My Lisbon A cookbook from Portugal's city of light

Lisbon takes the spotlight in this gorgeously written collection by Mendes, executive chef at London's Chiltern Firehouse. Far-ranging exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries made Portugal a melting pot, but disasters such as a massive 1755 earthquake, which killed a 10th of the city's population, and an oppressive 40-year dictatorship that ended in 1974 thwarted the country's growth, Mendes explains. Now the capital city has come roaring back with a culinary renaissance. These recipes are a thrill ride, careening from fava-bean salad with grated hard-boiled egg, to duck rice with a crisp top scattered with sausage and lardo, to round doughnuts slit and filled with eggy custard. Mendes infuses clear instructions with just enough explanation: the cross-hatching on pork steak helps it absorb red pepper marinade, while lamb shoulder is a good candidate for slow roasting because it is a "working muscle." His essay-writing skills are outstanding, whether he's explaining the role of informal restaurants known as tascas, describing goose barnacles that "look like aliens' fingers, have the texture of an old handbag, and have a kind of hoof on the end," or ruminating on a man selling sandwiches through a kitchen window during the feast of Saint Anthony. Pitch-perfect and mouthwatering, this book is a joy from start to finish. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Portuguese fish stew Caldeirada Caldeirada is a kind of baked fish stew, in which the various types of fish and vegetables are sliced and layered on top  of each other before being doused with white wine and extra-virgin olive oil and baked. You can play around with the layers and change up ingredients, but make sure you slice the vegetables very thinly so that they cook at the same pace as the fish. Serves 4                                              A pinch of saffron 1 garlic clove, halved 10 ounces/300 g potatoes, such as Yukon gold, very thinly sliced 4  tablespoons/50 g butter, cubed 5  ripe plum tomatoes, sliced horizontally 1 white onion, very thinly sliced 1 bulb fennel, trimmed and very thinly sliced Flaky sea salt and ground white pepper Smoked paprika 14 ounces/400 g red mullet or sea bass fillets, each fillet sliced into 3 pieces Extra-virgin olive oil, to drizzle 7/8 cup/200 ml white wine A handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped Pour 1 tablespoon of boiling water over the saffron in  a  small bowl. Rub the cut garlic clove all around the inside of a shallow baking dish, ideally one with a lid. Arrange half the potatoes in the bottom of the dish and put half the butter on top. Follow with a layer of half the tomatoes, onion,  and  fennel,  then  the rest of the potatoes. Season every layer with salt, pepper, and paprika. Make a layer of fish, then the remaining  onion  and fennel, and finally the remaining tomatoes. Dot the remaining butter on top and drizzle with olive oil. Mix the saffron with the wine and pour it over the dish. Leave to marinate for 1 hour.   Preheat the oven to 355°F/180°C (convection 320°F/160°C).  Cover the dish with a lid or foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 20 minutes. Sprinkle the chopped parsley on top just before serving. Excerpted from My Lisbon: A Cookbook from Portugal's City of Light by Nuno Mendes All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.