Portuguese Beef Stew & Sintra, Portugal is a comfy one-pot meal with photo’s and travel highlights from my week in Sintra!
I know you’re just going to adore both our Portuguese Beef Stew & Sintra, Portugal!
First let’s take a look at Sintra, Portugal
I found Sintra a lovely, quaint little town situated within the hills of the Serra de Sintra. Hidden within these pine covered hills, are extravagant palaces, opulent mansions, and the ruins of an ancient Moorish Castle. I explored it to my hearts content!
The variety of historic buildings, meandering walkways filled with mosaic tile art (called Azulejo), and wooded paths that lead you up and up and up is AMAZING! They say this town is on a hillside! I walked so much of it and would say that it was definitely steep enough to be a decent sized mountain! I also enjoyed a comfy-cozy bowl of Portuguese Beef Stew one evening, in a tucked away, very tiny restaurant/bar. It was so wonderful that I wanted to be sure to find the recipe to share with all of you! 🙂
The Magical Quinta Da Regaleira in Sintra, Portugal was one of my favorite places to explore!
The Quinta da Regaleira is one of the most surprising of all Sintra’s monuments. Located on the outskirts of the town, it was built 1904- 1910, in the last days of the Portuguese monarchy.
I could have honestly spent days exploring this magical place… it has wooded trails, underground caves, waterfalls a plenty (still beautiful even with the green algae!!), gardens and statues, tennis court, garden settee made out of concrete, private chapel, and a summer castle! This just barely touches this enchanting place on the surface! It’s like an outdoor adventurers dream come true!
António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro was the creator of this enormous estate!
This romantic property formerly belonging to the Viscondessa da Regaleira (Portuguese Royals) and was acquired and enlarged by António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro (1848-1920) as his favorite country estate. His vast fortune earned him the nickname of Monteiro dos Milhões (Moneybags Monteiro). It has only been open to the public for touring in the past decade or so! When I was there I could only imagine being a child in this vast, magical land with all the fun exploring that must have happened there!!
Augusto commissioned this unique project of house and landscape from the Italian set-designer and architect Luigi Manini (1848-1936) whose genius, along with the mastery of sculptors, stonemasons, and craftsmen who had formerly Palace Hotel do Buçaco, created this magical place. They really did not spare anything at all. It seems as if every square inch was given adoration and attention!
I noticed that they must have had a whimsical side to them because as you look closely at the photo’s below, you can see… the bronze statue is winking and the castle has a tongue sticking out of it! Augusto was also known as quite an outdoors man and apparently he quite loved to fish! Which is great, when you live in a town that’s extremely close to the ocean.
It consists of a palace and chapel with exquisite décor including frescoes, stained glass windows, and lavish stuccoes. The estate grounds feature lakes, grottoes, wells, benches, fountains, and an extensive and enigmatic system of tunnels that connect to two spiraling wells. The statue in the photo below is a replica of one of Augusto’s daughters.
The pair of wells, known as the ‘Initiation Wells’ or ‘Inverted Towers’, consist of ‘winding stair’ architecture, which carries symbolic meaning including the death/rebirth allegory common to many hermetic traditions. They were just really cool… the spiraling downward was fun to walk and look down at!
Now, we are on to our flavorful Portuguese Beef Stew!
You know when you are happily exhausted and all you want in the whole world is a place to sit and relax over some kind of comfort food? Well, this Portuguese Beef Stew exactly hit that spot for me after the day of exploring at Augusto’s place! I fell in love with it and I hope you will too! 🙂
You may also enjoy these other tasty soups:
• Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup
Thanks for joining us for this tasty soup and we hope you enjoyed the Sintra highlights too! Portuguese Beef Stew & Sintra, Portugal are a match for sure!!
Love Always,
Ruthie & Madeliene
Vienna Veal Gulyas
- 2 ¾ pound veal shanks- trimmed and cut in 2-inch cubes
- 5 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 cups finely diced onions
- 5 tablespoons hungarian paprika
- 3 cups hot water
- 1 ½ tablespoons chicken base or bouillon
- ½ teaspoon tabasco
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 garlic (minced)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped caraway seeds
- ½ cup cold water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- In a heavy bottom soup pot, heat oil and add onion; saute 2-3 minutes or until browned.
- Add veal cubes and saute quickly, stirring until lightly browned.
- Add paprika and stir quickly so as not to burn, add water and chicken base; mix well.
- Add tabasco, garlic, worcestershire sauce, caraway seed.
- Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
- Mix cold water with cornstarch, whisk into pot, bring to simmer for 10 minutes.
- Stir in heavy cream and remove from heat.
- Serve.
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