[Sca-cooks] Spanish Cheese?

[Sue Clemenger]

Maire sez:
Can't help ya on the cheeses (I'm completely ignorant about the many
finer points of cheese, among *many* other things!),
But I'z wunderin'....Whatcha gonna use for the "gourds?"
I'm in the middle of redacting recipes for an Andalusian feast in
October (unusual for me, too...I just generally use someone else's
recipes--redacting isn't exactly my forte <g>).  One of the dishes will
be chicken cooked with sour grape juice, gourd, and either several
spices or sour apples (depends on which recipe I go with).  I'm at a
complete loss as to which of our readily-available squishes will be the
best substitute for edible gourds, which we *can't* get here.
I tried my first recipe (chicken, apples, verjuice, a little sugar, and
the "gourd) last week, using butternut squash for the gourd--it was
available, gourd-shaped <g>, and had a pretty tough skin.  Came out
pretty tasty, and working with verjuice is fun!, but I have *no klew* as
to how close the butternut would come in taste, texture, color, etc. to
what someone in Andalusia would have been using....
I did figure that zucchini probably wouldn't work--I'd expect they'd
fall apart pretty fast, and the recipes do specify cooking the chicken
_with_ the gourd.
--Maire

Anahita scripsit:
>
> I'm working out some recipes. Shock of shocks, i'm actually gonna
> test the recipes before i cook the feast. I usually don't bother - i
> just write out a redaction and cook the dish on the spot untested. So
> far the worst that has happened has been two underseasoned dishes (a
> cabbage dish and a lentil dish).
>
> But this time i'm trying to decide which one of two recipes to cook
> and i figure the proof is in the tasting - and the redaction is in
> the preparation, as i can't quite tell how the Moorish Gourds is
> supposed to turn out - omelet? fritatta? vegetables in sauce? The
> Cazauela Moji is clearly rather like a fritatta.
>
> Both recipes (see below,) Catalan in origin, call for grated aged
> cheese. What type of cheeses do you suppose they were using? I'm
> willing to test with a more expensive cheese (such as imported
> Manchego or other). But i'll probably want to use a less expensive
> version at the feast (well, depends on the price around here, of
> course). I'm cooking for between 60 and 80. What would be a
> reasonable substitute to use at the feast?
>
> I suspect that a couple of the folks most knowledgeable in Catalan
> food are away at the moment, but, well, i thought i'd ask. I'm
> planning to test this weekend.