AI-generated image
Bifana
Bifana: Lisbon garlic and wine marinated pork steak in a soft roll
Lisbon's standing-room snack bars, from the Baixa to the stalls outside football grounds, sell bifanas all day: thin pork steaks simmered in a garlicky, bay-scented sauce and pushed into a soft papo-seco roll with a smear of mustard. It's a pork sandwich, and the pork is traditionally marinated in white wine; for an alcohol-free version use chicken stock with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar. It makes a quick lunch or a late snack. Chef's tip: dip the cut side of the roll into the pan juices before filling it; that's how the bars make them so juicy.
- Total time
- 25 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
For the marinade
To cook and serve
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (2)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/4 doneStep 1: Mix 5 cloves garlic, ¾ cup dry white wine, 1 tsp sweet paprika, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp black pepper in a dish. Add 1 ⅛ lb thin boneless pork loin steaks, turn to coat, cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, ideally 4 hours. Wash hands and board after handling raw pork.
30 minStep 2: Heat 2 tbsp lard or olive oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Lift the steaks out of the marinade (keep it), and fry them for 1–2 minutes per side until lightly browned.
4 minStep 3: Pour in the marinade, lower the heat and simmer for 6–8 minutes, turning the steaks, until the sauce reduces and the pork reaches 160°F (160 °F) with no pink juices. A common mistake is frying the thin steaks hard and dry; the gentle simmer at the end keeps them tender.
8 minStep 4: Split 4 soft white bread rolls (papo-seco) and dip the cut sides into the pan juices. Fill each with a steak, spoon over a little more sauce and add 4 tsp yellow mustard or 1 tsp piri-piri sauce if you like. Eat hot.
2 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 430 kcal
- Protein
- 34 g
- Carbs
- 38 g
- Fat
- 15 g
- Fibre
- 2 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does bifana take?
- About 25 minutes in total: 10 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- What can I use instead of garlic?
- ½ tsp garlic paste or ⅛ tsp garlic powder per clove.
- What can I use instead of dry white wine?
- Stock with 1 tsp white wine vinegar per 120ml (½ cup).
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Sopa da pedra
Almeirim, a market town in the Ribatejo, is the capital of this soup; its restaurants serve it every day, and each bowl arrives with a clean stone at the bottom, after the folk tale of a friar who 'made soup from a stone' by talking villagers into giving him everything else. This is a pork soup: red kidney beans simmer with chouriço, morcela blood sausage and a piece of pork belly, then potatoes, carrots and coriander finish it into a thick, hearty bowl. Chef's tip: cook the sausages whole and slice them at the end, so they stay juicy and don't turn the broth greasy.
Zapiekanka
Zapiekanka is Polish street food born in the 1970s and perfected at the hatch windows around Plac Nowy in Kraków's Kazimierz district, where students and night owls queue for one at midnight. Half a long baguette is topped with mushrooms fried with onion, covered in grated cheese and baked until crisp at the edges and bubbling, then finished with a zigzag of ketchup and chives. The classic version has no meat at all. Use a hard cheese made with vegetarian rennet (many supermarket mild Cheddars and Goudas are). Chef's tip: fry the mushrooms until completely dry before they go on the bread; wet mushrooms make the baguette soggy instead of crisp.
Polish
Mazorca desgranada
Food trucks and street corners in Bogotá and Medellín sell mazorca desgranada in plastic tubs, late into the evening: sweet corn kernels cut off the cob, fried in butter and layered with shredded chicken, melted cheese, crunchy potato sticks, pineapple sauce and salsa rosada. Some stands add bacon, beef or quail eggs; this version keeps to chicken. It is sweet, salty and gooey, and a hit with teenagers. Using tinned corn without draining it well is a common error: the water dilutes the sauces and the tub gets soggy. Chef's tip: fry the corn until a few kernels brown and pop; that caramelised edge stands up to all the sweet sauces. For a vegetarian tub, skip the chicken and use a cheese made with microbial rennet.
Colombian