CHEF’S NOTE: I remember walking down from my dad’s apartment to the café on the ground floor of the building (every building in Portugal café, by the way) to order a bifana and a sumol, and my dad would have a beer. Bifanas were his absolute favourite thing to eat. It’s the sister to the famous prego roll – the big difference here is that bifanas are pork, while pregos should be beef.
INDGREDIENTS:
2 cloves garlic, crushed- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 cloves
- 2 tsps smoked paprika
- 2 tbsps piri – piri sauce (+ extra for serving)
- 2 tbsps red pepper sauce (pimento sauce)
- ¼ cup white vinegar
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 bay leaf
- 500g pork tenderloin or fillet, cut into thin slices
- Olive oil, for frying
- 2 onions, sliced
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 4 Portuguese rolls
- Butter, for rolls
METHOD:
- Mix together the garlic, salt, pepper, cloves, paprika, piri-piri sauce, red pepper sauce, vinegar, wine and the bay leaf in a shallow bowl. Add the pork, making sure that the meat is coated on both sides.
- Cover and refrigerate to marinate overnight.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Remove the pork from the marinade, drain and fry in batches for about 1 minute on each side until lightly browned, then set aside.
- When all the pork has been cooked, pour the leftover marinade into the pan and bring to a boil.
- Turn the heat down and simmer the marinade for 5 minutes until slightly thickened.
- Place the pork back in the pan, making sure that it is well coated in marinade. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- In a separate frying pan, fry the onions until softened. Add the brown sugar and stir fry the onion until caramelised.
Serve the pork with the onions in buttered Portuguese rolls with extra piri-piri sauce.
By J’ Something