Porco com Amêijoas à Alentejana

Surf and Turf.  Land and sea.  Mar y montagña.  A classic pairing that seems to always work so well… I’ve loved this dish for a while now, having stumbled upon the recipe posted on Leite’s Culinaria several years ago… but this dish it seems, has a long and venerable history, originating out of the Alentejo region in Portugal.  The best description I’ve read of the region comes from this personal account by Miguel de Almeida at West Coast Cooking.  His recipe is slightly different from the one I used; indeed, there seems to be an infinite number of variations one can take with this beautiful dish.  At its base it’s hearty, easy and comforting; however, it doesn’t quite work well if you want to gin up a quick weeknight meal.  You want a bit of time for prep and leaving the pork ample time to bathe in its marinade (overnight is ideal), so it’s probably best to attempt this over a weekend or when you’ve got some time.

Oh – and you’ll want to use some sort of stew pot or large-ish dutch oven for this dish. Continue reading →