Molhos de Santa Maria (Bundles of Santa Maria)
This recipe comes from the island of Santa Maria, but it definitely has roots from Northern Portugal.
The original dish is made by stuffing the marinated meat into a sewn up stomach lining… Every family has their own take with seasonings and methods but I love how we improvised this special dish using foil packets and a pressure cooker.
Also the key to the dish is marinating overnight… so make sure to do this the night before you plan on making it for your Family
Ingredients
This recipe will feed 4-6 people and can be easily doubled
2 1/2 pounds of pork loin
1 cup of rice (rinsed)
1 onion minced
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 bunch of scallions, chopped
Splash of vinegar, or lemon juice
1 1/2 cups of white wine
1 tablespoon of paprika
2 tablespoons of red hot pepper paste*can adjust to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
One small bunch of chopped parsley
Instructions
Cut and cube the pork loin
In a large bowl add & mix all the ingredients together .
Cover everything and place in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day, set up the pressure cooker filled with hot water.
Set your sheets of foil and fill each with a couple of serving spoons of the marinated meat. Wrap each into a bundle and tie each bundle with cooking string. Continue until all of the marinated meat has been placed into bundles and then place these bundles into the pressure cooker that was halfway filled with hot water… cover and set your pressure cooker to cook for 45 minutes.
Once done, unwrap each bundle and serve alongside cooked sweet potatoes .. enjoy
Notes
Adding portions to the foil
tying off the packets
Hello, I am from Santa Maria, but live in Canada. I make the molhos and use cabbage instead of foil . Like cabbage rolls .
Thank you so much for sharing… that makes perfect sense too. I’ll have to make it using cabbage leafs next time.
Thank you. My mom makes this and its hard to find the recipes. My mom is getting to old to make it – I can surprise her. Can you find more Santa Maria Recipes? I am from Hudson Mass, and we have a whole town of Portuguese -Santa Maria, Azores people here. The young generation does not know how to make the traditional dishes and desserts.
Hi Fatima, I actually plan on visiting Santa Maria … Hopefully next year. My maternal side of the family came from Santa Maria and I want to make sure that I preserve those recipes ❤️
This recipe looks so good. Is there an alternative way to cook this without a pressure cooker?
Hi Terri, you would need to just boil the packets in a pot of boiling water… it will take longer than the pressure cooker but can be done instead