my attempt to make Mexican food in Portugal!

[emilee_x]

hey friends,

i am in Lisbon and, being from California, i would like to cook a Mexican style dinner (i was thinking fajitas, refried beans, and rice) for some Portuguese friends here who have no idea what this cuisine is about. luckily there is a Corte Ingles (Spanish supermarket chain) here where i can find almost everything (even tortillas and canned jalapeños!) however, i need to figure out some substitutions for the ingredients that i cannot find here....for example, Mexican chili powder for the marinade. i only saw Indian chili powder....will that do? and dried pinto beans? i saw Cranberry beans, are those the same? and what can I substitute for Serrano chilis (for the pico de gallo salsa)??? does anyone have any suggestions?

oh yeah, one more question....this isn't Mexican food related but I have a recipe for a very decadent chocolate cake i would like to prepare for dessert...but it calls for mini-marshmallows and as far as i know those don't exist here....what can i do?

thanks in advance!

[Eric_Malson]

Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't be of all that much help, but I'll tell you what occurs to me off the top of my head. I will say that I'm pretty sure Indian chili powder as not anything close to being the same as Mexican chili powder. You might do an internet search for a recipe for Mexican chili powder and try constructing your own. As I remember, most of the components for a basic Mexican-style chili powder were readily available in Portugal, although you may have to fudge on particular kinds of dried peppers (but isn't the chief ingredient of Mexican chili powder cumin, anyway?). As for the beans, I thought I had seen pinto-type beans, but it's been almost 10 years now since I lived there and I'm just not sure. If the cranberry beans look close, try cooking some up ahead of time and see what the result is. I seem to remember using these variegated dried beans they call "pintado" once and that they reminded me of pinto beans (I hope I'm not just imagining this--like I said, it's been an awfully long time).

Have you discovered yet that the product sold in the diary section under the moniker "queijo fresco batido" is pretty much sour cream? It took me over a year of living before I realized that.

Apart from the Corte Ingles, for a larger selection of "international" ingredients, you might try the Jumbo in Cascais (as you probably know, lots of ex-pats live out in Cascais), or even the Continente. Also, the Carrefour in Telheiras.

As for the marshmallows... not a clue. It would never occur to me buy a marshmallow in America, much less Portugal. The best solution may be to ask a visiting friend to bring you over a bag or two. I had friends living there that had standing requests for anyone visiting the States to bring back chocolate chips!

[Ohba]

"Indian chilli powder" will be dried chillies, powdered. Wikipedia has a page on chilli powder, but in trying to distinguish between types, what's up there at the moment seems to contain some very questionable or incomplete information.

You'll be able to find information about cranberry beans with some basic internet searching, but here's a page that should be useful: Cooks Thesaurus (Beans)

If you can't find the chilli mix you're after, the four of five base ingredients should be easy enough to find, so that you can mix your own. You just need to hunt on the net for a mix recipe that you like the like the look of. And an advantage is that it could well taste better than something that's been sitting around premixed for too long.

[PauloR]

(...)....for example, Mexican chili powder for the marinade.  i only saw Indian chili powder....will that do?  (...)

thanks in advance!

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In most of portuguese supermarkets, you will find Chili Powder, with the name of Piri-Piri. Most of this chili are from Angola, but works well for mexican food...

Regards.

[rcianci]

Can you get ahold of corn syrup?

If so, here's a fairly reliable marshmallow recipe.

[filipe]

You can find mini-marshmallows (american originals) at the Club del Gourmet corner, at El corte Ingles. Look near the cookies and other sweet items, they come in a transparent plastic bag.

About the chili and other mexican stuff...why don't ask at a mexican restaurant where they supply themselves? There's one called SIESTA at Alges, on the riverside (near DocaPesca and the Tagus river control tower)