Sweet tooth? Some divine Portuguese food & fortified matches

I really love the edge of tannin and acidity of Portuguese wines.  It makes them super food friendly, a fact which my hosts at Afros well understood (see the report of my July visit here), and of which I was reminded, presenting a Portuguese tasting last week.  We didn’t have food but, for the quieter, less fruit-driven wines, put them into a food context and people understand them much better – table wines indeed!

 So I was very happy to meet Miguel de Almeida last Friday at dinner with a mutual friend.  His day job may be design, but his blog-on-the-side is divine!  From Oporto, West Coast Cooking is a homage to the food of Miguel’s homeland and I love his Portuguese-ation of cupcakes (pictured). 

The site features a stack of great recipes, focused on dessert.  I’ve always said Moscatel de Setubal makes a great match for pasteis de nata, but what about Figos em Moscatel (Baked figs in Moscatel) or Damascos recheados de marscapone e pistachios (Marscapone stuffed apricots with pistachios).

Those of you long as well as sweet in the tooth may recall my post (here) about a fabulous match for Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha Vintage Port 1996, namely The Goring Hotel’s stem ginger chocolate fondant with drambuie clotted cream. Reading Miguel’s recipe for Tarte de chocolate e gengibre em calda (chocolate & stem ginger tart) brought it to mind.  I shall be putting that recipe into delicious practice!