SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!Portuguese wine and food pairing.

[Rachel_Diltz]

Hello. I have a sommelier project due in a few weeks, and I need your suggestions! I have to pair a Portuguese wine with a Portuguese dish, prepare it, and present it. I don't want to do the classic Port and blue cheese or Port and chocolate. Any ideas?

[streetgourmetla]

Churrasco(barbeque) of quail with a douro(red).Maybe something with portuguese linguicas and chouricos?Do you know how to work with salt cod and have access?There are a great deal of salt cod dishes like the Bacalhau a Braz(salt cod, potato, egg) , etc.

Bife a Portuguesa with a medium bodied Portuguese red would be fun and lends itself to a deconstructed presentation.

Bolinhos de bacalhau, savory salt cod croquettes with a Dao(white).

[maria lorraine]

A good place to start might be the Portuguese version of the Spanish/Galician white wine Albarino, called Alvarinho in Portugal. It's just across the river, literally, from the Spanish Albarino district, but look for the designation Monção, which means it is 100% Alvarinho and not blended. The blends don't have nearly the same amount of flavor.

Pairings for that would be the great salt cod and potato spread, baccalau, or any seafood dish (shrimp is big in Portugal) or a seafood cataplana. Cataplana is one of my favorite dishes -- and cataplana is the word for both the cooking vessel and the dish. You assemble an assortment of seafood, sausage and usually tomatoes -- the amount for a single serving -- and place it in this special copper "pot" with a foldover lid that clamps on and seals the pot tight. It cooks for a mere ten minutes on the stove, and then -- when unclamped after cooking -- a whoosh of wonderful aromatics greets you, and you see that a delicious stew has been created. Many dishes in Portugal, including cataplana, begin with a base of refugado, a long-simmered stew of onions, garlic and olive oil. This is made in massive quantities, refrigerated, and dolloped out as needed.

Any of the lighter tomato dishes -- including the cataplana above -- also go well with Alicante Bouschet, a light Grenache-style wine from Alentejo. The Tempranillo grape goes by the name of Aragonez in Portugal, so adjust your pairings to suit that heavier red wine.

Finally, though I will admit I'm not a fan, there is the very tannic, full-bodied and often overoaked Touriga Nacional. Perhaps you'll like it, but I've never had a single one that blew up my skirt, or blew up my skirt more than another varietal for the same amount of money. I'm sure you'll have a chance to taste it if you haven't already.

Another poster on this board, zin1953/Jason lists some excellent Portugal wine producers here:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/4019...

Good luck to you on this project! Sounds like fun.

[maria lorraine]

Addendum:

Here's a photo of a cataplana, and two websites with info:
http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cooking%20by%20Country/Portugal%20Speciality%20Dish%20Cataplana.htm
http://www.insalatas.com/html/catapla...