From the embers to the table

From starters
to dessert.

Fire isn't just grilling: it roasts, stews, caramelises and cooks in clay pots. A full menu with exact times, chef temperatures and Chef Kool on standby for questions.

The clay-pot rice ★ Griller's Manual
EKOOLOGY BioCharcoal bag — 2026 packaging

Starters

to open the appetite
Corn bread and garlic bread on the grill
🥖 StarterDirect medium10 minCouvert

Grilled corn bread and garlic bread

Ingredients

  • Thick slices of Portuguese corn bread (broa) and rustic bread
  • 100 g softened butter · 3 garlic cloves · parsley · sea salt flakes

On the fire

  1. Mix the butter with crushed garlic and chopped parsley.
  2. Spread on the slices and grill over medium embers: 2–3 min per side, until marked.
  3. Off the grill, rub with a raw garlic clove and finish with salt flakes.

Master tip: broa handles embers better than any bread — the dense crust toasts without drying out inside.

Clams Bulhão Pato cooked over the embers
🐚 StarterPan on embers12 minSharing

Clams Bulhão Pato on the fire

Ingredients

  • 1 kg clams (2h in salted water to release the sand)
  • 80 ml olive oil · 5 sliced garlic cloves · 100 ml white wine
  • 1 large bunch of coriander · lemon · pepper

On the fire

  1. Skillet or shallow pan directly on the grate, hot embers.
  2. Olive oil and garlic until golden (1–2 min); in go the clams and the wine.
  3. Lid on for 5–6 min, shaking now and then, until they all open.
  4. Plenty of coriander, lemon, and bread for the sauce. Discard any that stay closed.

Master tip: the ember smoke works its way into the sauce — it's a Bulhão Pato no shopping-mall restaurant can make.

Serra cheese melted over the embers with honey and walnuts
🧀 StarterGentle indirect15 minSharing

Serra-style cheese with honey

Ingredients

  • 1 small Serra-style cheese · 2 tbsp honey
  • Chopped walnuts · rosemary · bread for dipping

On the fire

  1. Cut a "lid" into the top rind.
  2. Wrap the sides in foil, top open.
  3. Gentle indirect heat, lid closed, 12–15 min — until the centre wobbles.
  4. Honey, walnuts and rosemary in the last 2 minutes.

Master tip: serve immediately, still bubbling — this dish waits for no one.

From the sea

the Atlantic on the grill
Festival-style grilled sardines on bread
🐟 FishDirect hot20 minServes 4

Festival sardines on bread

Ingredients

  • 12 plump sardines (June to August) · coarse salt
  • 4 large slices of rustic bread · roasted peppers · olive oil

On the fire

  1. Whole sardines, unscaled and ungutted; coarse salt 30 min before.
  2. Well-formed hot embers: 3–4 min per side, flip only once.
  3. Serve on the bread to soak up the juices; peppers and olive oil on top.

Master tip: a sardine is done when the skin lifts away by itself — if it sticks to the grate, it's not time to flip yet.

Lagareiro-style octopus on the grill with punched potatoes
🐙 SeafoodDirect hot15 minServes 4

Lagareiro octopus… on the grill

Ingredients

  • 1 large octopus (~2 kg), boiled and cooled · small parboiled potatoes
  • 150 ml extra virgin olive oil · 6 garlic cloves · coriander

On the fire

  1. Dry the tentacles thoroughly — wet octopus boils, it doesn't char.
  2. Hot embers: 3–4 min per side, until the tips crisp up.
  3. Punched potatoes on the grill: 10–12 min, cut side down first.
  4. Pour over garlic oil warmed beside the embers; coriander to finish.

Master tip: the garlic warms in the oil beside the embers, never on top — burnt garlic turns everything bitter.

Grilled tiger prawns with garlic and piri-piri butter
🦐 SeafoodDirect hot10 minServes 4

Tiger prawns with garlic and piri-piri

Ingredients

  • 12 large tiger prawns, shell on · 100 g butter
  • 4 garlic cloves · piri-piri · lemon · parsley

On the fire

  1. Butterfly the prawns along the back, without separating the halves.
  2. Butter melted with garlic and piri-piri beside the embers.
  3. Hot embers: 2–3 min shell side, 1–2 min flesh side, basting as you go.
  4. Grill a lemon alongside; squeeze it over at the end.

Master tip: a prawn that curls into a C and turns pink is done (49–52 °C) — not one minute more.

