Cheeses of Spain & Portugal

[vserna]

At Las Rejas in Las Pedroñeras, you'll find a half-dozen cutting-edge dishes incorporating manchego cheese under various guises.

Allan: Cabrales, picón de Tresviso and Valdeón cheeses are practically identical blue cheeses (with the differences coming from each producer's style, not from geographic provenance), made in different Picos de Europa (a mountain range) villages respectively located in Asturias, Cantabria and León. You shouldn't be surprised that no one has mentioned Valdeón here. This thread is on pure cow's milk cheeses. Picos de Europa blue cheeses never are made with cow's milk only.

[culinary bear]

In the UK, the cheese you'd know as Valdeon is sold as Picos de Europa; I've seen it in a few cheese shops throughout the country, and it's always referred to as Picos de Europa. Perhaps there's not the same demand for cabrales or pdT.

I appreciate that PdE blues are made with a mix of milks; I thought I made that clear in my original post... since others had mentioned mixed-milk cheeses, I didn't think it unreasonable to mention them myself.

Edited March 26, 2005 by culinary bear (log)

[butterfly]

Thanks for the info on Poncelet--I was going to try it back when it opened and somehow it fell off my radar. They also have their own website, which has a lot of information on Spanish and European cheeses:

http://www.poncelet.es/

[Hector]

are there any spanish recipes that incorporate cheese in the dish..other than a sprinkling on top, that is...

←

I don't think it's so common that the Spanish cook with cheese, not as much as

French or Italians..

For one: there is steak with cabrales. A real classic. And the ussual pintxo/tapas style goat cheese with something else (like anchovies) on a stick, and then theres the tortilla with cheese, the croquets.. etcetra.. loads of ways to serve cheese as a tapa.

[marlena spieler]

I adore the way the Spanish combine sheep, goat and cows milks into one cheese; i can taste the qualities of each animals milk in every bite.

and isn't it amazing how such a thing as milk, pure and simple, becomes the huge variety of cheeses when simply cultured and ripened.

i'm in awe of the cheesemakers.

and love the taste of terroir, the flavour of the place, when i taste a cheese.

bah humbug to the makers who aim for industrialization and consistency. cheese is alive!

oh yes, and a nice slab of membrillo--quince paste-- next to any spanish cheese, divine!

[culinary bear]

My local organic fruit and veg shop has quinces in at the moment. I'm sorely tempted.

[vserna]

Valedón cheese, with a smaller production than either Cabrales or Picón de Bejes-Tresviso, has not yet received the protection of an official appellation (denominación de origen). So such appellations as 'Picos de Europa' are just commercial ploys with no regulatory backing. It's very obvious, since the Picos de Europa are the same mountain range where Cabrales and Picón de Bejes-Tresviso are produced (plus such other cheeses as quesucos de Liébana), that the final appellation, when it's awarded, will be something else - probably Valdeón or Posada de Valdeón.

[scordelia]

>  delicious Brie-like products made by Tros de Sort

Do you happen to know where  I can find this cheese in Madrid?

←

I would try the Mercado San Miguel near the Plaza Mayor. It's a big market full of little specialty stalls. You can also get duck prosciutto, every imaginable ham and this really great garlic blood sausage!

Sophie

[scordelia]

are there any spanish recipes that incorporate cheese in the dish..other than a sprinkling on top, that is...

←

Yes, veal in Cabrales sauce! Very yummy! Also Oxtail and manchego paella. And there are some baked salt cod recipes that have cheese sauces.

Sophie

[Jason Perlow]

Cabrales is great but Valdeon is better, if you can find it.

[pedro]

Also Oxtail and manchego paella.

Hi, would you please explain some details about the dishes you mention? I've never heard of them.

[vserna]

After a couple of so-called 'Spanish' meals in Washington DC during my current US tour, I encountered some dishes that resemble those strange concoctions, Pedro! :-)

[docsconz]

Cabrales is great but Valdeon is better, if you can find it.

←

Artisanal.com is carrying a nice valdeon at the moment.

[Jason Perlow]

Cabrales is great but Valdeon is better, if you can find it.

←

Artisanal.com is carrying a nice valdeon at the moment.

←

Yes, I've had their Valdeon, it is excellent.

[scordelia]

Also Oxtail and manchego paella.

Hi, would you please explain some details about the dishes you mention? I've never heard of them.

←

Would be delighted! Actually, I had all of these dishes in Madrid.

