we
didn’t actually get much hands on but we were right in the midst of
the kitchen where the chef and his assistant prepared a 3 course typical
Portuguese meal. We started with a basic soup made from olive oil, garlic,
water, green and red peppers (not many) parsley and goats cheese. It was
delicious and served like French onion soup with slices of bread, the broth
poured over and topped with some slices of the cheese that had been marinating
in the soup. The second course was a Bacahlaua Bras (salt cod with scrambled
egg well sort of!). This too was delicious and had onion, garlic, olive oil,
white wine, potato straws, cream and of course the flaked and pre-cooked cod
(de-salted of course) and was finished by the addition of the eggs just before
serving. The final course was the famous Pastel Nata which I have bought at
home but these were absolutely gorgeous. Not surprising when you consider there
were 9 egg yolks, nearly a litre of cream as well as the other ingredients. The
end result looks a bit like a custard tart but there the similarity ends! We
all enjoyed eating the meal and of course had to wash it down with some good
local wine! On Wednesday there was a walk out to the west of Lagos which
we participated in although again we did not do it all. We took the car to Vila
de Bispo, walked across open heath land in a circle – about 12 kilometres
and then back to the car . We took a drive up to the west coast and found a
great surfing beach where the waves were enormous. There was a lovely
cafe/restaurant (closed this month) where we parked overlooking the bay and
cliffs and ate our packed lunch – certainly another place to visit for a
meal at some point before we leave! Thursday and Friday were pretty wet here and we didn’t
do much apart from the usual shopping and washing. We did go to the swimming
pool but I had to forego the gym as I had pulled a muscle in my thigh. The
Burns Night supper planning took some time as I had to get the music sorted out
and find some additional dances to do on the night that would be easy to teach! I also had to meet with the chef and the Maitre De from Way
Point Restaurant to discuss the table layout etc. We had 28 people booked in
for the event which was held on Sunday night the 250th anniversary
of Rabbie’s birth. Saturday was market day and in the evening we went to
the local bar on the Marina – Lazy jacks as they had a very good music
night with two local musicians and Happy Hour too! Our Burns night was a great success and the chef did us
proud with the food. He had never cooked haggis, I had to give him a recipe for
Cock a leekie soup and instructions about preparing the neeps. He also had my
mum’s recipe for Scottish trifle but the result was not quite what we
expected – more like a cake but tasty none-the- less. After the usual
address to the haggis, toasts with whisky and very good meal we then progressed
to some Scottish country dancing and a few ‘turns’ by various
individuals including some poetry and wonderful solo singing of some really rousing
Scots songs. We had a raffle for a good bottle of Malt and raised
100Euros for the local children’s home; so all in all a successful event. We were very late to bed last night so a leisurely start to
the day was required. However we did make a trip to the pool and I went in the
gym for 30 minutes too. Hoping for a quiet rest of the week now! That’s all for now. Jacky and Rob |