Authentic Portuguese Cooking

Readers of Ortiz’s first cookbook, Portuguese Homestyle Cooking, bombarded her with requests for favorite dishes, and she obliges them in this outstanding sequel. Eschewing the usual selection of breakfast recipes and appetizers, Ortiz doesn’t mess around, opening with a series of meat-based dishes (pork stew with cinnamon, wine, and garlic; Madeiran wine and garlic beef kabobs; roast suckling pig). She moves on to seafood, highlighting salt cod and octopus as well as soups, appetizers, and a number of breads and desserts. Artfully mixing the simple (sardine filets with garlic and lemon) with the complex (that suckling pig’s going to take some work), Ortiz also takes time to include inventive riffs, such as the Portuguese croque madame that incorporates linguica sausage and beef, pork, or chicken, and a chocolate salami roll, a truffle-like dessert that uses crushed Bolacha Maria cookies to mimic the specks of fat studding traditional sausage. Though readers may struggle to find some of Ortiz’s ingredients, which can be very specific at times, substitutions are offered. Readers interested in expanding their repertoires would do well to consider this terrific compilation and will likely find themselves in search of its predecessor if it isn’t already in their library. (Oct.)