Join Us For Dinner - Portugal Style

Since both of us, Nora and Magdalena, are probably two of  the worst cooks you will ever meet, we were kind of worried about this blog post. Finding something that we both like and are able to prepare caused us quite a headache. It was during one of our countless discussions about football that we suddenly had a brainwave! In honour of our favourite football player, Cristiano Ronaldo, who was going to play an international match for his country Portugal the next Sunday, we decided to cook his favourite dish and then watch the game together.
Rumour has it that Ronaldo's favourite dish Bacalhau à Bras has its origins in Bairro Alto, an old district of Portugal's capital, Lisbon. Bacalhau stands for the type of fish used for the dish, whereas Bras is allegedly the surname of the creator. As for the dessert, we decided to prepare a traditional Portuguese caramelised vanilla pudding.

Quite frankly...in the beginning we were both a little sceptical about the fish meal. However, once we were halfway through the recipe our worried facial expressions quickly faded to a smile. Considering the fact that our cooking skills are quite limited, we still managed to do a pretty good job...but see for yourselves! ;)


Ingredients (2 servings)


Main Course: 

• 250 g salt cod
• 1 onion (150 g)
• 250 g potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• 15 g black olives
• parsley (to taste)

Dessert: 

Caramel

• 20 g sugar
• 3 tablespoons water

Vanilla pudding

• 37 g custard powder (Vanilla)
• 40 g sugar
• 500 ml milk

Preparation

- Bacalhau à Bras

• Place salt cod in water and soak for at least 12 hours. Drain and cover with fresh water every few hours. 

• Cut salt cod into small pieces.

• Grate potatoes into fine matchsticks and cut onions into fine rings.
  
  

• Beat eggs, then add salt and pepper and mix well. 

• Fry potatoes in a pan and set them to one side. 

• Place onion rings in a deep pan and sweat until golden. 

 
• Add potatoes and mashed garlic and stir whilst adding the lightly beaten eggs with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat before eggs solidify!

• Garnish with parsely and black olives and serve with red wine (or mango juice if non-alcoholic drinks are preferred).

- Caramelised Vanilla Pudding

• Mix custard powder, sugar and 6 teaspoons of milk in a small bowl 

• Bring remaining milk to a simmer 

• Add custard mixture and mix well

• For the caramel, warm sugar and water over low heat and stir until it turns caramel-coloured

• Pour caramel over pudding and garnish with chocolate sprinkles 

BOM PROVEITO!

Although it took us quite a while to prepare this special meal - three hours to be exact - and the result was not perfect, it was definitely worth it in the end. After we had finished cooking and had taken all the pictures for our blog post, we sat down in front of the TV, watched Cristiano play with his national team and enjoyed our delicious meal. To our great joy Portugal won the game. The perfect ending to a really fun evening! ;)

Who am I?

 

“Do you know where Magdalena is?” 90% of the time the pitch is the right answer, as I spent hours on the grass I call heaven. Now you may ask yourself which pitch I am talking about. Well, have a look at the video and you will probably know.

 

 

This is me, scoring my first goal after six years of practice, sweat and tears. As you can tell from my celebration, I was relieved, extremely happy and proud at the same time. Defenders don’t get on the scoring sheet that often so I had two reasons to be overwhelmed. Whenever I put on my soccer boots and start playing I escape to my own comfort zone, where I can forget all my problems and focus on the one thing I really love and admire. The moment when you score a goal or hit an incredible cross


 my soccer girls, trainer and myself

is hard to describe.  It’s priceless to be exact. To my parent’s sorrow I am not only an active soccer player, I also enjoy sports on the passive side, sitting in front of the TV or at the stadium and cheering for my favourite teams. Admittedly, I might even get too passionate about a game sometimes and become an emotional wreck if my team loses. I am usually not good at showing my emotions at all. However, when it comes to soccer my personality does a “180”. It wouldn’t be a surprise if you see me on TV, standing in the SK Rapid Wien sector (Oops, now I have revealed my love for Rapid, which is a bad idea if you live in Graz :P ), screaming all the different fan chants and crying because of a horrible defeat or an unforgettable win.


 

As some of you may now, I spent a year in Stockholm were I attended a sports gymnasium. In countless practice sessions I had the opportunity to play along Sweden’s best upcoming hopefuls. Since then some of them have already become members of the national women’s soccer team which is really impressive.

But now enough with the rambling about soccer since it is not the only sport I am interested in. When I was younger my number one spare time activity was golf. I know some of you think that golf is something for snobs and elder people but this is just a stereotype. You can have so much fun on the fairway and believe it or not it is really hard to do an OK shot. After two years of holing, the racket got smaller. I decided to try something new and started to play table tennis in a professional team. There, I sustained for three more years and even played the Styrian masters. And every now and then I climb up some walls in my favourite climbing gyms.

 

Well, after this brief description you may have noticed that my life mainly revolves around sports, which is why in the future I want to convent this passion into an actual job as a sports journalist. Travelling around the world and writing about the one thing I love and admire would be heaven on earth to me. There is still a long way to go but hopefully one day you can read an article written by me about Real Madrid’s win in one of the most popular newspapers.