Ingredients (8-10 tarts)

For the Steaks

• 4 steaks (150g/5oz each)
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 Knorr beef Bouillon cube
• butter, vegetable oil, salt, pepper, white wine q.s.

For the Baked Mashed Potatoes

• 0,5kg of potatoes (or 6 big potatoes)
• 30g (1/4 stick) butter
• 2 eggs
• nutmeg, salt, pepper, chives, q.s.

Instructions (Time: 1 hour)

Pan Fried Steak

Heat a frying pan at medium heat and mince the garlic cloves. Add some butter, some vegetable oil and the garlic to the pan. 

Let the garlic fry for 2 minutes and add the steaks.

Season with salt and pepper and fry the steaks turning them from time to time. When the pan starts to dry out, your steaks should be cooked, and you can now start with the sauce. If you like your steaks rare you should remove them from the pan, otherwise it’s o.k. to leave them in the pan. Add some wine, the Knorr cube and some more pepper to the sauce. Scrape the bits of fried garlic from the pan - this will give color and flavor to the sauce. After a few minutes taste the sauce and make the necessary adjustments. Let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes.

And serve. For this to be more Portuguese there are a few elements missing, which I hope I can show here, the next time I go to Portugal.

Baked Mashed Potatoes

Boil the potatoes with the skin.

Preheat your oven to 210ºC (410ºF). Peel the potatoes while they’re still hot and mash them.

Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add the eggs and the butter and mix well.

Grease an oven tray with butter and spoon the mixture forming little mountains of mashed potatoes. Bake until golden.

Garnish with chopped chives and serve!