Book review: George Mendes' My Portugal - recipes rustic and refined

By George Mendes

From the introduction to his cookbook, it sounds as if Georges Mendes had the classic first-generation American childhood - going to school, where he played football in between classes, then rushing home, where family life was much like it would have been in the small Portuguese village that his parents were born in. He writes, "They brought with them a deep knowledge of the dishes they grew up eating and plans to keep grilling sardines and roasting suckling pigs in Danbury, Connecticut, where their extended family and other villagers had immigrated en masse.

"My parents and their siblings had a better life in America, but there was always a longing to go back home to Portugal … I didn't fully appreciate how unique my childhood experiences were until I began cooking professionally. I didn't know that other people's uncles didn't cure their own chouriço and linguiça in the garage. Or that other kids didn't get to stomp on grapes - barefoot, in their underwear - to make wine."

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York, Mendes worked with a who's who of top chefs - David Bouley in New York; Alain Passard and Alain Ducasse in France; Ferran Adria in Spain - before opening his own restaurant, Aldea, where he serves "refined takes on Portuguese classics".

What Portuguese cookbook could omit bacalhau dishes? Mendes gives instructions for making your own salt cod, then uses it in recipes for salt cod and potato croquettes; egg, salt cod, black olives and crunchy potatoes; and salt cod with smashed potatoes and spring onions. Of course, there are other classics, including garlic shrimp, seafood rice, suckling pig and clams with vinho verde, garlic and coriander. But there are also more creative dishes, including baby goat with beets, cinnamon-clove yogurt and charred bread emulsion; foie gras terrine with Concord grape jam and charred quince; salt cod confit with coriander dashi, shiitake and lychee; and sea urchin toasts with shiso and lime.