Cozido à portuguesa

The story

Cozido à portuguesa is the Portuguese boiled dinner: several cuts of beef, pork and chicken, smoked sausages, cabbage, carrots, turnips and potatoes, all cooked in one pot of water and carried to the table on a large platter. It is mainly eaten in winter, and Portuguese food writers list it among the classic dishes of Carnival, or Entrudo, the days of heavy meat eating before the Lenten fast. In 2027 Ash Wednesday falls on February 10. The dish's origin is uncertain. Some writers link its old name, olha podrida, to the Spanish olla podrida, and Domingos Rodrigues, cook to the Portuguese royal household, described a rich version with partridge, rabbit and pigeon in his Arte de Cozinha of 1680. Every region makes its own. Trás-os-Montes adds alheira, blood sausage and farinheira, the Minho uses a fattened hen with tronchuda cabbage and oven-baked rice, the Alentejo uses lamb instead of chicken, the Algarve adds sweet potato, chickpeas and mint, and at Furnas on São Miguel in the Azores the pot cooks underground in volcanic heat. Rice and beans are served alongside. Plan on a long afternoon, or cook the meats a day ahead and finish the vegetables just before dinner.