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Tips and recipes to celebrate Popular Saints Festival
Published : 06/03/2023
Categories : Let yourself be Inspired
June is not only the month that marks the beginning of summer. It's also the month that brings joy to the Popular Saints Festival in Portugal!
Soon the streets will be filled with color, the smell of the wonderful sardines will waft into houses, new verses will be created for the "manjericos" and, under a sky decorated with hot air balloons, popular music will make the evenings more fun.
This typically Portuguese festival that celebrates Saint Anthony, Saint John, and Saint Peter is the ideal pretext to gather friends and family for a lively and relaxed outdoor party. And, of course, there is no party without delicious food! For this reason, we have gathered the best tips and recipes for you to throw a kick-ass party! Take a look.
TIPS FOR CELEBRATING POPULAR SAINTS AT HOME
1. Decorate the space with cheerful and fun elements
Bring the typical decoration of this festival indoors or in your garden. From balloons to garlands, lanterns and "manjericos" are also a must!
2. Make a Portuguese popular music playlist
If there's one thing you can't miss at a party like this, it's traditional popular music. Create a special playlist with the greatest hits of popular music, including music alluding to the Portuguese marches. If you don't have time or willingness to make a compilation, you can find several playlists already made on Youtube or Spotify.
3. Serve cold drinks
Have different types of drinks available for your guests. Water, natural juices, white, red or rosé wine and beer. Use a wine cooler or cooling sleeves to keep the drinks cool at all times.
4. Prepare a traditional menu
Grilled sardines are the main dish of a Popular Saint's party. This is a simple treat to make and so delicious to eat! Want to learn how to cook it?
How to make grilled sardines:
Salt the sardines with coarse salt in the gill 20 minutes before grilling. Light the fire and let it form embers. Arrange the sardines on the grill and let them roast well on both sides. Remove the sardines from the grill, place them on a platter, and drizzle a little olive oil over them. Serve with bread or corn bread and a salad of peppers and onions.
Tip: Make sure the grill is clean and hot to prevent the fish from sticking. If it's a new grill, let it "burn" for a few minutes with the charcoal flame.
Besides this delicacy of the sea, you can have other alternatives for your guests who are not so enthusiastic about eating grilled sardines. For a successful barbecue, it's important to have some know-how of grilling meat and vegetables.
How to grill meat: Make a good marinade to make the meat taste better. Meat gains exceptional flavor when done on the charcoal grill, but it also works very well on an electric barbecue. Finally, it's important to let the grill get very hot before you put the meat on, as this will help seal in the juices and keep the meat tender.
How to grill vegetables: Cut them into large pieces and spread them out on the grill. They should be turned frequently so that they're cooked evenly on both sides.
RECIPES
MARINADES
There are many ways to season meat for barbecues, where sea salt is the most important seasoning. However, marinades give a special flavor to meat and can include various seasonings. For meat, we present you two suggestions for a 2 kg portion that you should leave to marinate in the refrigerator for about 2 hours:
Marinade "vinha d'alhos"
1 glass of red wine vinegar
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon salt
5 cloves of garlic chopped
1 onion, chopped
Beer Marinade
2 cups beer
Half a teaspoon of vinegar
5 cloves minced garlic
3 tablespoons
4 bay leaves
Salt and black pepper to taste
Marinade for grilled vegetables
Choose vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, peppers and red onion. Season with saffron, rosemary, bay leaf, black pepper and salt. Add the juice of half a lemon and let marinate for 25 minutes.
MEAT
Bifanas (Pork Sandwiches)
Besides the grilled sardines, pork steaks are one of the most consumed foods in the popular saints' feasts. Have this option for your guests!
Ingredients:
1 kg of thin steaks
3 tbsp of paprika
6 chopped garlic
8 bay leaves cut into pieces
Coarse salt to taste
White wine to taste
Method of preparation:
Let the steaks marinate with the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, white wine and salt. Cover with a film and set aside in the refrigerator for 3 hours or more. Make coals and grill the steaks until they are at the required point. Serve on bread.
SIDE DISHES
Bet on side dishes like tomato or bell pepper salad, bean rice, boiled or baked potatoes with rosemary. And don't forget the bread and cornbread from Avintes!
Salad of peppers
Ingredients:
400 g of peppers (assorted colors)
2 purple onions
1 cucumber
Orégano
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
150 g of fresh cheese
Method of preparation:
On a clean grill, arrange the peppers. Let them cook on both sides and when the skin is slightly burned, remove them and let them cool down. Finely slice the onion and the cucumber.
When the peppers are cold, remove their tops and the thin film that is burned, and cut them into strips. Put everything together in a salad bowl, season with oregano, salt, and pepper and drizzle with two tablespoons of oil and vinegar. Add the sliced fresh cheese and toss to coat. The salad is ready to serve!
Caldo-Verde (Cabbage soup)
Whether as an entry or for the end of the evening, we suggest you serve a caldo verde, the most traditional soup in Portuguese gastronomy.
Ingredients:
200 g Caldo-verde (cabbage)
500g boiling potatoes
1 L water
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
50g chorizo
Salt to taste
Method of preparation:
Heat a pan with two tablespoons of olive oil, the chopped onion and garlic and the sliced chorizo. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small pieces. When the onion is translucent, remove the chorizo and set aside. Add the potatoes, the water, and season with salt. Let it cook until the potatoes are soft.
Grind the soup until the potato is falling apart, and add the previously washed cabbage. Bring back to the heat and cook for about 10 minutes. If necessary, add more water. At the end, drizzle the soup with a tablespoon of olive oil and serve with the chorizo.
DESSERT
Wrap things up in style with a typical Portuguese dessert that is eaten in a bowl, such as a custard pudding or rice pudding. For a more refreshing alternative, try our recipe for tangerine semifrio.
Tangerine semifrio
Ingredients:
Zest of ½ lemon
zest of 1 orange
200 ml tangerine juice
2 packages tangerine gelatin (2x 85g)
60 g powdered sugar
110 g butter
1 natural yogurt
220g cookies
400 ml whipping cream
Method of preparation:
Crush the cookies and melt the butter. Mix them and place them in a mold with a removable base, pressing the mixture against the base and put it aside in the refrigerator. Bring the tangerine juice to the boil and as soon as it starts boiling, remove. Add a sachet of gelatin and stir well. Allow to cool.
Whip the cream. Add the yogurt and stir. Then add the gelatin gradually and stir again. Add the powdered sugar and the orange and lemon zest. Distribute this mixture in the mold and refrigerate for 3 hours.
Prepare the remaining gelatin according to the package directions. When the mixture is cold, add it to the semifrio. Leave in the refrigerator until the gelatin solidifies.
With these tips and recipes, your Santos Populares party at home will be a guaranteed success! Remember to level up on the decoration, music, and drinks.
Bon appétit and have fun celebrating!