Host a Spanish Cheese Party

Sunday, 23 November 2008 00:00

Cheese and Epiphanies - Spain Rocks Me Once Again

After another delightful cheese discovery, I reached out to our local cheese experts at Formaggio Kitchen. Soon, we'll have a little gourmet gift giving help for your holidays. Stay tuned for that and please read about Ihsan Gurdal's French Title, Chevalier du Merite Agricole, which was recently bestowed.

As we were rummaging for dinner tonight, I decided our pre-Thanksgiving clean-out-the-fridge dinner du jour would be a pasta with a sort of cheese-enriched alfredo-style sauce studded with peas and shallots. I used low fat milk so it wasn't as overwhelmingly rich as a classic alfredo sauce is. Really ours was more of mornay type sauce.

Two of the cheeses I added included an aged gouda and another delightful surprise from Spain. Mahon is a rich nutty, creamy cheese which melts nicely.

Here is the description from Murray's website:

Aged for four to six months, the Coinga Mahon paste is firm with a cakey interior. The flavor is decidedly rustic: big, salty, nutty and meaty. With D.O. status, the raw cows' milk and aging are preserved by national quality standards. A hearty cheese ideal for colder weather.

Now for your viewing pleasure, the New York Times offers this lovely visual tour of some Spanish cheesemaking locations and activities.

If you're in Boston, please do go visit Las Ventas, which I wrote about, here. Undoubtedly, they will have cheeses to sample which you have yet to try. I'm a total cheese-head and I just learned about three Spanish cheeses in the past two weeks. Ahumado de Pria, Murcia al Vino, and now, Mahon.

Have a cheese party

Why not get a bunch of friends together and have a Spanish cheese tasting party? Each invitee can be responsible for bringing one cheese to share and a bit of info. They can present their selection to the group and you can provide accompaniments. Nuts, olives, fruit, crackers, breads. Wine or cider. How about beer which everyone is now buzzing about pairing with cheese?

Murray's selects seven categories and suggests any cheese tasting offers one from each of the seven: fresh, bloomy, washed-rind, semi-soft, firm, hard and blue.

If you'd like to get a cheese education this will soon become easier to find. Murray's Cheese is now partnering with Kroger supermarkets to open cheese shops within the grocery store chains. First one to open in Cincinnati on Tuesday.

Whatever your feelings about Whole Foods, the cheese section is one that I've found to be pretty well-stocked with selections of various cheeses at a range of prices. But then, they have to be good here in Boston where we have such a wealth of options.

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