The veal in Cabrales sauce was enjoyed at Plateras Comodores (I am sure it is misspelled) on Plaza Santa Ana (would highly recommend). It was sauteed veal that had been pounded. The sauce was cream and white wine based with the Cabrales melted into it.

The oxtail and manchego paella I had at Champagneria Gala at Calle de Moratin 22 which is near the Prado. It is an all paella place, all prix fixe and full of Madrilenos. It is very hard to get a table at lunch without reservations (a 3 course lunch with wine for 10 euros probably has something to do with it and the fact that the food is very good and the room very charming). Anyway, the paella was more like a risotto than a traditional paella. The tails had been braised and were lovely and tender. There were plenty of onions and garlic and saffron, and it had obviously been finished off with grated manchego because it had that cheesy creamy quality of a good risotto.

The salt cod dish I had at a Basque place in Madrid that I cannot remember the name of. I was referred there by the father of a girl who worked at the hotel we stayed at. Eva's father is a manager for the restaurant group that owns La Fonda and Romesco, and when we told Eva we wanted Basque food, she called her father and he made reservations at a friend's place. The salt cod was delish! It was hot and baked with tomatos and onions and had melted cheese on top. It was a starter that you scooped up with garlicky crostini.

I hope this helps!

Edited April 10, 2005 by scordelia (log)

[FaustianBargain]

The oxtail and manchego paella[...]Anyway, the paella was more like a risotto than a traditional paella. The tails had been braised and were lovely and tender. There were plenty of onions and garlic and saffron, and it had obviously been finished off with grated manchego because it had that cheesy creamy quality of a good risotto.

The salt cod dish [..]It was hot and baked with tomatos and onions and had melted cheese on top. It was a starter that you scooped up with garlicky crostini

I think I have tried the oxtail paella dish, but only without the paella. and no cheese.

Did the bacalao dish have any potatoes in it?

I can see how spanish cheese can be incorporated into the dish. It seems to be a complement to the basic dishes with additional pizzazz. Although, I am wondering if it is like the French AOC cheeses being used in French provincial dishes..matching regional cheese to regional provincial dish?

Edited April 10, 2005 by FaustianBargain (log)

[scordelia]

Did the bacalao dish have any potatoes in it?

←

No, it did not. It was kind of a gooey and saucey thing that had chunks of bacalao in a thick tomato sauce, onions and then cheese on top. As I said, you scooped it up with garlic crostini.

[Bux]

Gala seems to be known as Arrocería Gala, Champagnería Gala or just plain Gala. The menu lists Paellas y Fideuas, Risottos, Arroces caldosos y melosos, Arroces de cuchara, Paella loca, Arroz a banda and a few other dishes. They seem to take more than a few liberties with "paella," although I don't see oxtail. It's likely the dish was Con rabo de toro, listed as a risotto. It's listed in Michelin, though not in Campsa. From what I gather it caters to a young crowd and is seen as a "fun" place. It doesn't seem to specialize in typical Spanish dishes. It's probably misleading to assume that a dish had in one specific restaurant is necessarily typical or representative. In any event, "creativity" abounds these days in Spain. For better or worse, or perhaps for better and worse, Madrid is not the conservative city gastronomically it used to be.

[vserna]

Well, it's healthy to have people with different tastes on the board. To me, FWIW, Platerías is one of Madrid's most awful restaurants, with a heavy sauce seemingly in every dish, and Champagnería Gala (not to be confused with Gala restaurant on calle Espronceda) is a so-what rice place which does not rank among Madrid's top 20 paella places. And indeed the bull's tail dish (not oxtail, at least according to the menu) is a risotto, not a paella, and has no point in common with Spanish cuisine. Risotto and paella have only rice in common - technically and conceptually, they are as different as pot roast and roast beef.

Edited April 11, 2005 by vserna (log)

[Saborosa]

Coming back (or moving on) to cheese generally, anyone have any info on Muntanyola cheese? From the little I can find on it it seems to be a goat or ewe's milk cheese made in or around Muntanyola, a poble just outside Vic in Catalunya.

Can anyone add anything? Tried it?

Thanks

[Pelayin]

Yes, there's a Asturian dish of paneed and fried veal cutlets with cabrales sauce, amongst others.

Asturian dish? I do not think so. Nothing wrong with adding cabrales sauce (most cabrales sauces do not use Cabrales cheese but a cheaper blue cheese), but it is not a traditional dish. I think it is a copy of a french dish with boeuf et roquefort.

Cabrales is a blue cheese with more mould than paste - it's the most pungent cheese I've ever tasted, including all the washed rind monsters of lore.

