P
Portuguese
Porco à alentejana: pork and clams
The most striking combination in Portuguese cooking — cubed pork, marinated in a massa de pimentão (sweet red pepper paste), sautéed until caramelised, then combined with purged clams steamed open in the same pan, finished with lemon and cilantro. The combination of pork and shellfish seems counterintuitive until you eat it, whereupon it seems inevitable. The dish comes from the Alentejo, Portugal's interior cork-oak plain. The pork was local; the clams came in by cart from the Setúbal peninsula. The massa de pimentão — red peppers fermented in salt and olive oil — is the critical flavour element that distinguishes this from any other pork-and-clam combination.
‹Swipe for the next dish›
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
For the marinade
800 g
pork shoulder or loin
cut into 3–4 cm cubes
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
3 tbsp
massa de pimentão (sweet red pepper paste)
from a Portuguese specialty food shop
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
3 tbsp
olive oil
Your own market
3 cloves
garlic
crushed
Your own market
1 kg
clams
purged in cold salted water
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
150 ml
dry white wine
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1
lemon
juiced
Your own market
1 small bunch
cilantro (fresh coriander)
roughly chopped
Your own market
2 tbsp
olive oil
for sautéing
Your own market
II
The Method
1
Combine the pork cubes with the massa de pimentão, olive oil, and crushed garlic. Coat thoroughly, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. The paste must fully penetrate the meat; the colour when drawn from the refrigerator will be deep brick-red.
2
Heat a wide, heavy pan over high heat until smoking. Add a film of olive oil. Sear the pork in batches — never crowding the pan — until each surface is deeply caramelised and a dark fond has formed on the base of the pan. This is where the dish lives or dies: pale pork produces no fond, and without the fond there is no flavour base. Remove each batch and set aside.
3
Return the pan to the heat. Deglaze with the white wine, scraping up all the fond. The liquid will hiss violently, then settle to a steady simmer as the fond dissolves into the wine.
4
Return the seared pork to the pan. Scatter the purged clams over the surface in a single layer. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook over high heat for 4–5 minutes without lifting the lid or stirring. The dish is ready when all the clams have opened; discard any that remain shut.
5
Remove the pan from the heat. Add the lemon juice and scatter the cilantro over the surface. Do not stir; serve immediately. The aroma of cilantro and lemon will bloom as they hit the residual heat of the pan.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Pork from an acorn-fed Alentejano breed; hand-harvested clams from the Setúbal peninsula; house-fermented massa de pimentão made from ripe sweet red peppers salted and dried over several days; first cold-press Alentejano olive oil.
02
Estate — Free-range pork shoulder; live clams from a known fishmonger, purged overnight; imported Portuguese massa de pimentão from a specialty food shop; a good single-origin olive oil.
03
Market — Good-quality pork shoulder from a butcher; live clams available from a supermarket fish counter, purged in salted cold water; Portuguese massa de pimentão sourced online if not locally available.
04
House — Supermarket pork loin; fresh clams from the supermarket; roasted red pepper purée combined with sweet paprika as a substitute for massa de pimentão.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The surface of each pork cube is uniformly deep brown with a dry, caramelised crust; a dark fond coats the base of the pan.
◇Sight. All clam shells have opened fully; any that remain shut are discarded.
◇Smell. Fresh cilantro and lemon perfume rise immediately off the pan when the garnishes are added off the heat.
◇Where it lives or dies. The pork must be browned in batches over high heat until a dark caramelised fond forms — without this crust and its fond, the dish has no flavour base.
Pillar V
Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.
The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Fortified wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year