Two weeks ago I travelled to Portugal on an adventure to cycle from Lisbon to the Algarve and Lagos. Afterwards my girlfriend and I spent a couple of days in Lisbon enjoying the sights and sounds and, food of course.
On a day trip to the mountain town of Sintra we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant Dom Pipas where we ate the most incredible lamb stew. Being a chef myself I asked if I could speak with the chef and asked for the recipe. This can be a little tricky sometimes because chefs can be precious of their recipes.
The family though was very happy to share their recipe with me and after translating it I filled in the blanks and headed back to London with the promise of making the recipe in my Gastro Pub.
The flavour is great and feedback from the customers is they love it, yet I鈥檓 missing one small ingredient called Annotto , instead I used a touch of paprika and red pepper powder. The flavour is great but I鈥檒l admit theirs is better. I enjoyed pickling the carrots to serve with it and creating the dish with boiled potatoes and broccoli and a healthy amount of the delicious juices. I will have another go and next time with the Annotto which is on order :)
Here is a pic of the dish served in our Gastro Pub in central London.
Portuguese Lamb stew with pickled carrots, boiled potato and Broccoli
I tried this dish a few times throughout my time in Portugal and Dom Pipas was the best 馃憤.
I think this is half the joy of cooking, learning new cultures cuisine and putting it into practice, that's why I enjoy cooking so much.