Monkfish and prawn skewers on bay-laurel branches
🐟 FishDirect hot15 minServes 4

Monkfish skewers on bay-laurel sticks

Ingredients

  • 800 g monkfish loin in cubes · 8 prawns
  • Sturdy bay-laurel branches (tips peeled) · fresh bay leaves
  • Olive oil · garlic · sweet paprika · salt · lemon

On the fire

  1. Marinate the monkfish for 30 min in olive oil, garlic and paprika.
  2. Thread onto the laurel branches, alternating fish, prawns and bay leaves.
  3. Hot embers: 2–3 min per face, turning — 8–10 min total. Internal target: 55–57 °C.
  4. Lemon squeezed at the table; the laurel stick perfumes from within.

Master tip: the Madeiran secret — a green laurel skewer releases aromatic oils with the heat. No metal skewer can do that.

From the land

meat, treated with respect
Spatchcock piri-piri chicken on the grill
🍗 MeatIndirect + direct45 minServes 4

Piri-piri chicken, Guia style

Ingredients

  • 1 free-range chicken, spatchcocked · 6 garlic cloves · bay leaf
  • 2 chillies + 1 tbsp red-pepper paste · lemon · 100 ml olive oil

On the fire

  1. Marinate overnight with garlic, lemon, bay, salt and half the oil.
  2. Indirect heat, skin up, lid closed: 30–35 min, turning every 10.
  3. Sauce: olive oil, chilli and pepper paste warmed beside the embers.
  4. Finish 8–10 min over direct heat, basting. Target: 74 °C breast, 80 °C thigh.

Master tip: rest the chicken 5 minutes before carving — the juices redistribute instead of running onto the board.

Caramelised pork ribs with honey and garlic
🥩 MeatLong indirect1hServes 6

Slow ribs with honey and garlic

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg rack of pork ribs · 1 head of garlic · paprika
  • 4 tbsp honey · 2 tbsp red-wine vinegar · orange to serve

On the fire

  1. Season the day before with garlic, paprika, salt and pepper.
  2. EKOOLOGY briquettes on one side; ribs on the ember-free side, bone down, lid closed 40–50 min.
  3. Brush with honey + vinegar in the last 15 min.
  4. Move to direct heat 8–10 min until caramelised. Target: 88–92 °C for fall-apart meat.

Master tip: at 63 °C it's safe but tough — collagen only surrenders at 88–92 °C. Patience is the main ingredient.

Aged rib steak searing on the grill with flame
🥩 MeatDirect + indirect30 minServes 2–3

Aged rib steak, done right

Ingredients

  • 1 aged rib steak (~1 kg, 5 cm) at room temperature
  • Salt flakes · freshly ground black pepper · butter

On the fire

  1. Sear over hot embers: 2–3 min per side, including the fat cap.
  2. Move to indirect heat, lid closed, until 52 °C inside (final medium-rare: 54–57 °C).
  3. Rest 8–10 min with a knob of butter on top.
  4. Slice against the grain, salt flakes at the end.

Master tip: a meat thermometer costs little and never fails — minutes are a guide, temperature is the law.

Lamb chops with rosemary on the grill
🐑 MeatDirect medium-hot20 minServes 4

Lamb chops with rosemary

Ingredients

  • 12 lamb chops · 3 sprigs of rosemary · 4 garlic cloves
  • Juice of half a lemon · olive oil · salt flakes · pepper

On the fire

  1. Marinate 2h with chopped rosemary, garlic, lemon and olive oil.
  2. Medium-hot embers: 3–4 min per side, standing on the fat at the end to crisp it.
  3. Internal target: 54–57 °C (pink). Rest 8 min under foil.
  4. A sprig of fresh rosemary on top to serve.

Master tip: throw a rosemary sprig straight onto the embers in the last minute — the aromatic smoke does half the seasoning.

Fire pots

the best-kept secret

Fire isn't only for the grate: a clay pot or a cataplana on the embers cooks like no stove can — enveloping, steady heat with soul.

Tomato rice with pennyroyal in a clay pot over the embers
🍲 Clay potMedium embers35 minServes 4

Tomato rice with pennyroyal in a clay pot

Ingredients

  • 300 g carolino rice · 6 ripe tomatoes, grated (or 400 g rustic pulp)
  • 1 onion · 3 garlic cloves · 100 ml olive oil · 1 bay leaf
  • 900 ml hot water or stock · 1 bunch fresh pennyroyal · salt

On the fire

  1. Seasoned clay pot over medium embers, no flame — embers in a crown, not underneath the centre.
  2. Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent; add the grated tomato and bay, 8–10 min to deepen.
  3. Add the hot water (3 parts to 1 of rice), bring to the boil, season and add the rice.
  4. 15–16 min uncovered, kept soupy — stir little, the clay does the rest.
  5. Off the embers, torn pennyroyal on top and 2 min of rest. Serve it "weeping".

