Pica-pau
Portuguese Fried Pork Bites with Garlic, Mustard and Pickles
Small pieces of meat, fried hard and tossed in a sharp sauce of garlic, wine and mustard, with pickles scattered over. It is put in the middle of the table with a pot of cocktail sticks, and everybody pecks at it. The name means woodpecker.
Pica-pau is a sharing plate for bars and beer. The Portuguese recipe read uses thin pork steaks marinated in white wine, garlic, lemon and bay, then fried and finished with mustard and chopped pickles.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 600 g pork loin steaks or fillet, cut into 2 cm pieces
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 150 ml dry white wine
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 30 g butter
- 3 tbsp mild yellow or Dijon mustard
- 80 g mixed pickled vegetables (gherkins, cauliflower, carrot), chopped
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
- Bread, to serve
Method
- Marinate Mix the pork with the garlic, wine, lemon juice, bay leaf, 1/2 tsp salt and some pepper. Cover and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Fry the pork Lift the pork out of the marinade and pat it dry; keep the marinade. Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry the pork for 6 to 8 minutes, turning, until browned on all sides and cooked through, with no pink in the middle.
- Make the sauce Stir the mustard into the reserved marinade and pour it into the pan. Boil for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until the sauce has reduced by about half and coats the meat. The marinade has held raw pork, so it must boil.
- Serve Tip into a warm dish, scatter with the pickles and serve with cocktail sticks and bread for the sauce.
Food safety
Pork must be cooked through with no pink meat. The marinade has been in contact with raw meat and must be boiled for at least 3 minutes before it is eaten.
Dry the meat well before it goes in the pan or it will stew instead of browning.