Joaquim Sousa
Chef Dishes
Queen Cake
This is (yet more) proof that gastronomy’s capacity to reinvent itself has no limits. This Bolo Rainha (Queen Cake) by chef Joaquim Sousa is based on a yeast cake dough enriched with various nuts, including essential pine nuts, spices and liqueur. The pièce de resistance? Edible gold leaves.
Products used
Pine nuts
White gold of the forests, pine nuts are the most valuable dried fruits, and no wonder why: its production process, harvest and transformation are intricate and time-consuming.
The fruit of the stone pine (in the Mediterranean) is very rich in proteins and has large amounts of omegas 6 and 3, protein, phosphorus, iron, manganese and zinc. Portugal holds about 5% of its world production, a far cry from Asian production, large in quantity but much weaker in quality.
Regions
Alentejo and Ribatejo
Miguel Torga once wrote that “more than enjoying the emotion of an enjoyable trip, whoever visits the Alentejo has to meditate”. Let’s meditate then, as we’re back to the ever charming Alentejo. Land of sea and mountains, its virtue lies in the middle, in the plains, where our product of the week comes from.
