Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Click here for 'Alcatra, Part I.' Traditionally the alcatra is cooked for two days; I didn't have two days and thought that a colossal waste of energy anyway. So, after marinating overnight, I roasted the alcatra for three hours in accordance with some more modern recipes. At 375 degrees, the roast cooked for two hours. Then I added potatoes, reduced the temperature to 325 and cooked for another hour. To serve I smashed the potatoes, sliced the roast and sausages, and topped it all with the roasted onions. Delicious.

I decided a traditional beef pot roast dish from Terceira, one of the Portuguese-held Azores Islands, would be a great dish for Jake's real birthday dinner. Alcatra is a Portuguese recipe for a spicy piece of ass, the perfect dish for my spicy...well, you get the idea. Traditionally the alcatra beef roast is slow-roasted in a clay pot that's shaped like a flower pot with herbs and spices. The closest thing I have is a large stoneware baking bowl. Tonight was the first part of alcatra preparation: the marination. From all of my research, a few ingredients are key to the alcatra marinade - cinnamon sticks, whole allspice, onions, garlic, wine, bay leaves. So I placed all of that in the stoneware bowl with the rump roast and two nitrite-free Portuguese sausages. That will all soak overnight. Look for 'Alcatra, Part II' tomorrow night after we celebrate Jake's 36th birthday.

Because I usually have leftovers and because my boys are notorious food-snobs - I don't know where they get that? (wink, wink) - I revamp my leftovers so that they look a little bit different than when they were served the first time around.  Otherwise, my little one will usually make some comment along the lines of "Mom, didn't we already eat this?!?" I had some leftover Linguiça Torta from my amuse-bouche party.  For my revamp, I sliced the torta into larger squares then topped them with fresh avocado, sour cream, and fresh salsa.  And just like that, I have a totally different dish...sort of!