I know I will be a bit pretentious, but Asturias is for cheese as the Loire is for wines. Behind a denomination you will find very different situations. For example, some cheeses such as Queso de La Peral and Queso de Varé are manufactured from a single producer. Sometimes it is an industrial producer, sometimes it is an artisanal producer.

However, under the most famous names such as Cabrales, there is quite a variety. Obviously, not hundreds and producers (Asturias is not so big, and the place where Cabrales is done is really, really tiny). That is why I compared it to the Loire and not to Burgundy ;-).

What is the background to this disgresion? that you have to pay attention to the producer. Under the name Cabrales you will find awful examples of blue cheese, very dark, with way too much mould and too pungent. And you will find excellent cheeses which are not so mouldy, have a better balance between paste and mould and, unfortunately, are priced equally than the bad examples.

Unfortunately (again), the name of the producer is so tiny in the label that if you are buying portions of the cheese in 8 out of 10 purchases you will not know who produced the cheese you are buying. Bada-Herrero (or Herrero-Bada since they use those names alternatively) or Trespalacios are the best producers that I have tasted (I have not tasted ALL the producers, but I buy it directly at a shop in Arenas de Cabrales and I do not like to play risks). Is there any chance that you get a taste of this producers? they make so tiny quantities that it is unlikely. And I hope you do not in the future, because if you get them, they will be unavailable to me.

Now that I think about it, there is a business opportunity here. Selling the best Cabrales to eGullet friends. Something that I has been doing for friends all over Spain for more than a year. And they keep buying ;-)

However, I must say that Cabrales is a great cheese, but it is not the masterclass cheese from Asturias. Gamonedo de la Montaña is, IMHO. But if good Cabrales is difficult to find, Gamonedo de la Montaña is almost impossible.

Best,

Pelayín.

[scordelia]

Yes, there's a Asturian dish of paneed and fried veal cutlets with cabrales sauce, amongst others.

Asturian dish? I do not think so. Nothing wrong with adding cabrales sauce (most cabrales sauces do not use Cabrales cheese but a cheaper blue cheese), but it is not a traditional dish. I think it is a copy of a french dish with boeuf et roquefort.

←

According to Culinaria's encyclopedic volume on Spanish cooking, veal with Cabrales sauce is a typical and classic Asturian dish.

[vserna]

Yes, they serve it at typical and classic Asturian restaurants. Like Platerías in Madrid.

[scordelia]

Yes, they serve it at typical and classic Asturian restaurants. Like Platerías in Madrid.

←

No need to be sarcarstic. We all know that you do not like Platerias. If it is not an Asturian dish, then find a reference for us, but I have a feeling that it is.

Austurias seems to be known for two things--apples and dairy products, like Normandy. Comparing Austurias to Normandy would have been more apt than comparing it to Loire as a previous poster did. Practically every recipe I have that claims to be Austurian contains either apples, cider, cream or cheese or combinations thereof (I have one for baked hake that contains all of the above). One finds a preponderence of apples, cider, cream and cheese in Norman cooking as well. Now, the Austurians could just be copying the Normans or visa versa, or both regions in two different countries could have been working with the similar ingredients at hand and developed some similar dishes.

So is veal with Cabrales sauce Spanish or not? According to my cookbooks it is, but I am very interested to see if there is a source that says it is not.

This all started because FB asked if there were some authentic Spanish dishes with cheese as a main component, and two of us suggested veal with Cabrales sauce. So let's settle the question so FB can embark on his quest for Spanish cheese and cheese dishes.

[butterfly]

I don't think there's much chance that Asturias is copying Normandy... this is one of the most isolated and steadfastly traditional regions in Spain that we are talking about.

I have seen potatoes and steak (usually cut into little bits) with cabrales sprinkled over it in Asturias--mainly as bar food--but I don't think this would necessarily qualify it as a "traditional" dish.

When I think of traditional Asturian dishes, I think of the dishes that survived in my husband's family after they immigrated to the US. The stews, bean dishes, chorizo/morcilla, clams, and simply prepared fish and sea creatures. None of these contain dairy products--though some, like chorizo a la sidra and merluza a la sidra make use of apple cider.

One question for the experts... How and when did saffron end up in fabes con almejas? It's obviously an exotic ingredient... Incidentally, I recently had a good rendition at La Copita Asturiana in La Latina (only open for weekday lunches--good idea to reserve in advance).

Edited April 21, 2005 by butterfly (log)