2007 Pocas and a great pairing

[Roy Hersh]

We challenged chef Leonel Pereira to create an unusual recipe that would go well with Poças Vintage 2007.Surprisingly, the chef served us Loin of codfish blended with wine, cream of gourd with hazelnuts and apple rabanadas. An audacious choice or so we thought. Could it be so improbable? Here is the recipe for you to try out.


Recipe for 6 servings:

Ingredients
800 g of loin of salted codfish |0,50 l of red wine | 600 g of gourd | 50 g of hazelnuts| cloves | xanthan | cinnamon |apple | batter | 0,50 l of olive oil | bay leaves | garlic

Preparing
Fry the codfish loins in olive oil, garlic and bay leaves. Reduce the red wine with the spices until the alcohol totally evaporates. Add the codfish and finish cooking in the reduced wine. Peel the gourd, cut into pieces and place in a vacuum bag, season with a little olive oil and salt cream, close the bag and steam cook at a controlled temperature of 90ºC for one hour. When ready, open the bag, remove the water and beat to a creamy texture. Set aside. Cut the apple in slices, season with salt and pepper, dip in the batter and fry in oil at 170º. Chop the hazelnuts and add a little to the codfish. Place the codfish on the plate, on top of the purée, sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts, place the apple on top and pour the sauce that is obtained from cooking the codfish, lightly bound with xanthan.

About chef Leonel Pereira
Nearly in his third full year as Executive Chef of the restaurants of the Sheraton Hotel in Lisbon, Leonel Pereira is one of today’s most renowned and charismatic Portuguese cooks. Born in the Algarve, he did his training at l'École Lenôtre, in Paris, one of the oldest and most respected French culinary schools, as well as at the prestigious “Alain Ducasse Formation” (ADF) Center.

Since the start of his career, he has always worked at the restaurants of the best hotels. After a few years in Brazil, where he served as head of the restaurants at all the hotels of the Pestana Group, he returned to Portugal in 2004, where his mission was to revive Portuguese culinary culture at Pousadas de Portugal, which was then the latest acquisition by the Pestana Group.

After three years at Pousadas de Portugal, he was invited to be in charge of two restaurants par excellence: the Panorama and the Bistrô, at the Sheraton in Lisbon. Quite the charismatic and adventurous type, Leonel Pereira has shown irreverence in the way he presents the new Portuguese Contemporary Cuisine.