This Creamy Rice Pudding Is a Staple at Portuguese Parties

[Celerity]

Chef Leandro Carreira’s new cookbook proves Portugal is more than port and custard tarts.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/rice-pudding-recipe-portugal-the-cookbook



Leandro Carreira isn’t one of those chefs who has always loved food from a young age. In fact, growing up on the west coast of the Algarve in Portugal, he doesn’t have the fondest memories of his family boiling fish heads, salting pig bones, slowly curing meats, and fermenting pastes.

“As kids, we were like, ‘Wow this stinks, it smells so bad,’” he remembers with a laugh. “But those techniques of curing, marinating, and slow fermenting really helped dishes. Poor people were incredibly creative and came up with some of the best Portuguese dishes ever.” Those memories of smelly fish broth and reusing leftover bread are translated into dishes like Açorda, a signature Portuguese soup, and one of more than 550 recipes in Carreria’s massive undertaking, Portugal the Cookbook, debuting on May 4.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d write a book,” he says. “But I’ve been traveling for so long and left Portugal so many years ago, that it made me appreciate how great Portugal can be. I got to get back in touch with my own country from the inside and I couldn’t stop digging.” Indeed, Carreira’s cooking career has taken him to Japan, the Basque region of Spain, and eventually London, where he opened his first restaurant, Londrino, in 2017, and started his current chef’s table project, The Sea, The Sea, late last year.

His travels and work helped him make connections between seemingly disparate cuisines, like how famed Portuguese sponge cake is similar to Japanese kasutera or how one recipe in his book for Battered Green Beans is inspired by tempura. “I think people forget that the Portuguese were once immense traders and explorers. We went pretty much everywhere and took a lot of things with us,” he says. “They think of us as this little country in western Europe known for port and custard tarts. But we have an insane culinary landscape, deeply rooted in influences from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.”



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