Could it be? A traditional Portuguese dish without meat?!? Indeed, peixinhos da horta is vegetarian-friendly, although not vegan-friendly as it uses eggs. The dish has been around for a long time, and could be considered the predecessor of tempura — the Japanese-style battered and deep-fried vegetables you probably already know. Portuguese merchants brought the egg-and-flour style of batter with them to Japan in the 16th century, and the Japanese went on to perfect their tempura ever since.
See also: Catavino.net – Tempura: Portugal’s Prized Gift to Japan
If I’d thought of this sooner, I would’ve photographed more of the process so I could add it to the Traditional Portuguese Kitchen series. In fact, I’d only realized today that I’ve not shown any of Portugal’s vegetarian dishes before, and I’ve only shown Paulo’s peixinhos da horta in passing, at the end of a post about our Polish couchsurfers making us pierogis. Oops!
But this is far from the most presentable batch of peixinhos da horta we’ve made before, so it’s probably for the best that we’ll need a do-over for me to photograph the process.
I feel a bit mean tempting Ice like this — putting the dish at nose-level in order to shoot it. He was a very good boy and didn’t grab any… but if there were meat in it, this would be a different story!
November 2, 2016
Album: Portugal [Autumn 2016]