Yuhu!!…very happy to visit Portugal once again this year… Sweet memories of our last trip inspired us to make it again. We decided to go by car, as we love beautiful landscapes when we cross the borders of Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal. One way drive from our place(from the southwest of Germany) to the Algarve region in Portugal is 2500kms. My hubby was very enthusiastic to drive the whole stretch and we especially like the contour variations that nature provides us with, especially in Spain and Portugal.
No traffic and less vehicles in Highways starting from Spain
As the journey is also part of our vacation, we wanted to enjoy every part of it. This was our Itenary- our home ->SanSebastian> Algarve(Our destination in Portugal)->Barcelona->home. we took sleepover break-in intermediate destinations. SanSebastian is a cute destination, which we accidentally discovered in our last trip. It is a beautiful city along the sea coast (north of Spain). Barcelona is our ever favorite destination and we never miss an opportunity to visit Barcelona, where we stayed on our way back home.
Beautiful Mountain Landscapes and Olive trees everywhere…
Now coming to the landscapes and trees, the coniferous spiky trees  slowly disappearing and short varieties of shrub trees and olive trees everywhere until your eyes can reach . Mountains were green in France and slowly when you move down to Spain, the mountains where rocky and gets dry . Further down south, one can see Orange trees and lemon, olive trees and grape wines everywhere in Portugal. Figs,palm trees and eucalyptus are not to miss.
Fresh oranges from farm, sold on the road side, getting reminded of my home country, India. It was juicy and perfect to enjoy on a hot day. Mangoes were delicious and sweet.
Orange trees in Portugal
Oleander, Hibiscus, bougainvillea in different colors and varieties seems to be in most of the houses and in public gardens. During spring there are different kinds of flowers.
During September, the average temp has been ~28deg and it gets hot when you have to drive facing the sun. We badly needed an chilled lemonade or an watermelon juice. We got some lemon drink on the highway shop to chill down a bit.
One half of Algarve has beaches with rocky cliffs, other half of Algarve has dessert like beaches( olhau, Tavira). Every 1 km approximately you will find a new beach.
Chimney in every house is an essential exterior design
Pastel de Nata
This is a thin flaky pastry filled with egg custard flavored with cinnamon and Vanilla. One cannot miss this little cutie pie if you are in Portugal. Any bakery/pastry shop and even McDonald’s has it in its Menu. Try this simple to make pastry and you will fall in love with it.
To have a perfect tart it has to have a crispy and flaky outer layer, delicious and mild-flavored egg custard. For the perfect looks, Pastel de Nata should be a little browned on top.
Ingredients:
- Pastry sheet – 1 (approx 40*20cm)
- Egg – 2(only the yellow)
- Milk -300 ml(Full fat milk)
- Sugar – 5 Tbs
- cinnamon powder – 1/2 tsp
- Corn starch – 2 Tbs
- Vanilla essence – few drops
Method:
1. Sprinkle 1/4 of Cinnamon powder on the pastry sheet and try to roll it to a long roll. ( I do this to get a thick layer of pastry rounds ,as my pastry sheet which was thin)
2. Cut this rolls in to 12 equal parts.
3. Take each one of these parts and keep them,  facing one of the cut part touching the board . Roll them to a small circle ,so that it fits in to the muffin molds.
4. Place the rolled circle pastry to the tins and adjust them to fit to the sides of the mold using your finger.
Egg Custard preparation Method:
1. Add 250 ml milk to the pan and heat it until it begins to boil.
2. In another bowl add egg yellow, sugar, corn starch and remaining 50ml milk and beat it well, so that there is no lumps.
3. Now slowly add this egg mixture to the milk and keep stirring.
4. When you notice the mixture gets thickening, switch of the stove and add 1/4 of cinnamon and Vanilla essence.
5. Allow the egg custard to cool and fill this mixture to the prepared pastry sheets in the tin.
6. Bake it for 15 min in at 180 deg in a preheated oven and another 10 min with the same temp in grill mode to achieve the dark color on top.
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Orange trees in Portugal
