October 17, 2013

Caldo Verde - cross stitching a soup


Olá! This is the day when an embroidery blog became a food blog... Are you prepared for the change?

I'm introducing you to caldo verde, a Portuguese traditional dish that has its origins in the northern region of Portugal, Minho, but for a long time was adopted all over the country. Caldo verde is a simple, light dish, that may be served on its own or as part of a larger meal. Usually this soup is served with chouriço (pork sausage) and broa - a cornbread leavened with yeast.

Photo from "Up Magazine"

Caldo Verde means celebration!! When we, Portuguese people, think of this dish, we remember family gatherings, popular festivities, a late evening meal in a wedding... Because caldo verde is really a very common dish all around the country... From the humblest country home to the most fancy and luxurious table!!

As I'm not a good cook, I took the recipe from this site... And you can follow a video here...
- Make a light broth with potatoes, as light as possible.
- Take dark green cabbage, or kale--in Portugal called couve galega--roll the leaves tightly and sliced them as thinly as possible. Scald briefly so they are brilliant green. The cabbage should be abundant to give body to the broth.
- When ready to serve, add the scalded cabbage to the broth with a little olive oil and let it boil for about 5 minutes, so the olive oil can cook.
- Serve with slices of the smallest Portuguese pork sausage (chouriço) you can find--each region in Portugal has its own, most of them spiced with paprika (colorau)

Never forget to cut the kale into extremely fine slices - that's one of the secrets... Here in Portugal we can buy it already cut!!! Many cooks add onions and garlic as in my photo...


DSCF2371
All you need to make Caldo Verde - only missing olive oil and water!!
In Portugal we say porque os olhos também comem... This means: "as we also eat with our eyes"... So caldo verde is usually served in beautiful terra cotta dishes...

Portuguese cross stitch motifs inspired by Minho's culture
A beautiful book with great motifs inspired by traditions from Minho
I found this pattern - actually it is not a cross stitch pattern, I had to adapt it - in a very beautiful book that I've already talked about in another post... And this was my first choice of this marvelous book. The idea of cross stitching caldo verde was a pleasure and wherever I went with this work in hands, I always received many "UAU"!!!

Cross stitch pattern inspired by Portuguese soup "caldo verde"
Done!!! The pattern and the finished work...
Portuguese people do love caldo verde!! 

3 comments:

  1. Me encanta como te ha quedado..Un beso

    ReplyDelete
  2. HI,
    I am the Web Editor for Creative Machine Embroidery. I do a back page feature that call out great embroidery blogs on the web. Would it be possible for you to send me a high resolution image of your logo/banner?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like to go to your blog, to see all your stichings.
    - And now I got inspired to do your soup! :)

    ReplyDelete

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