Something New under the Sun

by Gustav

“Spain has captured the world’s attention.” Amanda Hesser, “The Way We Eat”, N.Y. Times 7/24/05 

Spain has emerged as a culinary force that has the big old foodie world on its ear. And we are delighted. These days, any good news will suffice, but it’s particularly heartening when a movement is afoot that is innovative, impassioned, and, well, delicious. When the Basques started the trend in the early eighties, mirroring somewhat the nouvelle cuisine of the French, they broke rules, but never lost their sense of a rich and difficult history. That approach has continued to this day. Think of the startling creations of Ferran Adrià, considered by most of the world’s culinary cognoscenti to be the food guru of our times. (He was mentioned in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the times). Senor Adrià and his acolytes continue to break down the boundaries of sweet and savory, hot and cold, liquid and solid, in his kitchen /laboratory in Barcelona…. and the world flocks to his restaurant to savor stuff like smoke- flavored foams and Parmesan ice cream sandwiches. Over the top, yes, and always playful (we love the idea of a gazpacho popsicle.) But never frippery. Jose Carlos Capel, Spain’s leading and most influential food critic, applauds Adrià and his adherents because their oeuvre is strongly rooted in Spanish tradition: they think outside of the box, but never lose sight of the box’s contents. “The best chef’s reference regional classics, following the concept of memoria gustativa or ‘taste memory.’ The only thing that surprises me are fantastic ingredients-- they are the last and ultimate truth.”

And man, oh Manzanilla, what ingredients! We cannot imagine, now, a world without Spanish olive oil, Sherry vinegar, smoked paprika, saffron, rice, chorizo, cheese…such world-class comestibles were not readily available here a mere decade ago. “Food is one of life’s greatest pleasures,” Senor Adrià intones, “And to be happy is easy, so easy.” We so heartily concur.

To wit: Spain is the world’s largest producer of olive oil, with olive groves extending over five million acres of the landscape. The oils of the eastern and southeastern coast of Spain are particular favorites around here. We love the line of L’Estornell organic oil and vinegar. (L’Estornell means “starling” and the company’s logo is a satisfied black bird with an olive in his beak, cause the starling can always select the very best fruit from any given olive tree…. we like to believe these stories.) I’ve relied on that oil for a decade now, and was happy to see them come out with an organic line. We also offer a relatively new EVOO from the Casa Pareja folks in the same region. It’s also organic, and really everything you want in an oil: subtle enough for cooking, but complex enough for dipping and drizzling: like all the great olive oils, it can be used both as a cooking medium and a condiment. Golden-green and voluptuous. It is unfiltered, though, so don’t overheat it when sautéing or the olive particles will burn. Try making Pa Amb Tomaquet this August, when the tomatoes are at their best. This is a traditional Catalan tapa, but also a perfect accompaniment to a light summer meal. A Spanish relative of the Italian bruschetta, it is grilled or toasted country bread rubbed with a peeled garlic clove while the bread is still warm (dig that burst of garlic that pervades the kitchen [talk about memoria gustative!] and watch as the garlic disappears in your fingers.) Then rub the toast with the cut side of a halved tomato, squeezing out the juices as you rub. Observe the pink hue the bread takes on as you rub, and think about the unsettling pinks in a Velasquez if you are up for it. Then drizzle indulgently with your olive oil and sprinkle with a little sea salt. You might be grilling something anyhow, or you can use the toaster oven if you don’t want to heat up the kitchen with the big oven. You can accompany the tapa with some of our Farga Aragon olives, those tiny coal black characters from the L’Estornell people. Each one is an explosion of olive on your tongue, and we have customers that wouldn’t ever consider any other olive. And the shiny black sets off that eerie pink in a uniquely Spanish way. Your Pa Amb Tomaquet (that yummy Spanish culinary lingo! Say, trippingly, “Gazpacho a la Andaluza…Escavida…Zarzuela”….) might be nice with a selection of Catalan cheeses. We stock most of them, and love them all.

Remember that Catalonia is where we find Barcelona, and that is was at one time and independent kingdom and a big naval power in the Mediterranean. Barcelona is a richly cosmopolitan city, with its Picasso museum, undulating Antoni Gaudi architecture, sophisticated nightlife, mesmerizing dialect…and amazing food. The aforementioned Ferran Adrià works out of his kitchen/lab here six months out of the year, perfecting his airs and foams and iconoclastic treats. A bit more terrestrial, but certainly no less seductive, would be a selection of cheeses from the area, cheeses unique to the east coast of Spain, looking out on the Balearic Sea. We might suggest Nevat, Mahón, Garrotxa, and perhaps a wedge of Murcia al Vino. Nevat, which means “snowy” in Catalan, has long been a favorite in our cheese case. It is a pristine white, mold-ripened specimen with a rounded, undulating structure. It gets its unique form because it is molded or cinched in a linen cloth (the fogasser, to be specific), that’s tied up around the curds and knotted on top. It appears to be a lovely, snow-covered mountain with valleys running randomly down the sides. One Josep Cuixart, who lovingly calls it “Sara’s Nevat” after his daughter, created it. We also carry another of Senor Cuixart’s outstanding creations, Pau Sant Matteu, named after his son. Both cheeses are made with the milk of Murcia and Grenadine goats that abide about thirty miles north of Barcelona, chomping as they do on seacoast vegetation. That’s a very good thing, as their milk has hints of wild rosemary and thyme. A young Nevat is very mild and somewhat flaky; as it ages it becomes creamier and tangier, as a good goats’ cheese will. Both are delightful, in their own right, and we cannot think of a more elegant dessert (or light summer supper when you’re alone) than a wedge of Nevat and a bunch of big green grapes, or those exquisite little Champagne grapes that Gayle will be stocking in August and September.

