CHEESE, CONTINUED

 

Cheese board with Cabrales, a blue-veined cheese from Asturias. With bubbly cider, white wine and dry Sherry.

I wrote last week about an unusual cheese, Torta del Casar from Extremadura. I’ve got another cheese up my sleeve, so to speak, also purchased at the Feria Nacional de Queso in Trujillo. This one, Cabrales, comes from northern, green Spain, the Principado de Asturias.

Cabrales is the name of the region where the cheese is made, specified on the label as a protected denomination of origin. It can officially be made with cow’s milk or with a mixture of cow, goat and sheep milk. The cheese is matured in mountain caves where the Penicillium mold causes it to form blue-green veins throughout. Its aroma is intense, the texture is creamy, buttery. The flavor of Cabrales is salty, mildly acidic, somewhat piquant. 

Cabrales cheese can be served as an appetizer or dessert cheese accompanied by bread, crackers or toasts and fresh or dried fruits. It also lends itself well to combining with other ingredients for sauces or for embellishing variations on pizza or quiche. 

Creamy Cabrales sauce tops a burger with grilled mushrooms and sautéed piquillo peppers.

Cabrales sauce makes an interesting change for pasta with broccoli.

Cabrales whipped with yogurt for a tasty dip or dressing.

Slivers of Cabrales top a salad with pears, endive, and almonds. Serve the dressing separatley.

Burgers with Cabrales Blue Cheese Sauce

Burguer con Salsa Cabrales

Vegetarians can forgo the meat burger and pile the grilled mushrooms on buns with the piquillos and Cabrales sauce. 

Toasted buns

Grilled burgers

Oyster mushrooms grilled with garlic

Sautéd piquillo peppers and onions with red pepper flakes

Cabrales blue cheese sauce (recipe below)

Place mushrooms on buns and top with the sautéd piquillo peppers. Place a burger on the stack and spoon warm Cabrales sauce on the meat. (The burgers pictured are made with ground chicken thighs.)

Fettuccine with Broccoli and Cabrales Blue Cheese Sauce 

Pasta con Brócoli y Salsa Cabrales

Make this vegetarian by omitting the bacon.

Serves 4. 

8 ounces fettuccine noodles

Salt

2 cups broccoli florets

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup diced bacon

2 cloves sliced garlic

1 cup Cabrales blue cheese sauce (recipe follows)

Grating of fresh nutmeg

Freshly ground black pepper

Chopped chives

Cook the noodles in boiling salted water according to package directions. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta.

Blanch the broccoli florets in boiling water 1 minute. Drain and reserve.

Heat the oil in a large skillet with the bacon and garlic. When garlic starts to turn golden, add the broccoli and fry a few minutes. Stir in the Cabrales sauce. Season with nutmeg and pepper. Add salt to taste. Add the reserved pasta cooking water and heat. Add the cooked noodles and mix them well with the sauce. Serve garnished with chopped chives. 

Cabrales Blue Cheese Sauce 

Salsa de Queso Cabrales

Cabrales sauce is classic with entrecôte steak, but it’s also good with hamburgers, baked potato, or pasta. The cheese cooks with cream, making it quite rich and also tempering the greenish color of the mashed cheese. Season the sauce with any favorite herbs. Salt may not be needed at all. For a very thick sauce, let it cook slowly until reduced by half. 

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

6 ounces Cabrales blue cheese (about 1 cup)

½ cup cider, white wine or Sherry

Pinch of rosemary or thyme

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup cream

Heat the oil on medium and poach the shallots until softened, 5 minutes. Do not let them brown. Break up the cheese and mash it in the pan with the shallots. Add the cider and cook, stirring, until the cheese is melted. Add the rosemary, pepper, and cream and cook on medium until the sauce is reduced by almost half, 15 to 20 minutes. 

Serve the sauce hot, warm, or room temperature. Store it covered and chilled.

