One of the foods I saw everywhere in Lisbon was pastries. My friends and I signed up for pastel de nata (pastry making class) with Chef Miguel at his Portuguese cooking school.
I learned so much from the Chef. Did you know you must use a special kind of butter to make pastries, and it cannot get soft? And I learned how to fold butter into the pastry, not blend.
We were in groups of three and took turns working on our food project. The custard was pretty simple to make. And we had to let it cool before pouring into the pastry tins.
If baking custard pastries at home, you have to put the oven on the highest temperature. Miguel explained it was like frying them in the oven. Once our pastries were done, we all sat at a table and enjoyed the spoils of our labor.
He offered water, coffee and a few different wines. What a fun way to spend our Sunday morning! And he also offers dinner cooking classes where he takes you to the grocery store to shop, then back to the cooking school to prepare the meal.
I highly recommend Chef Miguel if you would like to immerse yourself in Portuguese culture. read more