With Clem’s birthday approaching and Valentine’s day last Monday, Paulo put his chef hat on and embarked on a mission to impress his Valentine and obviously all his guests too …
He started by arranging a surprise birthday lunch with the closest friends, unfortunately he failed miserably on the surprise part as Clem overheard the conversation he was having over the phone. He thought it was safe to speak Portuguese but he totally underestimated her language skills as she understood everything!! Luckily for Paulo, otherwise the 8 hours “car wash” excuse would not have gone down too well …
Back in the kitchen, Paulo and Michelle got everything prepared the day before but the real action began on Sunday morning. By the time we all arrived for lunch, everything was beautifully done and we all sat around watching the platters being put together … the colors of the vegetables were so pretty and inspiring that we spent hours photographing them. Thank God our friends are very supportive of our obsession of taking pictures of food: they all patiently wait for us to finish taking shots before attacking the food. Obviously once the food is served, we have to act quickly so that nothing gets cold.
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| Roasted Vegetables |
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| Starters including Bolinho de queijo , mini Kibe and Coxinha |
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| Roasted butternut squash, courgettes and aubergines |
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| Roasted peppers, fennel and onions |
Everything was amazing, the “Bife a role” was to die for, literally melting in your mouth in the first bite. This is a typical Brazilian dish made with thin beef steak rolled with bacon, carrots and onions on the inside, then slow cooked with beef stock. This recipe normally works best when you using a pressure cooker.
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| Bife a Role |
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| Roasted vegetables and farofa |
Michelle took care of the desserts and made a beautiful marble & chocolate cake with fresh strawberry cream inside and Cadbury's Fingers on the outside! Carol was so entertained with the cake, she couldn’t stop eating it... So she sat in front of it and decided to just eat it off the platter!
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| Chocolate Marble Cake |
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| Happy people! |
What a great way to impress your Valentine, well done Paulo for “surprising” Clem with such a lovely and delicious lunch!!!
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