Salad with Pears, Endive, and Cabrales Blue Cheese

Ensalada de Pera con Endibia y Cabrales

Serves 4

2 ounces Cabrales cheese

2 ripe, firm pears

3-4 Belgian endives

1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ cup slivered red bell pepper

4 tablespoons toasted hazelnuts or almonds

Chopped chives to garnish

Cabrales Blue Cheese Dressing to accompany (recipe follows)

While cheese is still cold and firm, cut it into shards and let them come to room temperature.

Peel the pears, cut them in half, and remove cores. Slice them lengthwise. Chop or shred the endive leaves and divide them between 4 salad plates. Arrange the sliced pears on top. Scatter the red pepper and hazelnuts over the salads.

Whisk together the vinegar and oil and drizzle them over the salads. Divide the shards of Cabrales on top. Garnish with chives. Serve the salads accompanied by the Cabrales Blue Cheese dressing.

Cabrales Blue Cheese Dressing

Aliño con Cabrales

This non-cooked sauce makes a great dip with chips or vegetable dippers. Use it as a salad dressing as well. 

¼ cup chopped scallions

½ cup Greek yogurt

4 ounces Cabrales cheese

1 tablespoon dry Sherry

1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/8 pimentón picante de la Vera (smoked hot paprika) or cayenne

Combine all the ingredients in a mini-processor. Process until smooth. 

What to drink with Cabrales cheese? I asked Gerry Dawes, an expert on Spanish wines who knows his way around the cheeses of Asturia. 

"In Asturias, they drink cider, which goes very well with Cabrales.  White wines with good acidity to cut through the creaminess, richness and mold of Cabrales would be Albariño, but especially wines from Ribeiro.  Just like Sauternes with Roquefort, sweet wines are great.  Late-harvest Moscateles from Navarra, sweet Malvasias from the Canarias, Torres San Valentin semi-dulce from Penedès.   Also rosados from Navarra, which have good acidity and, of course, Cava, even the semi-dulce, though Brut Nature Cava will also be a good counterpoint.   The great sherries, from Manzanilla to Tio Pepe to the Palo Cortados and Olorosos.  I would also drink the excellent cream Sherries and Moscatel de Chipiona with Cabrales.” Thanks, Gerry, that’s a wide choice. And not a single red wine! 

(Photo:Gerry Dawes presenting Asturian cheeses at Alimentaria, Barcelona, 2010.) 

Gerry is the author of Sunset in a Glass, a collection of stories about life, food, wine and people in Spain.

Cabrales has its own cheese festival, the Certamen del Queso de Cabrales, in Arenas de Cabrales, Asturias, the last Sunday of August.

 More about Spanish cheeses:

Torta del Casar, Extremadura.

Málaga goat cheese.

Garrotxa cheese, Cataluña.

Manchego cheese.

How cheese is made.

GRILLING ON A PLANCHA

Vegetables grilling on a plancha.

Summer means grilling season. I know that. But rarely do I fire up a charcoal or wood-fired grill for only one or two persons. Instead, I do my grilling on a plancha in the comfort of the kitchen.

Plancha means a metal plate. It’s also the word for “iron,” the sort you iron your clothes with. Nowadays, irons are electric, but I once lived in an old mill house in the country with no electricity. We heated heavy planchas on a gas fire to iron our clothes. I had a pair of them—one to heat while the other was in use. 

But, back to grilling on a plancha. In a tapa bar, a plancha is the same sort of griddle you might find in a fast-food joint for grilling hamburgers. Instead of burgers, the grill meister is cooking tiny squid; whole, unpeeled prawns; slabs of swordfish steak; pork cutlets, and small steaks, basting them with aliño, a mixture of olive oil, garlic, parsley and lemon. I am amazed at the skill, knowing exactly when to turn each piece of food, when to remove it from the grill.

