Palmela on the table

Deciding the menu is a creative process. As always, we try to choose the most interesting products in season. Most often the natural marriages of the ingredients lead us to the definition of the dishes. We started with an organic red pepper salad as we did last dinner which combined perfectly with the cured Azeitão cheese, roasted almonds and cilantro.

By AnaMariaGozandoAvida

This was the motto, sort of speak. After that, Palmela’s great products were making part of the menu! Palmela is a fantastic wine region known for the great Castelão wines and Azeitão cheese.

The wine Serra Mãe Reserva, 2005 was made by a young and talented enologist Filipe Cardoso who is the driving force behind Sivipa, an old wine company from Palmela. 2005 was one of the best years of the last decade in the region and this wine, produced with 35 year old Castelão grapes, was the perfect companion for the dinner.

Since we’re in the summer, we thought shrimps would be a good choice! That’s how we came up with the Ultramarine shrimp soup. A simple broth made with really fresh shrimp heads from Algarve sided by fried shrimps with red chili and cocoa nibs from S. Tomé, an unusual combination and a reminiscence of the old Portuguese colonies which introduced the spices in our culinary.

Once more we baked Algarve’s carob wet cake. This time sided by a granita of Maçã Riscadinha, an old apple variety from Palmela with cherry sauce on top. Great combination!

Maçã Riscadinha de Palmela

Besides the atypical summer, the night was great allowing us to set the table outside. And once more we feel really lucky and privileged to welcome in our garden truly generous guests who share with us the pleasure for great food, great wine and good company!

MENU HUSH-HUSH GARDEN

9 de Julho de 2011

Aperitivos e Entradas

To start

Porto Tonic

Tapenade

Hummus de beterraba

Beetroot hummus

Guacamole

Salada de pimentos vermelhos e queijo seco de ovelha de Azeitão

Red pepper salad with cured Azeitão cheese

Codorniz com Molho Vilão e limão de conserva caseira

Quail with “Molho Vilão” and home-made lemon preserve

Sopa de camarão Ultramarino

Ultramarin shrimp soup

Conduto

To continue

Grão com bacalhau e coentros assados no forno com azeite

Chickpeas with salt cod and fresh coriander roasted in clay pottery

Sobremesa

To finish

Bolo húmido de alfarroba algarvia com granizado de cereja

Carob wet cake from Algarve with cherry granita

Leite creme

Egg and milk custard (traditional Portuguese recipe)

Vinhos

Wines

Vinho tinto (Red wine): Serra Mãe Reserva 2005, Palmela

Medalha de ouro no Concurso Vinalies International, destacando-se entre 3500 vinhos de todo o mundo.

Produzido a partir de vinhas da tradicional casta Castelão com mais de 35 anos de idade, este vinho fino e elegante apresenta aromas de frutos maduros e compota associado a aromas de especiarias. Na boca os taninos são evidentes casando bem com carne de aves, pratos de forno e a sua acidez faz dele uma excelente companhia para queijos.

Serra Mãe Reserva won a Gold medal award in the wine competition Vinalies International among 3500 wines from all over the world.

This wine is produced from 35 year old vineyards of Castelão, with a rich ripe fruit and spicy aromas. Its tannins marry perfectly with white meat and roast dishes and its acidity makes it a great companion to cheeses.

Vinho de sobremesa (Dessert wine): Moscatel de Setúbal Bacalhôa, 2004

Café e chá do Hush-Hush Garden

Coffee and Hush-Hush Garden’s tea

No Hush-Hush Garden escolhemos cozinhar com produtos biológicos ou produzidos de forma sustentável.

Hush-Hush Garden prefers organic or sustainably produced ingredients.

The Great Sardine Party!
By Hush-Hush Garden

By Paula Santos

The first Sardine party at Hush-Hush Garden was tremendous. The garden looked small for so many people and a six elements band – Tons Calientes - who thrilled the crowd with fantastic popular music usually played during the festivities of Lisbon.

This band is formed by professional musicians who normally play in private parties.  

Apart the Sardines, truly the queens of the night, we started with two salads:

Home-made cured cod salad with chickpeas from Serpa and baby red Swiss chards.

By Paula Santos

Roasted red pepper salad with cured Azeitão cheese, roasted almonds and fresh coriander leaves.

By Paula Santos

The highlight of the party was when the band amazed the guests with a Passo Doble as we served the grilled wild ox (touro bravo) steaks with wild rocket salad. This meat brings us back the memories of the genuine meat flavor, as we remember from our childhood. Awesome!

By Paula Santos

 

By Paula Santos

This was followed by the grilled sardines, served with boiled potatoes and spring onion mayonnaise.

By Paula Santos

To prep the stomachs for the desserts, verdolaga soup with goat cheese, a typical Alentejo’s dish.

For dessert, we decided to celebrate the season with a strawberry and mint salad topped by a Manjerico (sweet basil) sorbet.

By Paula Santos

By AnaMariaGozandoaVida

We feel really fortunate to welcome fantastic guests who contributed to create Hush-Hush Garden’s magic mood.

 Once more we had a fantastic time under the moon and the stars!

Thank you all!

Tons Calientes contact: + 351 93 425 12 27

Oh Santo António,

Meu Santo Antoninho,

Leva-me ao Hush-Hush Garden,

Que eu quero ir a esse jantarinho!

The great Sardine party is at Hush-Hush Garden.

