Growing up as first generation American in a Portuguese family, my parents made sure my sisters and I stayed close to our Portuguese heritage growing up. My childhood summers are filled with memories of driving to different cities in northern California to attend Portuguese Holy Ghost 'Festas'.
Food was always a big part of any festa. One of the things I remember and loved to eat as a child were these hard, salty beans called Tremocos, in Portuguese. They were sold in a ziplock bag with salty water to keep them moist.
In Portugal, on the Azores Islands, where my Dad is from, they serve Tremocos as bar snacks and now as an adult I know why....they go perfect with red wine or beer.
This past summer at a festa I attended, I asked one of the older generation Portuguese ladies how to go about making these Tremocos beans. She sat down with me and explained the entire process, which includes DAYS of boiling, brining, replacing the salty water and begin again. WAY more time than I would ever want to spend on beans.
So imagine my surprise, when just the other day at my local grocerey store, as I was searching for some low sodium black beans, I glanced up and saw this jar....
Tremocos beans in all their glory, on the top shelf of Harvest Market. I felt I hit the jackpot!
I bought all they had in stock {I know, sick right?}, hoping they would live up to my childhood memory. They came pretty close, not quite as salty but close enough.
Tremocos are eaten by tearing into the skin with your teeth and popping the bean into your mouth.....here's the skin on the left and the bean on the right....
Other than the salt, Tremocos, or Lupini Beans as they're called here in America, are pretty healthy for you.
And they go GREAT with wine!
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4 comments:
Loving beans of any kind, I will be watching for these salty treats. Cannot wait to try them and thanks for sharing a part of your heritage.
BlessYourHeart
And we don't eat the skin right? just want to be properly schooled in case I run into these appetizing little dudes. Glad you found them in the store. The old-time way of making them sounds a lot like our midwestern pickle recipe; lots of time and lots of brine!
Yep Lana, toss the skins :)
Hi Folks, well done on a lovely blog. I am also Portuguese, originally from Mozambique, and living in South Africa for the last 37 years. I have always kept my Portuguese heritage, and ... yes ... the tremocos are a very tasty part of it! I enjoy them at any time of the day, and as an accompaniment to anything, or just on their own. I sometimes pop them out of their skins, but I also enjoy eating them with skin and all ... adds to the roughage. Don't forget that, besides the coarse salt, they have to have "tons" of raw coarsely chopped garlic too. Not very easy getting tremocos in South Africa either, so they are a beautiful treat whenever I get them. Enjoy! And all the best to all my Portuguese American compatriots, Rui
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