Tortas

Today I am sharing my recipe for Tortas!  Portuguese tortas, are I suppose  how our grandmothers and their mothers before them found a way to stretch out meals to feed their families. As the saying goes "waste not, want not", these are a perfect way to use up leftover fish or meat. I make them many times with canned tuna or sardines too! Now I am by no means saying this recipe is "the way" to make them, because we all know every family has  their own way of preparing these. This is how my family likes them, but I remember my avó Pimentel made her tortas with only eggs and no flour. I can just taste them now, she would make them with linguiça, chopped olives and lots of chopped parsley! She would fry them up, and serve them in paposecos, sprinkled with.....wait for it....sugar! This is one of my fondest food memories, tortas with sugar, the combination of sweet and savory, perfect! But even if I wanted to make them like my grandmother's, I don't think I could ever come close to it. Today I make tortas for my family, and don't sprinkle sugar on them, I do however, sprinkle sea salt on them and serve them with lemon wedges and a green salad. It is an easy weeknight meal that is both delicious and fast to make.

 Base recipe :
1 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder

 Add in, no more than 2 cups of  cooked fish or cooked meat ( canned tuna, canned sardines, cod fish, chicken,  linguiça etc)

Next step, add in:

handful  of green onions/scallions, chopped
handful of parsley, finely chopped
massa malagueta/crushed red pepper/ sriracha  (to taste)
salt (to taste)

oil for frying (olive oil/or vegetable oil)


In a bowl, combine together all the ingredients (except the cooking oil) together.

Heat the  oil in a pan, these are shallow fried, so about an inch of oil.

Use a spoon ( I like to use a 1/4 cup measure) to scoop from the mixture and slowly drop them into the heated oil in the pan. Use the back of the spoon to spread it out evenly to about a ½ inch thickness. In my frying pan I can get about 5 tortas

Pan-fry the tortas until golden, cooking about 1-2 minutes on each side, and turning to brown them on both sides.
Make sure they are cooked in the middle.
Once done, remove from pan and drain cooked tortas on paper towel lined plate Serve hot or at room temperature.


Notes-
* you can also add in chopped olives, or diced peppers, diced onions too!