According to the chef, despite being inside a hotel, Erva has managed to reach out to those traveling between Sete Rios and Amoreiras thanks to a €20 executive menu which, during the week, offers dishes typical of more traditional taverns. There are days with cod à Brás, days with duck rice and even tuna bites, which according to Moreira is one of the restaurant’s most popular.
Roasted goat, the protagonist of the moment
This festive season, the spotlight falls on the roast goat that João Moreira presented at the workshop and which will be part of the Christmas menus at Erva. The recipe combines smoked paprika, crushed garlic, bay leaves, vinegar and slow cooking that keeps the meat soft, with a golden crust at the end. It’s a dish that tastes like home, but that gains elegance when it passes through the wood-fired oven in Erva’s kitchen.
In Moreira’s recipe, the goat is cut into medium-sized pieces, placed on a tray and coated with oil, lard, garlic, paprika, bay leaves, rosemary, vinegar and chilli. After resting for two hours, it goes into the oven at 140 ºC, covered with aluminum foil, where it cooks slowly for two to three hours. At the end, the paper is removed and the oven rises to 200 ºC to brown the surface in the last 20 minutes.
According to the chef’s recipe, the required quantities of each ingredient – for eight people – are:
Kid (4 kg)
Oil (100 ml)
Lard (100 g, optional)
10 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
Sal q.b.
1 piri-piri dry
4 bay leaves
3 sprigs of rosemary
3 tablespoons of vinegar.
The goat arrives at the table with two classic side dishes prepared in the workshop: oven-baked sausage rice and roast potatoes with onion.
The rice starts with carolino rice sautéed in olive oil, along with onion, garlic, carrots and leeks, until soft and aromatic. The mixture then receives a selection of sausages (blood chorizo, black pork chorizo, black pudding and Moorish chorizo) which release grease and perfume. The rice is wrapped in this base, refreshed with white wine and cooked with vegetable broth before going to the oven, where it finishes cooking and gaining texture.