Tag: Azorean cooking

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Virtual Cooking with The Azorean Green Bean #weekendcooking

Weekend Cooking hosted by The Intrepid Reader includes badge which is a collage of four cooking related photos

I usually avoid cooking shows so as not to get hooked on them, but virtual cooking demos are a different story!

Last week my mother, sister, and I cooked virtually with Maria Lawton. Nicknamed the “Azorean Green Bean”, she hosts the PBS show “Maria’s Portuguese Table“.

Before we got together to cook the chicken and potatoes dish she would be demonstrating, I checked out The Azorean Green Bean for a vegetarian recipe to use the sugar pumpkin I had purchased through the virtual winter farmer’s market.

I made Maria’s Sopa de Abobora (Pumpkin Soup) recipe, but used black beans in place of red, so my soup didn’t come out looking as appetizing as hers. But it tasted good!

Sopa de Abobora just after adding the chopped pumpkin to the pan. I misread the recipe and thought they’d be getting pureed but they weren’t, so I had to cut them all smaller in the pan after they were cooked. When will I learn to read through the entire recipe first?
I did eventually roast the pumpkin seeds but these were from a previous pumpkin.

According to this tourism Web site , The Azores, Azorean regional dishes include:

  • Cozido das furnas (stew made in the hot springs)
  • Rumpsteaks
  • Octopus stewed in wine
  • Barnacles and limpets

We didn’t try any of these, sticking to the less exotic chicken thighs for the meat in the stew.

I was too busy cooking to take notes as Maria made her recipe for Stewed Chicken and Potatoes and talked on the virtual cooking class hosted by a local public library, so I didn’t even get the Portuguese name for this recipe, but she said this is a very common dish that each family would have their own favorites of. We found it a little bland, but as we were cleaning up we realized we had accidentally left the garlic out!

Stewed Chicken and Potatoes. I should have picked a green vegetable for the side!
Not much better looking on the green plate, but it tasted good!
A bowl of Leftover Stewed Chicken and Potatoes over millet, the next day. Even better!

Season Two of Maria’s Portuguese Table had to be put on hold in 2020, of course, but Maria said she is looking forward to being able to travel to the Azores again.

In the meantime, I plan to check out her cookbook, Azorean Cooking: From My Family Table to Yours, and to try out her recipe for Doce de Abóbora (Pumpkin Jam) if I can get another pumpkin before winter is over.

Happy Weekend Cooking!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader and Baker. Visit her blog for more Weekend Cooking posts from other bloggers!

Weekend Cooking hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader and Baker