[Sca-cooks] Spanish Cheese?

[Generys ferch Ednuyed]

Hi there! When I did the Platina gourd and cheese pie for a a&s entry, I
used butternut squash as well - which came out very tasty, but one of the
judges, I believe her name is Mistress Helen something.... anyway, she's a
Laurel, and she said that the closest thing you can get, taste wise, over
here to the gourd is pattypan squash...

Generys
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sue Clemenger" <mooncat at in-tch.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2002 10:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spanish Cheese?


> 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.
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