Traditions and Christmas

 

We have been in our new Portuguese home exactly two months and love it here and miss our family in America  so this blog is about some old and some new traditions  

The White Stork (Ciconia cicnia) are a beloved  traditional bird in the Algarve (it’s illegal to destroy a nest).  Portugal has the distinction of harboring the only known White Stork that nest at sea  Olhão however has several year-round nesting storks as we see them flying overhead and perching high on the church steeples in their nests.  Like the Bald Eagles that used to occasionally & majestically fly by our window in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, these storks swoop by our windows every day.  

Olhão is a very old fishing port and one of the most authentic Portuguese towns in the Algarve dating back hundreds and hundreds of years.  

The town of Olhão is essentially and historically linked to the local fishing industry and only grew into existence in the 17th Century. It has about 30,000 inhabitants and was raised to the status of a town in 1808 after 17 local fishermen successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean without charts in their small fishing boat "Bom Sucesso". Their purpose was to announce to the exiled King of Portugal, Dom João IV, that the French invading armies had been defeated and had returned to France leaving Portugal free for the King to return. It was in this town in 1882 that the first canning factory for tuna and sardines was established. Very soon canning it became the leading industry of the Algarve.

Replica of the Bom Sucesso all decked out for Christmas

Today it is one of the few remaining WORKING fishing ports which accounts for the delicious daily fresh fish market.   Walking around the commercial harbor we see mostly smaller boats that go out to the larger fleets to transport in the daily catch.

Food is a passion in Portugal -served with love, family and conviviality.  It's a very Portuguese thing to have food for 3 times the amount of people.  

Se a ultima ceia tivesse sido em Portugal

We enjoyed long video chats & phone calls with our families in the States watching our grandchildren open presents and then settled down to stuff ourselves with food!

Fish is traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve and it's usually Bacalhau-salted cod which is revered in Portugal even though it originates from the Northern sea by Norway and Iceland. It's unclear how this fish became Portugal's national dish but most theories say the fisherman preserved the cod in salt for their journey back to Portugal.  By the time they arrived back to Portugal, they would often have leftover bacalhau which they would then sell to the local people.  Today it is still heavily salted and stacked in non-refrigerated piles in the market-then it must be soaked in water for several days to leach out the salt.  

We had Bacalhau, fresh shrimp followed by the usual fruit for dessert.  I baked pineapple for dessert that I followed the recipe in Portuguese! 

buying camarao (shrimp) at the fish market.  Yes, that's €13 kg which works out about $6.00/lb

The translations are often very funny.  This recipe said to put the pineapple in the oven and KEEP IT RUNNING-what it really meant was to rotate the pineapple in the oven.

Our wonderful landlady, Manuela (who speaks no English but we communicate thru Mr. Google)

brought us an absolutely delicious almond cake she made.  It is so dense and sweet!

I decided to share a typical Christmas party treat with Manuela from the States-Chex Mix!  But I couldn't find any CHEX cereals or pretzels so I made it sweet instead of my usual savory batch, substituting what I could find.

 

Since there are virtually no restaurants open on Christmas Day we purchased a complete meal from our local market.  It was a very good dinner, probably more like a home-cooked meal than a fancy restaurant meal and enough food for 6 people!

We picked up the meal and some of the food was actually packaged in real ceramic bakeware

The meal came ready to reheat -Shrimp Paté, Cream of Pumpkin soup, Rice with pine nuts & raisins, Sautéed  spouts (greens), Creamed Bacalhau (cod), Pork Loin with plums, and dessert

Appetizer-Shrimp Paté, Olives (..always in Portugal!) with Martinis

First Course-Cream of Pumpkin soup with Valle do Rico Homen Reserva Wine (have I mentioned how reasonable the everyday wine is here?  This was about $2.50 a bottle)

Main Courses (we added additional mashed potatoes)

Dessert translated to "Bacon from Heaven"?? with espresso

Cheese with Port Wine (those are smaller dessert wine glasses...really!!)

Sending our warmest wishes and love to all for the Holidays.  (and special HUGS & KISSES to sister-in-law Jan and our nephew Jackson, who were involved in a serious car wreck on Christmas Eve in New Jersey.  They both walked away-a Christmas miracle!)

Next time the traditions of NewYears-twelve raisins?