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So the plan was to make Bolo Rei – a traditional Portuguese cake/bread. Bolo Rei is a sweet rich fruit bread laced with port that was originally made to be eaten at Epiphany (January 6th) but these days is eaten throughout the festive season. Bolo means ‘cake’. Rei means King.

But Bolo Rei is meant to have crystallised fruit on the top – highly decorative and colourful, reflecting the jewels in a Kings crown. I bought all my ingredients and then hit a hurdle when it came to the crystallised fruit. All three of my local (and large) supermarkets didn’t stock it and I was at a loss of where to go and short on time. Somehow I recalled that Bolo Rei without the crystallised fruit is called Bolo Rainha. Queen Cake then is my offering to you this Yuletide

The recipe I followed I found on Delia’s website here

Ingredients

100 g (3 1/2 oz) glacé citrus peel chopped
50 g (1 1/2 oz) raisins
50 g (1 1/2 oz) pine nuts – I used almonds as the shop was out of pine nuts (!)
100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) port
2 1/2 tsp dried yeast
100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) warm water
500 g (1 lb) strong white bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
100 g (3 1/2 oz) unsalted butter softened
100 g (3 1/2 oz) caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
3 eggs beaten

For the topping

egg glaze made with 1 egg yoke beaten with 1 tbsp water
glacé cherries
Sliced almonds (my addition as I think they look pretty)
Caster Sugar
apricot jam to glaze
Icing sugar to decorate

Method

 
1. Soak the glacé peel, raisins, and pine nuts/almonds in the port overnight. Sprinkle the yeast into the water in a bowl. Leave for 5 minutes; stir to dissolve. Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeasted water.

2. Use a wooden spoon to draw enough of the flour into the yeasted water to form a soft paste. Cover the bowl with a tea towel. Leave to sponge until frothy and slightly risen, about 20 minutes.

Ok so I fell at the first hurdle by not quite understanding the instructions (I don’t bake that often!). After mixing all the yeasted water with ALL the flour I realised I hadn’t got anything like a paste – oops. I started again, this time mixing the yeasted water with about half of the flour to make the paste like consistency required.

3. Beat the butter with the sugar and lemon and orange zest together in a separate bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Add the mixture to the flour well, then mix in the flour from the sides to form a soft dough.

I’d like to add that stage 3 was where I discovered my grater was as blunt as a bottle nosed dolphin and had to resort to finely chopping my zest – which took forever…

4. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured work surface. Knead until soft, smooth, silky, and elastic, about 10 minutes. Knead in the peel, raisins, and pine nuts until evenly distributed.

I discovered here that maybe I should had drained off the port from the soaked raisons and pine nuts…

5. Put the dough in a clean bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Knock back, then leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Ok so after an hour I just thought ‘this is never going to rise’ and moved on to the next stage. Next time I will find a warm place instead of leaving it in the freezing kitchen AND leave it for the required 2 hours…

6. Shape the dough into a ring (I separated the dough and made two rings), then place it on a buttered baking sheet. Put a jar or bottle in middle to hold shape.

7. Cover the dough with a tea towel, and leave to prove until doubled in thickness, about 1 hour.

Ok this time I figured the kitchen was too cold so left it in a warmer room and saw a little improvement…

8. To make the topping. Brush the dough with the egg glaze then decorate with the glacé fruit and the caster sugar. Bake in a preheated oven 210c for 45 minutes until golden. Warm the apricot jam in a saucepan over low heat until liquid, then brush the top and sides of the bread with it to glaze. Brush? I’m supposed to have a cook’s brush? Ok, spread thinly with clean fingers…Leave to cool on a wire rack.

After around 25 minutes in the oven I peeked and discovered both my cakes had risen like crazy, closing the holes in the centre. Note to self, next time make the holes much bigger or cook around a jam jar perhaps…

After the required 45 minutes my bolos where starting to look very brown yet the insides seemed uncooked. Frustrated at this point with my significant lack of cooking skills I took them out of the oven and fought the impulse to throw them both straight in the bin. They did however smell good so I cut both to see how they had cooked. Of course both were boiling hot at this point so I didn’t consider how the texture would change or that they would continue to cook until the heat dissipated. The fabulous Christmassy aroma however soothed my bruised cooks pride and I decided to let them cool down to see what happened.

