Three recipes from Lisboeta: Recipes from Portugal's City of Light

Chef Nuno Mendes’s hometown Lisbon, the City of Light, is much-overlooked as a culinary centre. Here’s three recipes from his new book ‘Lisboeta’, and fear not – you’ll still find lashings of the Portugal’s most famous and fiery condiment

Kale migas with mushrooms – migas de couve frisada e cogumelos

Serves 4

80g white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
50ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve 
160g cornbread, sourdough or other rustic loaf, cut into cubes
2 tbsp olive oil 
2 tbsp pork fat
2 garlic cloves, crushed 
A small bunch of coriander, stalks and leaves finely chopped 
100g kale, sliced
Smoked paprika, to taste
Sea salt flakes and ground white pepper  

Migas is traditionally made from bread soaked in milk which is then gently toasted in animal fat with lots of garlic and seasonal greens. The idea of eating soaked and fried bread may seem strange, but migas is fantastic. The bread base is a blank canvas that can take on other flavours – here I’ve used kale, coriander and garlic and added marinated mushrooms.

Put the mushrooms in a bowl. Pour on the extra virgin olive oil, season with salt, pepper and paprika and stir. Set aside to marinate while you cook the migas. Put the bread in another bowl and pour over boiling water to just cover it. Season with salt, pepper and paprika, stir well and set aside.

Heat the olive oil and pork fat in a pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and coriander (reserving some coriander leaves to garnish, if you like) and cook gently until fragrant. Increase the heat slightly, add the kale and fry for a few minutes until it starts to wilt. Add the soaked bread and cook for about 10 minutes, pressing it down with a spatula. As it cooks, move the bread around to incorporate it with the kale and let any liquid evaporate. When it crisps around the edges, turn it over and continue to fry until golden brown. The final texture should be crispy on the outside and soft inside, a little like bubble and squeak.

Transfer to a serving dish and spoon the marinated mushrooms on top. Serve immediately.

Prawn and shellfish rice – arroz de marisco

Serves 4

5 tbsp olive oil 
2 banana shallots, diced
1 small onion, diced 
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and finely chopped 
A bunch of coriander, leaves and stalks finely chopped 
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon 
½ long red chilli, finely chopped 
4 ripe plum tomatoes, coarsely grated 
200g short-grain white rice, preferably Portuguese carolino, Japanese sushi or Spanish bomba rice, rinsed according to the packet instructions 
600ml fish stock or water 
40ml white wine
20 mussels, cleaned
20 clams, cleaned
16 large king or tiger jumbo prawns, shelled and deveined  
A squeeze of lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil, to serve
Piri piri oil, to serve
Smoked paprika, to taste 
Sea salt flakes and ground white pepper

In the greatest versions of arroz de marisco, rice is cooked in a stock made from the shells and trimmings of as many as ten different types of shellfish, and then the tender morsels of seafood are added at the end. Typically, tomatoes, onions and coriander are the other elements that make up this fantastic recipe, and the flavours come together perfectly. It’s a great dish to put in the middle of the table and let everyone dig in. If you’d like it less spicy, deseed the chilli.

Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the shallots, onion and fennel and cook gently for 10 minutes, or until soft. Season with salt, pepper and paprika. Add the coriander stalks, garlic, lemon zest and chilli and cook for a few minutes, or until fragrant. Stir in the tomatoes. Increase the heat to caramelise the tomatoes a little, for extra flavour. Add the rice and cook for a few minutes to toast it. Add the fish stock or water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently until almost cooked, about 15–20 minutes.

A few minutes before the rice is ready, add the white wine and tip in the mussels and clams. Cover with a lid and shake a few times. Cook for 3–4 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat. Discard any unopened shells.

Taste the rice for seasoning, keeping in mind that the mussels and clams will add extra salt. Add the prawns to the rice and cook for a few minutes until they turn pink. Stir in a squeeze of lemon juice, a little extra virgin olive oil and the coriander leaves. Serve in shallow bowls, and don’t forget the piri piri oil!

Octopus with smashed potatoes, olive oil and piso – polvo a lagareiro com batata a murro

Serves 4–6

For the octopus

1 octopus (about 600g), cleaned, with head, eyes and innards removed 
2 bay leaves
1 white onion, quartered 
2 garlic cloves 
Sea salt flakes and ground white pepper

For the piso

A bunch of coriander, leaves and stalks finely chopped  
½ garlic clove, finely crushed 
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon, plus freshly squeezed juice to taste (optional)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling 

For the smashed potatoes

8-12 floury potatoes, such as Maris Piper or similar, skin on
4 tbsp olive oil
2 bay leaves
4 garlic cloves, smashed  

This dish is smothered in fragrant, green, extra virgin olive oil, hence the name: a lagareiro is the owner of an olive oil press. The smell reminds me of summer days on the beaches outside Lisbon, when the scent of grilled octopus wafts alluringly through the air. Perfectly crisp octopus, caramelised around the edges, is unbelievably good – especially when served with twice-cooked potatoes and the delicious Portuguese herb-and-oil condiment piso. This varies from region to region, even person to person, and you can add any combination of herbs and citrus, even almonds and chilli, depending on what it’s to go with – let your imagination run wild. I like to make a double, triple or quadruple batch and store it in the fridge for a week. It works well as a marinade too.

To cook the octopus, rinse it octopus under cold running water. Half-fill a large pan with water and add the bay leaf, onion and garlic and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, add the octopus and boil for 3 minutes. Carefully remove the octopus and set it aside to rest for a few minutes. Bring the same water to the boil again and repeat the process two more times. In this way you can control the cooking process and check how firm the octopus flesh is becoming. At this point, the flesh should be tender with a little resistance when you insert a knife, and the skin will feel slightly gelatinous.

Turn the heat down to low. Simmer the octopus, covered, for 20 minutes. Remove it from the pan and allow it to cool. If you have time, chill it overnight, which allows the flesh to become firmer. When the octopus has cooled, cut it into 3-4cm pieces.

To make the piso, mix together the coriander, garlic and lemon zest with a generous pinch of salt and pepper until you have a paste. I like to make this in a pestle and mortar, but you can also chop everything very finely by hand. By adding salt at this early stage, the flavour will be drawn out from the garlic. Stir in the olive oil. I like it sharp, and I add about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice just before serving so it doesn’t discolour. It will keep in the fridge for a few days with an extra glug of olive oil on top.

To make the smashed potatoes, preheat the oven to 210C/gan 190C/gas 6½. Cook the potatoes in plenty of salted boiling water until just tender but not breaking up. Remove from the pan, drain well and leave until cool enough to handle. Murro means “punch” in Portuguese, and we are now going to punch the potatoes. Smash each one gently with the palm of your hand. Toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, bay leaves and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Put them in a large baking dish (big enough to hold the octopus too) and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.

Drizzle the octopus with extra virgin olive oil and put the pieces on top of the potatoes. Increase the oven temperature to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7 and cook for 10 minutes, or until the octopus has lovely crispy edges. Drizzle with the piso, take it straight to the table and let your guests help themselves.

Extract taken from ‘Lisboeta: Recipes from Portugal’s City of Light’ by Nuno Mendes (Bloomsbury, £26) out now. Photography by Andrew Montgomery