Pica-pau, 'woodpecker', is a Portuguese tasca bar snack of pork cubes quickly stir-fried with garlic, butter and brandy, eaten with toothpicks. The name refers to the pecking motion of eating the cubes one by one. A staple of the evening bar, eaten with bread and a drink.
Tender, garlicky pork cubes in a glossy butter-and-brandy sauce, picked up with toothpicks and eaten with bread that soaks up the sauce. Deeply savoury, warm with garlic, a drink in one hand and a toothpick in the other.
The dish is a fast, high-heat stir-fry. Pork is cut into small cubes (small enough to eat in one bite on a toothpick). Garlic, plenty of it, is fried in butter and a little olive oil, the pork added and seared quickly over high heat, then a splash of brandy or white wine 收汁s the pan, a bay leaf and black pepper season, and the whole is finished with a knob of butter for gloss. The sauce is loose, not thickened, meant to be soaked up by bread. The pork is cooked fast and hot so it stays tender, not slow-braised which would make it dry. Eaten immediately with toothpicks.
Variations
Some add pickles or olives to the pan. A version with mushrooms is common. Mustard is sometimes stirred into the sauce.
On the Palate
Where Pica-pau sits in the Portuguese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 15 min
- 14 min
Cut 500g pork tenderloin into 2cm cubes; season with salt and pepper.
- 24 min
Melt 50g butter with 2 tbsp olive oil in a wide pan; add 8 crushed garlic cloves and fry 1 minute.
- 35 min
Add the pork cubes and sear over the highest heat for 3 minutes until browned all over.
Watch outSear the pork cubes over the highest heat just three minutes to brown all over — cook them slow or long and they toughen and dry; fast and hot keeps them tender.
- 44 min
Splash in 50ml brandy and let it boil; add a bay leaf and cook 2 minutes.
Watch outSplash in the brandy and let it boil off — this lifts the fond into a loose sauce; if it doesn't bubble hard the alcohol edge stays raw.
- 54 min
Off the heat, stir in 30g cold butter to gloss the sauce; season.
- 63 min
Tip onto a plate with toothpicks and crusty bread; eat immediately.