A while later I realised that I had two very tasty if rather hacked-to-pieces cakes. I gave some to a certain Portuguese person who informed me that it tasted good. Happiness! I think it tastes rather fine too. He also gently informed me that he doesn’t know anyone who cooks Bolo Rei or Bolo Rainha back home as everyone just buys them from on of the myriad of shops that stocks them. After my kitchen trials I’m thinking no surprise there! That said, I have some ingredients left and a willing heart. I might just make another…

Feliz Natal!

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Some months ago I was delighted to receive a review copy of The Moon Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon. Now, as an astrologer with a rather obvious passion for Portugal there perhaps could not be a more suitable book for me!

The summer disappeared in a haze of studying and an insane days filled with hours of over-time, squeezing in my Portuguese studies where I could. I have had little time to take in my own surrounding let alone travel. I miss Lisbon like a desperate child lost in a giant supermarket. I want to go home but I can’t! I feel like stamping my feet but I must wait, be sensible, and focus on developing a career that means I can work from anywhere to the march of my own drum. But Lisbon calls to me through the pictures on my walls, through the voice of a special Portuguese someone, through Madredeus and Fado, through the gorgeous David Fonseca and endless poetry. And more recently still my two selves have begun to merge in discovering Pessoa was a highly skilled astrologer himself…

But I digress. The Moon Come to Earth was born from a series of Dispatches from Lisbon which Philip Graham first published on the internet. A published writer and a university lecturer, Philip has a yearning for Portugal which I recognise as a kindred spirit. Having spent years living in Africa, he is a seasoned traveller with a keen eye for detail.

I can honestly say I was hooked from the first page. The author brings Lisbon and Portugal to life in his pages. I was suddenly roaming the mosaic streets with him, transported to my soul-home in a mere glance from the author’s eye. I was there on Rossio, walking in the leafy shade in Principe Real. I laughed at his hilarious descriptions of difficult moments and was touched by his openess as he lets us in to see the world through his sometimes fallible eyes. We learn what it is really like to be a stranger in a strange land that curiously feels like home.

I loved the description of  his brave fight to learn Portuguese as his daughter effortlessly absorbs it as a youngster does: his love – hate relationship with the swallowing of vowels and the sea like oosh…oosh..of spoken European Portuguese.

“It’s actually this confounded swallowing that creates the wave of sound I love, the words melting their discrete borders into a collective enterprise that rises amd falls together, like the houses dotting the hills of Lisbon’.

Philip paints a vivid picture of Portugal and the Portuguese culture from one who truly respects it. He describes the quiet passion of the Portuguese people, their love of festivals and football and the huge pride in national writers. We are treated to lines from Pessoa and Saramago (with whom he recounts a slightly icy meeting) and gently guided through a history of the Portugal and its flourishing from Cape Verde to politics, through fado to the quiet revolution. Whilst the book is quite short, there is a wealth of material to start your own Portuguese odyssey.

I don’t want to give anything away but suffice is to say that towards the end of the book there is a denouement that I never saw coming and which savagely pulled at my heartstrings. Because woven within the pages, within the swallowed vowels and billions of calçada stones, in the lines between Saramago and Pessoa, hanging in the scent of galão and pasteis; there is a very human story. This is not just an embellished travel journey, this is a story of one family and their fierce and delicate love for each other. Philip is not shy to admit his struggles as well as his victories. He is a writer with a keenly perceptive eye for detail and he is not afraid to turn that eye upon himself, to see himself in black and white and every shade of grey as we humans are. I’m not afraid to say the book moved me to tears as well as laughter.

I’ve often felt that you cannot learn the word ’saudade’ without eventually coming to live the true meaning of it. It’s as though it is not a word to be simply spoken, it must be lived through all it’s bewitching sorrow and aching hope. It’s as though the word has a spirit of its own that comes to greet you as you whisper ’saudade’.

It whispers back  “Dance with me a while and you shall know me”.

I know I danced and so it seems, did Philip Graham and his family.

Philip Graham’s Website

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Finally Google Maps have added ’street view’ to Lisbon so it is now possible to wander Lisbon’s glorious streets in cyber space.  Whilst it isn’t shown on the small map below, if you go directly to Google Maps and type in Lisbon you’ll see a little orange man in the top left hand corner of the map. Drag him anywhere on the map and suddenly you have the view of the street as if you were walking it.

I’ve loved Google Street View from the start and have been eagerly anticipating Lisbon’s addition. Whilst it certainly can’t beat a real visit, it’s a terrific way of aquainting yourself with your way round before your trip and getting a feel for the place. Once you have been in real life, it’s also a great way to jog memories of your trip.

Check it out.

