Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Chistorra





Txistorra (Chistorra) is a typical sausage for the Basque country in the North of Spain. It is a fast-cured sausage made of pork, garlic, salt and paprika (which gives it the traditional bright red color). It stuffed into a lamb casing and is an average length of 40 cm and sometime can reach 1 meter. Their are a couple other types, Birika (means lung in Basque) its made with lungs rather than meat. The other is called Chistorra de leon made with a large percentage of beef. Chistorra is best enjoyed sauteed, grilled, or baked. 

Torta del Casar






Torta del Casar is a jewel of a cheese form Extremadura region of Spain. It is made with  raw sheep’s milk. The cheese has a special bitterness that comes for a wild thistle called Cardoon, which is used to curdle the milk. It is aged for 60 days, which allow the cheese to have the distinct creamy texture. This is one of the most protected cheese in Spain. It can only be produced form the milk of the Merino and Entrefina sheep, which have low yields of milk. It takes the milk of 20 sheep to make one 2.2 pound wheel of Torta del Casar. It is normally best enjoyed by letting it sit out at room temperature for at least 1 hour, then slicing the top off and spreading on bread.The top is saved to later be used to cover the cheese once again. The origins is said to be from 1271, it is truely an ancient cheese.