Xerém — Portugal

Xerém, also spelled xarém, is a cornmeal porridge reported from Portugal, made by cooking coarse yellow cornmeal slowly in salted water with olive oil until it thickens into a soft, spoonable mass, similar in method to Italian polenta. It is finished with ingredients that change according to where it is made. The dish is reported as typical of Portugal and has also traveled with Portuguese settlement to Brazil and Cape Verde, where local versions are made in turn. Within Portugal it is particularly associated with the Algarve coast, where it is often cooked with clams, while inland versions lean instead on pork, bacon or chouriço. To prepare it, cornmeal is sprinkled gradually into boiling salted water with a little olive oil, stirred constantly to keep it from forming lumps, then cooked slowly over low heat until it thickens. Garlic and onion are softened in olive oil in a separate pan, chouriço or bacon is added and browned, and most of this mixture is stirred into the porridge, which continues cooking gently until it pulls cleanly away from the sides of the pot. What distinguishes one xerém from another is exactly this finishing ingredient: clams and other shellfish along the Algarve coast, pork products further inland, and other additions elsewhere the dish has traveled to. The core method, a slow-cooked cornmeal base brought together with olive oil, stays the same across these versions, while the choice of what is stirred in reflects the ingredients available in each place.