One of the gifts I bought for myself this Christmas is a Mondegueiro & Tomato Jam gift set from Aritsanal Premium Cheese. This set was listed as an Artisanal Staff Pick under Gifts and Accessories. Here is the description from the Artisanal Cheese web site:
"Mondegueiro is a deliciously herbaceous raw sheep's milk cheese from north-central Portugal. Traditionally, the soft, gooey and mild paste is scooped out of its leathery clothbound rind with pieces of hearty peasant bread. As the wheels age, their texture becomes harder and chewier. Mondegueiro is a smaller version of the Serra da Estrella, made by the same cheesemaker from the same herd of sheep. Mondegueiro makes a beautiful presentation for just a couple of people or as a part of a cheese selection for a larger group. Pair this cheese with spicier reds like Pinot Noir, Tempranillo, and Syrah. Each wheel weighs approximately one pound.
Combinations of cheeses and accompaniments can provide palate-pleasing variations in flavor and bring textural and visual contrast to your cheese board. Mondegueiro is a one-pound wheel of deliciously herbaceous sheep's milk cheese from Portugal. Its soft, tangy paste is offset by the subtle flavor of Portuguese Tomato Jam, in a 3.5-ounce jar."
Artisanal Premium Cheese ships all of it's cheese products overnight in a box with the cheese wrapped in a cold wrapper. When I unpacked the cheese the first thing I noticed was the soft rind, which was pale yellow in color and wrapped in a piece of white cloth. The tomato jam was shipped separately in a cute little jar with a white cloth tied over the lid. I wasn't ready to try it yet so I put it in the refrigerator for later.
I took the mondegueiro out of the refrigerator 2 hours before tasting it, to let it get to room temperature. When I smelled it I got a pungent farm smell, like hay and herbs, but it also smelled a bit like tobacco ash which took me by surprise. Then I cut through the top rind to see what the inside looked like and noticed that the cheese was aged beyond the 'scoopable' stage and was more firm, chewy, and not quite spreadable. For my first taste I put a healthy portion of the cheese on a piece of sourdough bread. It had a strong farm taste of sweet grass and herbs and was slightly bitter with a mild saltiness. I could taste the tobacco ash that I smelled in the cheese but it wasn't a bad taste, just unusual. I also remember thinking it was a bit like cottage cheese but with other flavors mixed with it.
Then I tasted the tomato jam by itself to get a sense of it's flavor before combining it with the cheese. The jam was smooth with a deep red/maroon color. It smelled like sweet fresh tomatoes. I was surprised by how sweet it was when I tasted it. It was sugary with a lot of cinnamon and I could only taste the tomato a little bit in the background. I liked it but it was much different from my expectations, although it is called 'jam' so perhaps my expectations were wrong. Regardless, I was eager to taste the mondegeiro with the tomato jam to see if the experts at Artisanal Cheese really know what they are talking about. Apparently, they do!
The sweetness of the jam offset the bitterness and ash flavor of the cheese and let the fresh herbs and sheep's milk flavors shine through. I took another bite of the cheese and jam with a bit of prosciutto on a cracker and discovered an even better flavor combination. The prosciutto and cracker gave it a saltiness that really combined the flavors into a perfect match.
I drank a nice syrah with my treat that paired quite well. When I drank the wine after having a bite of the cheese, it was more smokey and I could taste the creamy sheep's milk in my mouth.
I would guess that some less adventurous people may not enjoy this mondegeiro cheese, but I had fun combining it with different flavors and found a very enjoyable treat.
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