You sit down to a boiled parliament: brisket, ribs, chicken, chouriço, morcela, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and rice cooked in the same broth so nothing is wasted. It is not subtle. It is Sunday in a Portuguese house, and you let people build their own plates.
Every European kitchen has a boiled dinner. Portugal's is the meal of winter Sundays and of the feast day when the family is too many for a roast. Slice the meats. Serve on platters, the broth in a tureen, the rice beside.
Add the vegetables in stages so nothing collapses. Appetite is the only seasoning that matters now, though a little salt at the table never hurt.
Method
- 01
Cover the beef brisket and pork ribs with water in a large pot, bring to a simmer, and skim the foam. Cook gently for 2 hours, until the meats are nearly tender. Add the jointed chicken, the chouriço, and the morcela and continue until the chicken is cooked through. The broth should smell of beef, smoke, and patience — don't boil hard; a gallop makes the meat dry.
- 02
Add the carrots first, then the potatoes, then the cabbage, giving each a head start so nothing collapses into the broth. The carrots need 20 minutes, the potatoes 15, the cabbage perhaps 10 — taste as you go. You want them tender, not defeated. If you have cooked chickpeas, stir them in at the end just to heat through.
- 03
Ladle some of the broth into a separate pan and cook the rice in it until the grains are tender and have drunk the liquor. It should taste of the pot, not of plain water. Keep it warm. This is how nothing is wasted in a Portuguese boiled dinner — the rice is the broth's second life.
- 04
Lift out the meats and slice them — brisket in thick pieces, ribs separated, chicken carved, sausages in coins. Arrange everything on platters: meats, vegetables, the rice beside, and the remaining broth in a tureen. Let people build their own plates. Appetite is the only seasoning that matters now, though a little salt at the table never hurt.