Master tip: the clay pot holds heat and keeps cooking after it leaves the embers — take the rice off soupier than you want it, and it reaches the table just right. And pennyroyal always goes in at the end: boiled, it loses its perfume.

Seafood cataplana opened over the embers
🍲 CataplanaMedium embers30 minServes 4

Seafood cataplana on the fire

Ingredients

  • 500 g clams · 500 g mussels · 8 prawns · 300 g monkfish
  • 1 onion · 1 pepper · 3 tomatoes · 4 garlic cloves · chilli
  • 150 ml white wine · olive oil · coriander

On the fire

  1. Layers in the cataplana: olive oil, onion half-moons, pepper, tomato, garlic, chilli.
  2. Seafood and fish on top, white wine, salt and pepper. Seal it well.
  3. Medium embers: 15–18 min WITHOUT opening — the cataplana is a gentle pressure cooker.
  4. Open at the table (the steam is the show), coriander in abundance.

Master tip: flip the cataplana halfway with gloves — 8 min per side — and the heat spreads the way the Algarve intended.

From the garden

vegetables catch fire too
Board of grilled vegetables with coarse salt
🌽 VegetarianDirect medium25 minServes 4

Vegetable board with fire salt

Ingredients

  • Corn · asparagus · peppers · courgette · aubergine · portobellos
  • Olive oil · coarse salt · lemon · oregano

On the fire

  1. Brush everything with olive oil before it goes on the grill.
  2. Order of entry: peppers (15–20), corn (12–15), portobellos (8–10), courgette and aubergine (6–8), asparagus (4–6 min).
  3. Peppers: charred skin + 10 min in a sealed bag = the skin slips off by itself.
  4. Build the board; coarse salt, lemon and oregano at the end.

Master tip: portobellos are the garden's "steak" — gills up at the end, with olive oil and garlic filling the cap.

Desserts

yes, the fire makes dessert
Caramelised grilled pineapple with cinnamon and ice cream
🍍 DessertDirect medium10 minServes 4

Caramelised pineapple with cinnamon and lime

Ingredients

  • 1 Azores pineapple in thick rings (2 cm)
  • Cinnamon · zest and juice of 1 lime · vanilla ice cream

On the fire

  1. Medium embers, clean grate: 3–4 min per side, untouched, until marked.
  2. The pineapple's own sugar caramelises — it needs nothing else.
  3. Cinnamon on top while still grilling; lime zest and juice off the heat.
  4. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream melting on top.

Master tip: hot + cold on the same plate is pastry's oldest (and most infallible) trick — the embers do the hot part to perfection.

Grilled peaches with honey and ricotta
🍑 DessertDirect medium10 minServes 4

Fire peaches with honey and requeijão

Ingredients

  • 4 ripe but firm peaches, halved and stoned
  • Honey · 200 g requeijão (ricotta-style cheese) · rosemary · pine nuts (optional)

On the fire

  1. Medium embers: halves cut side down, 4–5 min untouched.
  2. Flip and give 2 more minutes on the skin side.
  3. A spoonful of requeijão in each half, honey over, rosemary.
  4. Pine nuts toasted 1 min on the grill for crunch.

Master tip: stone fruit never goes on the grill unripe — ripe but firm is the sweet spot: caramel outside, jam inside.

Banana in its skin with melted dark chocolate
🍫 DessertGentle embers12 minServes 4

Fondant banana with dark chocolate

Ingredients

  • 4 bananas in their skins · 100 g dark chocolate (70%)
  • Chopped hazelnuts · salt flakes

On the fire

  1. Cut lengthways through the skin, without going all the way through.
  2. Tuck squares of chocolate into the cut.
  3. Gentle embers, indirect zone: 8–10 min until the skin is black and the banana fondant.
  4. Hazelnuts and a crystal of salt on top. Eaten with a spoon, from the skin.

Master tip: the black skin scares beginners — it's exactly what you want: it's the banana's natural cooking pot.

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Co-funded by: Centro 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Union — European Regional Development Fund