Join us to celebrate one of the most traditional and charismatic parties of Lisbon!

 Santo António is the patron saint of Lisbon and the happy marriages. Traditionally, during the parties, sweethearts burn a wild artichoke. If it blossoms the next year, it means their love is forever!

It’s also the season for the beloved offer each other Manjericos (small leave basil) tucked with a paper carnation and a love poem.

We’re preparing a great dinner party with Sardines, paper flowers and popular music by a sextet of metal instruments to cheer the night!

 

Rain! Tropical rain and the promise of a ruined dinner party…

Once again we had to set the table inside. But, astonishingly, half an hour later, the sky was crystal clear, no wind blowing and it was hot!

We quickly moved the table outside and it was amazing! It came out to be a great night under the stars.

Here is the recipe for the main course:

Ingredients

Deboned ribcages of pork - 2

Herbs: Thyme, rosemary, mint and fennel – 1 bunch

Roasted pine nuts – 75 g

Preserved lemon – 1 ½ lemon

Garlic head – 1

Lemons – ½

1 - Emerge the preserved lemon rinds in cold water for a few hours to rinse the excess of salt.

2 - Scrub the meat with the lemon and the garlic head inside and out.

3 - Chop the herbs and the pine nuts and cover the deboned meat with it.

4 - Cut the preserved lemon rind into stripes and spread on top of the herbs and pines.

5 - Roll the meat up and seal it with strings.

6 - Roast in the oven for 1 hour at 180 ºC. Turn the rolls over and cook for another hour until it’s brown and crispy.

7 - To serve, remove the strings and cut two fingers width slices.

This time, the dish was completed with roasted sweet potatoes seasoned with olive oil, sea salt and oreganos and artichokes hearts with a lemon and butter sauce.

Lisbon, the city of light and the violet blue trees

Lisbon is dressed in violet blue because of the Jacaranda trees. It’s the best time of the year. And when it’s windy, we’re presented with a blue flower shower over our heads! These will only last until the end of June. So let’s celebrate the glory of the beautiful Jacaranda trees next Saturday at Hush-Hush Garden! We’re waiting for you. Join us!

HUSH-HUSH GARDEN MENU

4^th June 2011

To Start

Porto Tonic

Tapenade, Beetroot hummus & Guacamole trio

Lagoinha bread

To Continue

Algarve fresh figs and Porco Preto ham with lemon and olive oil dressing, sprinkled with toasted pine nuts

Duck liver pâté bonbon with tangerine jam

Caldo verde -

Traditional soup with Hush-Hush Garden’s cabbage leaves and home-made chorizo crackers  

Organic pork belly stuffed with fresh herbs, roasted pine nuts and preserved lemon with artichokes & roasted sweet potato from Aljezur

To Finish

Hibiscus and wild flower jelly

Carob cake with lemon curd

Coffee and Hush- Hush Garden’s tea and

Almond pie cubes

Hush-Hush Garden prefers organic or sustainably produced ingredients.

Exotic Lemon

This is the 3^rd year in a row we’re lucky to enjoy the generosity of the lemon tree.

Every year we’re surprised with beautiful and juicy lemons and our biggest concern is to make good use of these gorgeous fruits!

Besides sharing with friends and family, preserving is the best alternative. The sweet version: Lemon Curd. The salty version: Lemon preserve, Moroccan style.

Here are the recipes:

Lemon curd

This recipe was given to my mother from her good friend Ana Paula and it’s very easy to make. I use it with toasted bread or to pair with cakes.

But other great idea is to use it as a filling of pre-baked sweet mini-tartlets shells to serve with coffee or tea!

Ingredients:

6 eggs

500g caster sugar

250g unsalted butter

Juice of 3 lemons

Zest of 2 lemons

Beat the eggs and mix with the other ingredients in a stainless steel pan.

Keep a low heat in the stove and stir all the time. After a while, butter melts and the mixture gets thicker. When it reaches honey consistency, it is ready to pour into previously sterilized glass jars.

Lemon preserve - Moroccan style

It’s perfect in stews or tagine dishes. I’ve tried with roasted rabbit and it was an amazing combination, boosting with fragrant lemony flavor!

It’s very easy to prepare but requires patience hence it has to be forgotten for a few months in the pantry before use. But it pays back once you put a peace in your mouth and the strong lemony fragrance invades your palate.

Ingredients:

Sea salt

From Rui Simeão. This family production started over 100 years ago and uses artisanal technics to produce one of the world’s best salts.

Lemons

Prefer organic lemons to guarantee they’re not treated.

Glass jars with hermetic closure

It’s important to sterilize the jars to avoid any sort of contamination (I wash it in hot water and soap and dry in the oven for 20 min at 110 ºC).

Wash the lemons in hot water and cut into quarters.

Fill the jar with a layer of salt. Then start layering the lemon alternating with salt. Make sure to push down to compress the lemons and release the juice. The lemons must be submerged in juice and topped with salt.

Monitor the jars for a few days before storing thus the lemons tend to collapse and often is need to refill with more salt or lemon juice. When the lemons are tight inside the jar is time to store for, at least, 3 weeks.

Use it wisely:

The first time I tried cooking preserved lemons, was a total failure hence I used the lemons directly from the jar!  I got a salt kick that my heart almost jumped out of my body.

Only the skin is used. After rinsing the excess of salt syrup, peel the rind off to add to any recipe you choose.