A plancha is a great tool for home cooking. I prefer a heavy, cast-iron grill pan that heats evenly. Especially useful is a reversible one—ridged grill pan on one side, great for steaks, and flat griddle on the other, perfect for fish and shellfish. The plancha sets directly over a gas burner.

Hake steak on a flat plancha.

How to grill on a plancha: Place the plancha over high heat until very hot, about 4 minutes. Then brush the grill with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt (same procedure whether using a flat or ridged grill pan). Place food to be grilled on the plancha. Keep the heat on high to get a good sear on the food. Don’t move it around. Then turn it.

Timing is the tricky bit, just as it is with grilling on charcoal. It takes some practice to know when to turn the food, when to take it off the grill.

Chicken breasts on a ridged grill pan.

If you don’t have a plancha, substitute a large cast iron skillet. An extractor fan helps to draw out the smoke from grilling, but you might set off the smoke alarm in any case. By the way, any of the foods cooked on a plancha can also be cooked a la parilla, on a charcoal or wood-fired grill.

What I most like about plancha cooking is that it doesn’t need a whole lot of pre-planning—no marinades, rubs, brines required. But, plancha-grilled foods really do need a sensational sauce. Romesco sauce with grilled shrimp. Alioli (garlic-olive oil mayonnaise) with griddled lamb chops or rabbit. Piquillo pepper sauce with fish. Here’s a bunch more.

Aliño
Sauce for Grilled Foods

This simple sauce is spooned over grilled foods immediately before serving. Use it with griddled baby cuttlefish, grilled chicken breast or any fish fillet. The sauce can also be used as a marinade or basting sauce. Keep it handy when you´re grilling meat, poultry and fish.

Aliño in the making.

2 cloves chopped garlic
½ cup chopped parsley
3 tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir to mix. Use at room temperature. Sauce may be kept, covered and refrigerated, for up to one week.

Grilled hake and vegetables, drizzled with aliño.

Mojo Verde
Green Chile Sauce with Cilantro

This spicy Canary Islands sauce is sensational with grilled fish, lamb, or vegetables.

Cilantro, garlic, chiles for mojo verde.

4 cloves garlic
1 green chile, such as jalapeño (or to taste)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
½ cup chopped parsley
½ cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons wine vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons water
   
Place all ingredients in a blender container and blend until smooth. Sauce keeps, covered and refrigerated, one week.

Squid and sliced potatoes are grilled on a plancha, served with spicy mojo verde. The squid was cut open lengthwise, edges snipped to prevent their curling and grilled whole, then cut in pieces to serve. The potatoes were partially cooked whole, then sliced and brushed with olive oil before placing on the grill pan.

Mojo Picón
Red Chile Sauce

Serve this as a dipping sauce for chips, with grilled chicken or meat.

Piquant mojo picón.

3 tablespoons pimentón (paprika), not smoked
1 fresh red chile, seeded and chopped, or cayenne to taste
4 cloves garlic
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons wine vinegar
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons water

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. If desired, thin with a little water. Sauce keeps one week, refrigerated.

Grilled chicken and butternut squash with mojo picón.

Sliced chicken on grilled bread with spicy red chile sauce.

Salsa Cabrales
Cabrales Blue Cheese Sauce

Cabrales is a distinctive blue cheese from Asturias—sharp, but remarkably creamy in consistency. It makes a delightful dressing or dip when thinned with wine or, in the Asturian style, dry cider. It's a classic served with grilled entrecote steaks. But, you know what? I didn't really like the blue cheese sauce with the steak. It was delicious, however, with the potatoes and as a dip with endive leaves.

Makes 2/3 cup

5 ounces Cabrales or other blue cheese
2 tablespoons chopped onions
1/3 cup white wine, cider or cava (sparkling wine)
Pinch of cumin seed

Place the cheese in a blender with onions, wine and cumin seed. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately or keep, covered and refrigerated, up to 3 days.

Ridged grill pan gives a good sear to steak, sliced potatoes.