Garrotxa is my hands-down favorite European goats’ cheese. It’s a striking cheese, sitting in its thin cloak of velvety grey …that particular soft grey like the felt hats that my father wore in the 50’s. That grey is the penicillium glaucum mold peculiar to the cheese, which hales from the province of the same name, quite a ways up the Balearic coast from Barcelona. The unique grey rind enshrouds a quite remarkable cheese, firm textured and starkly white (you know that goat milk contains no carotene, right? So there are no yellow tones as with your cows’ milk varieties.) Its slight dryness somehow languishes on your tongue, releasing all sorts of herby, mushroomy nuance….with brief undertones of hazelnuts. I am not making this up. This treasure is produced by a group of folks who call themselves the ‘Neo Rurals’- former Barcelonan intelligentsia who got disenchanted with big city life and started a ‘back to the farm’ movement. They got a hold of the recipe and method for making the cheese , purportedly, from someone’s grandmamma, and found that the local goats produced complex, herby milk (there’s that Mediterranean diet again.) They also found that the rainy, very humid environment supported the growth of that bluish grey penicillium mold. So, we love the cheese not only because it is superb on the tongue, but cause we like its ‘back to the farm’ ethos. We are pleased that such cheese is readily available here, and we always stock the small-production variety, though others are satisfying as well. Like Nevat, Garrotxa should be served simply, and you can build a very happy meal around it with some crusty bread, maybe some chorizo (we have a source for an excellent, nitrate-free variety), and a few Catalan olives. Best sellers for years now, those brilliant apple green olives are marinated with celery, tiny piquillo peppers, and sexy Mediterranean herbs. Or Garrotxa can star as a dessert or cheese course, like Sara’s Nevat, with some sweet summer fruits or grapes. Remember what the Spanish say, “Uvas y queso saber de beso”- grapes and cheese taste like a kiss.”

The renowned Mahón comes from the nearby island of Minorca, the easternmost of the Balearic Islands. Minorca is predominantly agricultural in nature, and tiny- only 300 square miles. The production of Mahón dates back to Roman times, and is well documented back to the thirteenth century. The sea winds, high humidity, and rough rocky terrain don’t seem conducive to raising cows, but they do well here since the Gallic people brought them over, and the milk is salty and slightly acid, so the resulting cheese is flavorful and ages well. Mahón is second only to Manchego in popularity in Spain, and its applications are many. It is a raw milk cheese, sold at various stages of ripeness. It is tied up with a fogasser like Nevat, so it’s shaped like a rounded pillow, with a highly textured surface. As it ages, it is rubbed with olive oil, which is sometimes mixed with pimentón (Spanish paprika…check out our pimentón de la Vera, the smoked variety. It’s available either “dulce” or “piccante”, and either way, your devilled eggs will never be the same.) Those Mahóns rubbed with pimeton take on a glowing amber hue. A Mahón aged a year or more will rival Parmagiana in complexity and crumble, and it makes a nice first course when served the traditional way, sprinkled with olive oil a twist of black pepper and a little fresh tarragon. Or your Pa Amb Tomaquet. It also melts well, and can be served enrobing grilled or sautéed vegetables. One of our cutting edge customers, and otherwise soft-spoken and deferential David, was happy to find several of the comestibles he needed for a Spanish feast he was preparing recently, and he rewarded us with a big bowl of Mahón ice cream! It was a cool, suave, and typically Spanish treat: just a nuance of something a bit outré, a bit shocking, but all wonderful.

A fourth possibility (and that will be enough- more and your cheese plate will become cluttered and overwhelming) in your Eastern Spain cheese selection might be a nice chunk of Murcia al Vino. This is a suave, mellow cheese made, once more, from the milk of Murcian and Grenadine goats, caprines with elegant black or mahogany coats, who thrive in the hot climate of Murcia, further down the coast. The cheese is a brilliant white, richer on the tongue than many goats’ milk cheeses. As it ages, Murcia al Vino is given a couple of baths in doble pasta wine- a local vino tinto (red wine) that’s enriched with twice the amount of grape skins. The resulting cheese is really quite imposing, with its stark white interior and its deeply saturated violet skin. When I open a fresh wheel of Murcia, I am always delighted with the fruity, winy, grapey cloud that bursts into the room. As it comes to room temperature (as all these cheeses must) its flavors bloom eloquently. I first tasted this at a show in NYC where it had been out all day long - a grand example of that curious memoria gustativa. Don’t undermine the subtle nature of Murcia with much- grapes and figs would be nice, and a light fruity wine, if you partake.

So, if you were to combine these four favorites from Spain’s East coast, you’d find a striking example of the beauty and nuance of cheese from that region: the snowy, pristine undulations of subtle Nevat; the grey velvet sophistication of herby, mushroomy Garrotxa; the rich amber and gold crumble of saline Mahón and the ivory and violet refinement of fruity Murcia. Tuck some grape leaves around the cheeses, add a few summery fruits, and scatter some of Bob’s marcona almonds here and there- I do that a lot lately. You might be reminded of the astonishing work of Gaudi, or the haunting allusions of Picasso. Note the persistent creativity of the Catalans- artistically, gustatorially and otherwise. Remember as you savor some Garrotxa or Mahón, that “shock of the new” movements are often based in and reliant on strong history. Relish the bounty, too, as most of these cheeses were simply unavailable ten years ago. As Senor Adrià says, “… and to be happy is easy, so easy.”

We will, quite happily, offer the above cheeses at a ten percent reduction this August. Enjoy.