How to Make Alcatra, the Ultimate Portuguese-Style Beef Stew

Byamazingfoodstv


Host Bridget Lancaster shows host Julia Collin Davison how to make the ultimate Portuguese-Style Beef Stew.

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38 Comments

  1. Im trying this tonight – although I don't ever remember my Grandmother making it, she made very similar things and used shanks a lot – especially for soup. It smells like her kitchen, so I'm so excited to try it. The warm spice profile is similar to what she would use. I make her Pork and Clams and her Cocolia also, not as good as hers, but they are good. thank you for another easy Portuguese inspired recipe.

  4. I'm usually pretty chill about different cultures doing what they can with regional recipes, to make up for what might not be available and unknown techniques, and I'm probably one of the few portuguese that don't have a problem with the infamous pastel de bacalhau + queijo da serra combo. So it's not lightly, or as an easily offended person, that I say this is lazy and disrespectful. I'm not judging the quality of the dish, but the things they changed or took out are exactly what would make this recognizable as portuguese, or even just "portuguese style." Yes: even accounting for the obvious variations that will exist in the way each portuguese cook will make any given typical dish. It's true we typically don't brown the meat, but we brown the onions in "refogado": it's the portuguese version of "sofritto", made with chopped or sliced onions, minced or sliced garlic and bay leaf, and one of the most portuguese things ever. Ask anyone, and they'll tell you how evocative and central it was in their childhood, the smell of refogado as mum started to make dinner. Then you'll throw the meat in. Allspice (as well as "fancier" peppers like rose pepper) only appeared in portuguese supermarkets recently, in this last decade's wave of cooking becoming fashionable); the traditional would be only black or maybe white pepper. The art of portuguese cooking is a lot about just using a few staple (mostly mediterranean-style) ingredients as seasoning (when compared, for example, with the amount of spices used in mexican or oriental cuisines) and still make it as strongly-flavoured and savoury as it gets. Cinnamon is not used in portuguese savoury dishes, period. Keep it for pastries and desserts, where it features heavily and is much loved. Most portuguese stews are known for being heavy on vegetables: at least potatoes and onions, and sometimes peas also, maybe a bit of bell pepper, though that's not as usual. There are also others that are based on chickpeas or beans. Portuguese stews are mainly done in the stove top. Some might have been traditionally made in a wood oven, but the modern everyday substitute is stove, not oven. "Chanfana", a goat stew heavy on red wine where the meat is marinated for days before cooking in the oven, is one of the few exceptions that quickly come to mind. Portugal also has its own kinds of chorizo, called "chouriço". I appreciate that it's probably very hard to find outside of Portugal, and they're similar but decent hosts would have told the public that the typical thing to use would be portuguese chouriço, but that it's okay to use other kinds if you can't get it. (and I really don't personally care about the stupid rivalry that (unrequitedly, I might add) Portugal has against Spain, but oh, the cultural deafness and ignorance of just recommending a Spanish chorizo to a portuguese-styled dish without any acknowledgment… wow.)

  16. I am going to adapt this recipe for canning.
    1. Sear the outside of the beef.
    2. Cook the onions in the "beefy" skillet.
    3. Deglaze skillet with white wine, and save the liquid.
    4. Run liquid through a fat separator.
    5. Add whole garlic cloves and dry spices to the sanitized jars.
    6. Pack jars 2/3 full with meat and onions.
    7. Add 1 tsp canning salt (quart jars).
    8. Fill jars with hot wine/onion liquid leaving 1" headspace.
    9. Pressure Can for 90 minutes (quart jars).

  17. These ladies can't cook Portuguese food..lol. Portuguese cuisine would use way more allspice (Jamaican pepper) for alcatra and clove is missing in the dish…also they forgot to add any form of hot pepper and we never use a cheese cloth for cooking….the gravy and meat should be much darker and thicker!

  21. Made this the Second time! Wonderful! I used 3 onions, but did not get very much "Broth" = guess the Suace went into the Onions! Next time I'll hunt for the Long Shank strips ( 1st time Round was dry, this time Chuck &Very Tasty!)

  29. This show is recorded in New England… a part of The US where there is a very large diverse group of Portuguese people…. myself included…. by the way Azorean food is Portuguese food for those making a distinction. They do have a lot of their own recipes. Just like different parts of the US have different kinds of food. still American food (New England Chowder vs BBQ vs Tex Mex)

  32. IIRC, and I'm sure I may be totally wrong, but I remember that Alcatra is not Portuguese, it's Azorean. Maybe Alcatra is made all over Portugal now, but it came from Terceira Island in the Azores. I was stationed there once, and fell in love with alcatra. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I'll be trying it soon!

  36. My grandmother made that with silva ling. She would cut the ling. in 2 inch lengths and it would cook the whole way through.
     With chicken and rice or potatoes and those pimento olives for a kick. That has always been a staple for me…. Yum Yum…

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