Did you think that all that Nuns did was pray?

Did you think that all that Nuns did was pray?

The Abbess D. Isabel Nascimento was concerned.

As the Abbess of the prestigious Real Mosteiro de Santa Clara de Vila do Conde she had much to do, much to worry about.  

Looking over the broad expanse of the kitchen gardens which were magnificent, she cast her mind back to when she had joined the Convent at seventeen.

She smiled at the memory, how sad she had been, she had never wanted to join the Cloister. Who would have wanted to relinquish freedom for these walls?

Fate she decided had not dealt her a good hand; she was plain, very intelligent but plain, as her shrewd Father put it to her,

 ‘Isabel you are intelligent but men like to marry meek and beautiful girls’.

So Convent it was for her Isabel, her Father had paid a large dowry and as he put it with a wry laugh,

‘Even to marry Jesus you need a Dowry. One would have thought that after all His preaching; Jesus would not mind a poor bride!’

Of course she had never wanted to be a Bride of Christ; she had wanted a man of flesh, blood coursing through his veins, a man who would keep her warm during those long winter nights.

But she was a woman of principles; she would not neglect her duties, she would make her life a success. And she had done just that, through sheer determination and astuteness she was now the Abbess of the Real Mosteiro de Santa Clara.

She sometimes she lacked the patience needed to console young girls who joined the Convent sometimes forced by their parents, sometimes a jilted young girl.  

Now that young girl Teresa pampered and spoiled by her doting old father. The Abbess knew Teresa had lost her mother and was very lonely and sad, now she imagined herself in love with that lout Simão.

The Abbess loathed Teresa when she wept, when she yearned for ‘her’ Simão.

However, her astute mind never forgot that Teresa was rich, very rich indeed, the only pampered daughter of an old father. It was for this reason alone that the Abbess tolerated her weeping.

Look at that other girl, thought the Abbess, weeding the garden. The Abbess admired this girl; she had pluck, Joanna the daughter of the King of Portugal. The Abbess could never figure out Joanna. She never displayed her inner turmoil.

Was she here of her own free will as the King had explained to the Abbess?

Or was it that Joana like the Abbess herself, had failed to find a husband?

Whatever the reason, Joanna never let her feelings show; she was calm, very hard working and had wonderful sense of humor too.

But the Abbess was not thinking of the girls, their virtues or their failings. She was worried about the terrible waste in the kitchen.

The Abbess loved good food, loved celebrating all feasts, but wasting anything was not tolerated. The other Nuns called her the ‘Miser’, ‘the Plebeian’.   

The Aristocratic Nuns were aware that the Abbess was a Plebeian; that she came from the Trader Class, that she had brought a fabulous dowry.  But, they also knew her to be a very astute business person, just like her Trader Papa. 

 ‘Is she not the person who takes our dowries and lends it at high rates of interest?’ the Aristocrats mumbled

‘And that allows us to have a good life,’ retorted the other Nuns.  

Everyone knew that the convent produced hundreds of eggs; hundreds of egg whites were sold to clarify wines, egg whites were also used for preparing the hosts used in the Holy Mass, besides the nun’s habits were starched with egg whites. Oh yes, egg whites were an extremely lucrative business for the Abbey.

But what worried the Abbess dreadfully, were the hundreds of egg yolks going waste. The pigs were fed these egg yolks, but they ate a lot of kitchen scraps and did not need such rich food.

 ‘How do I solve this terrible waste?’ ‘Oh how do I tackle this immense problem worried the Abbess... ‘

The Abbess was a woman of action.

‘A meeting…’ ‘Ideas, fresh ideas not musty well worn out practices’.

‘What can be done with these hundreds of yolks?’

‘Sister Ursula, do not… please do not tell me we are feeding the pigs with them.’

The discussion went back and forth.

Suddenly, when everyone least expected it, Teresa said in a quavering voice.

‘Why don’t we cook these yolks with sugar?’

The Abbess was thunderstruck, here was Teresa actually thinking of something else besides that oaf Simão.

‘Tell us more, Teresa, tell us more’ she urged.

It turned out that the one thing Teresa actually liked was cooking.

It was then decided to make a ‘Doçe-de-ovos’, a simple dessert, all you did was cook the yolks in sugar. The nuns were not ignorant about sweets and desserts, but they had always used honey as a sweetener. Since the XV Century however, sugar was abundant in Portugal, its uses versatile. Convents were rich and could afford large quantities of sugar.

What excitement pervaded the Abbey, the kitchen smelled delicious, what discussions, so much laughter.  But nothing was as simple as they had thought; sugar although adaptable was tricky, it had its drawbacks. It charred and blackened at the slightest provocation.

A long time later, three basic recipes were formulated, the ‘core’ of the ‘doçaria conventual .’ Ovos-moles, fios de ovos and capas de ovos.

For a more refined and sophisticated taste large quantities of almonds were added, these were the ‘Queijinhos de amêndoa’ moulded into any shape you desired.

With this as a base or the ‘core’, new recipes were devised with great success. These new culinary ideas were a breath of fresh air that blew through all the Convents and Abbeys in Portugal.

In Goa our very Bebimca, the addition of coconut juice to the ‘core’ produced an entirely new flavour.