View Larger Map

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Chiado Museum is based in Chiado on Rua Serpa Pinto. To get there, aim for Cafe Brasileira on Rua Garrett and take the road on your left just before the cafes and the metro stop. Walk  about half way down the road and you’ll see a long red flag hanging down on the left hand side of the street announcing you’ve arrived. Just before you reach the entrace of the Museum, make sure you check out the doorway in the wall as these leads into the Museum Cafe which is definately worth a visit (here’s a clue – there are circular windows in the wall). It’s one of those places that not so many people know about but the garden is lovely and cool and it’s the perfect place to while away an hour before or after your museum visit. Food and drinks are reasonably priced and the staff are friendly too.

The Museum initially opened on the 26th May 1911 and was housed in an ancient Convent of Saint Francis. Closed just before the terrible Chiado fire in 1988 the museum went through a complete redesign and reopened it’s doors in 1994. The building inside is a beautiful space full of curved wooden accented ceilings and wood and glass walkways. The architecture gives a curious feeling of the building being very old and very new all at the same time.

Museu do Chiado specialisies in art from the mid 19th Century to now. A few pieces come from outside Portugal but the vast majority are Portuguese artists. There are a range of styles and disciplines with work ranging from Romanticism through to Avant Garde, Surrealism to Expressionism – and probably a good deal more art ‘ism’s’ that I don’t know the name of

Having little true knowledge of art I am merely an observer and sometimes I think it is important just to experience a piece and see how it touches the senses rather than to compare or contrast or even describe. Sometimes, I just like to let art be…well…art.

I loved the piece by Alberto Carneiro ‘Raiz, Caule, Folhas, Flores e Frutas’ (Root, Stem, Leaves, Flowers and Fruits) and an odd sculpture ‘Duas Cabeças’ (two heads) by Jorge Martins. There was a space that paid homage to symbolism and another paying homage to the blues (I’m assuming this was a temporary exhibition). The artwork is very varied and interesting and therefore there’s something for everyone. I have to say however my favourite piece was Helena Almeida’s “Pintura Habitada” (Inhabited Painting). There was something quite mesmorizing about her work – the vividness of the blue, the artist disappearing into the art…absolutely beautiful. This collection of images has stayed in my mind long after I came home.

Pintura Habitada

The Museum is open Tuesday to Sundays 10am – 6pm and costs €4 to enter except on Sunday mornings when it is free until 2pm.

Rua Serpa Pinto, 4-6, Chiado, Lisboa
www.museudochiado-ipmuseus.pt

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QuietZone Lda & Dormio Leisure Development Portugal Lda offer free stay in their Lisbon Tourist Apartments, Lisbon,

QuietZone Lda (QuietZone) and Dormio Leisure Development Portugal Lda (Dormio) have initiated an online sweepstake contest with a first prize which comprises 2 nights’ stay in their tourist apartments for two guests, 200 euros in cash, dinner at a central restaurant and several Lisbon city tours.

This competition is open to all participants over 18 years old from any country in the world and will take place online at the Lisbon Apartments website from May 18th 2009 until 31st July 2009. The lucky winners will be announced in the month of August 2009.

Several important Portuguese tourism companies have collaborated with the organizers to provide free city excursions as part of the prize: The well known sightseeing operator Carristur will provide a courtesy trip on their famous Red Tram or other circuits; Red Tour a fun ride on their Segways or Buggies; and Go Car Tours an entertaining GPS-guided drive in their three-wheel vehicles. Neoturismo has contributed 2 Lisboa Card tourist cards for free and discounted entry to dozens of museums and sights. Lastly, the “Espalha Brasas” restaurant in the lively Docas area of the city will be offering a free meal for two.
Dormio’s General Manager Mr. Robin van der Hijden stated, “We are extremely happy to be able to offer this magnificent prize and are very grateful to all the participating companies who have so kindly donated their products and services to promote Lisbon tourism in this way”.
QuietZone and Dormio provide short-term holiday rentals for visitors to Lisbon, Portugal via their respective websites http://www.lisbonapartments.com and http://www.casamadragoa.com.

Good luck with your entry!

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Príncipe Real is a leafy neighbourhood not far from Bairro Alto. Here you’ll find grand houses with beautiful tilework, quaint antique shops, bookstores, tiny coffee houses and gay friendly bars. There’s a certain homely bohemian feel and it immediately makes me think that this is an area I could live in.

From Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara, follow the road round to the right and up the short hill. The climb will take into the Príncipe Real district and you’ll see trees ahead of you. Head towards the green and you’ll find a tranquil park which is over-awed by a huge ancient ceder tree whose branches spread out to almost impossible dimensions. The tree is so old that it is now held up by ornate iron trellis. I wandered beneath it, feeling the sheer weight of it upon me and wondered how many lovers this tree has witnessed. It’s perhaps what used to be called a Trysting Tree. The presence of the tree is both deeply comforting and ominous – almost as if it’s spirit fiercly protects this little sanctuary in Lisbon.

It was around 10am when I arrived in the park so there were no lovers to be seen but the park was a natural focal point. People were walking their dogs, elderly folk sat reading the morning paper and prepared for a game of cards, people cut through on their way to work and a few earlybird tourists stopped to read their maps. There are permanent picnic tables and plenty of shady seats as well as a lovely little cafe to buy your morning bica (espresso).

Wandering through the park, I came across an entrance leading underground to the Museu da Água (Museum of Water). Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go in but I have discovered from the main website that this is one part of the Water Museum which is spread over several sites. This site (the Patriarchal Reservoir) was once one of the main reservoirs in Lisbon holding tons of water to keep downtown alive. Shut down in the 1940’s the site has become an place of historic and architectural interest.

Príncipe Real is a neighbourhood with a lot to offer. I’m told that it’s well worth stopping to buy bread here too from a shop called Doce Real.

Yes, I could definately live in Principe Real.

http://museudaagua.epal.pt/museudaagua/

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Here is a list of the vocabulary found in the video with sound files.

The Planets
Os Planetas

Sol – Sun

Lua – Moon

Mercúrio – Mercury

Vénus – Venus

Marte – Mars

Júpiter – Jupiter

Saturno – Saturn

Úrano – Uranus

Neptuno – Neptune

Plutão – Pluto

Signs of the Zodiac
Os Signos do Zodiaco

Carneiro – Aries

Touro – Taurus

Gémeos – Gemini

Caranguejo – Cancer

Leão – Leo

Virgem – Virgo

Balança – Libra

Escorpião – Scorpio

Sagitário – Sagittarius

Capricórnio – Capricorn

Aquário – Aquarius

Peixes – Pisces

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Also, check out Catavino for a whole host of articles on food and wine in Portugal.

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The belvedere of Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara sits on the edge of Bairro Alto and offers a magnificent paranoramic view across the city. From here you can see the Tejo, St. George’s Castle, Graça, The Sé and many more famous Lisbon landmarks.

The Miradouro is easy to find. Make your way to Restauradores and take the Gloria Furnicular to the very top (€1.40 at the time of travel in Oct ‘08 for a one way trip). If you are feeling energetic of course you could walk up the hill!

Once you reach the top of the hill, walk up the few steps and turn to your right. The Miradouro is there on Rua de São Pedro de Alcântara. At first you see a long tree-lined shady park with benches set along the centre. Walk about half way down and you’ll come to a memorial dedicated to Eduardo Coelho who was the founder of the famous daily newspaper Diáro de Notícias in 1863. The boy beside the bust of Eduardo is of an ‘ardina’ – a newspaper boy who would sell the paper on the streets of Lisbon.

Further down the park there is a bubbling fountain; a wonderful sound in the heat of the Portuguese summer, and a small open air cafe that opens at 10am – perfect for brunch.

Crossing to the main viewpoint there is a large azulejos tile map which points out all the landmarks you can see from here. There are also telescopes for zooming in. When I arrived it was early morning and the park was mostly deserted apart from an elderly man sweeping the leaves and a couple of other tourists. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful.

Gazing out across the view, I looked down and noticed the geometric gardens below. I wandered down the steps into a garden offset by white busts of famous Portuguese figures from history and hero’s and Gods from mythology. Ulysses had managed to keep his head but unfortunately some of the others hadn’t been so lucky!

As well as the view, my favourite part to the lower garden was the waterfall built into a grand archway inside the wall. Water trickles down ancient moss and azulejos and it made me think of a wishing well from a story I read as a child. The whole place has a rather magical feel. There was a lady practising tai chi in the early morning sun and it does seem the perfect place to calm mind, body and soul.

Whilst the Miradouro is quiet in the daytime, be aware that at night it is busier as many people meet here on their way into the bars of Bairro Alto. It is worth visiting in the evening however as the sunset makes the castle light up with a mysterious glow offering some fabulous photographic opportunities of Lisbon by night.

Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara is like a sacred space in the heart of the city with distinct day and night atmospheres. Add it to your list of things to see.

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