Marlene Vieira

Marlene Vieira, the female face of the chefs’ wing, has a firm grasp of traditional Portuguese cuisine, but likes to use original recipes in her dishes. These peixinhos da horta e do mar (literally ‘little fishes of the garden and of the sea’) are a variant of a traditional dish that have been a big hit at her restaurant. The trick here is combining traditional peixinhos da horta (deep-fried battered green beans) with fish tempura of a kind that is also commonly found in Portugal. The first step is to prepare the various items that are to be dipped in the tempura batter. Chop the ends off the beans and cut them into strips, pluck the basil leaves, and shuck the shrimps and season them. Finally, cut the bacalhau into strips. To make the tempura, mix all the ingredients in a bowl except for the water, which is added at the very end. Note: it really does have to be very cold sparkling water. Next, dip each of the pieces of bean, shrimps and bacalhau strips individually in the tempura, and fry in plenty of oil at a temperature of 180ºC. Remove as soon as crispy and drain on kitchen paper.