|
Alcatra - not your usual pot roastdefinitely not your usual pot roast! Having spent a couple of years in the Azores, I still have fond memories of what was their main meat dish. The Azores are a group of islands in the North Atlantic, and are Portuguese Territory. I was a contractor at the USAF/Portuguese Air Force/NATO base on Terceira (meaning third) Island there. The islands are volcanic, having active volcanoes and intermittent 'additions' to the territory! They are peaks of the mid-atlantic ridge, as can be seen in maps showing the ocean topography.  Alcatra, in Portuguese, the Top Loin cut of beef, was a standard dish of the locals. It was a way of using poor quality beef so that it became tender, and making it last a week.
I often used to wonder if the stringy looking animals from the bullring were the main, and necessary source of this, at first, rather unappetising cut! They don't kill the bulls in the bullring in Portugal, but I'm sure they wouldn't want to revisit! I have looked for a recipe for this dish on the internet, but all of them seem to have been adjusted to suit our 'instant' lifestyle. They use high temperatures and 'short' cooking times of 2-3 hrs. Most of them don't even have the one ingredient, which, for me, typifies the flavor and aroma of the dish. IN THIS SECTION -
not your usual pot roast(this page)
|
|
|
