THE REST OF THE WEEK IN MIRANDA

Hello again Reader. I thought I had left the wilderness which in some ways I did but whilst cousin Penny & Kens big house in the country has most things, it does not boast a TV or internet signal making blog updates impossible. I could sometimes get a 3G signal on my phone thats hopeless for writing the log on. As far as I recall I had been at Sara Neil’s for a few days.

Later in he week we went to a wild life park to see wild boa,r Ocelot, brown bears, Wolves Etc. We also went to the best restaurant in Miranda. The food was wonderful and the service second to none. I had rabbit, wild boar & duck served with what closely resembled bubble & squeak for mains the starter however was a local dish called wedding soup. The restaurant was near the entrance to the wild life park in the Shanfana museum. Shanfana is a dish perculiar to the area. When the French were marauding in Portugal they plundered the land and animals leaving the people in the surrounding countryside with only the old sheep to eat, which is mutton. Very tough and a long time in the cooking. So the inventive locals devised a dish which became Shanfarna. The recipe consists pieces of Mutton on the bone chopped into bits and cooked in red wine, olive oil, onions and garlic. The ingredients are placed into an earthenware pot ( traditionally black ) then. The pot is then placed in a clay oven next to the embers and cooked for 4 hours. The oven is sealed throughout this period to take on the smoke from the wood. It's served today with bread and as with nearly all meals n Portugal rice & chips. Delicious From memory our next outing was to a village how's name have forgotten, but was the headquarters for Wellington in the famous battle. To eat to try yet another Portuguese staple dish Backalow ( spelt wrong I'm guessing ) or Salt fish ( spelt right ). the fish is left in water overnight to wash away the salt, it;s then cooked with sliced potatoes and served as memory serves with rice and salad.

Next trip out was to the city of Tomar the stronghold of the Knights Templar in Europe. A spectacular castle with so many towers,walls,courtyards, quadrangles, turrets, gardens, cellars, cell's

( bedrooms ) kitchens & dining rooms you ever saw...... Neil has been four times now and still hasn't seen it all. If you ever that way put a day aside to go and see it. While we were there we had to eat of course. So I was taken to a place called Rat Arsed well that's how I read it.