Recommendations
Cabrales and caramelised walnuts with El Candado Pedro Ximenez Valdespino
On the board is Cabrales, the blue cheese from the Picos de Europa, with walnuts caramelised in a pan with butter and brown sugar until sticky. Opposite stands the El Candado, a Pedro Ximenez with about 400 grams of residual sugar per litre, which softens the saltiness of the cheese.
From the shelf
The bottle
El Candado comes from Valdespino in Jerez de la Frontera and is a Pedro Ximenez. The grapes are harvested overripe and then laid out in the sun on esparto grass mats to turn into raisins; that asoleo concentrates the sugar, so that the wine ends up at about 400 grams of residual sugar per litre. The ageing is exclusively oxidative, about ten years in old American oak casks in the system of criaderas and solera. The colour is dark mahogany, the bottle is 17 percent alcohol and comes in 75 centilitres. The name refers to the little padlock with which the bottle is traditionally closed.
The combination
Why this works together
Cabrales is a rich, spicy cheese made from unpasteurised cow's milk or from a mixture of cow's, sheep's and goat's milk, which matures for two to five months in caves where the high humidity and low temperature let the mould do its work. The result is salty and sharp, and that is the reason a dry wine goes under here: the salt strips it bare. Sweetness does the opposite. Green and colleagues found in 2010 that saltiness in mixtures was suppressed by up to 84.5 percent and bitterness by up to 86.2 percent, whereas sweetness itself dropped away by at most 42.7 percent, and with about 400 grams of residual sugar per litre this wine is more than strong enough for that role. In addition, the wine is syrupy, and that thickness holds its own next to the fat of the cheese instead of disappearing into it. The walnuts are the link: their own bitterness gets a sweet coat from the pan, so that they fit on both sides. The Consejo Regulador names intense blue cheeses such as Cabrales in so many words for Pedro Ximenez.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 15 minutes
- Type cheese course
What you need
- 15 g unsalted butter
- 60 ml light brown soft sugar
- 2 teaspoons water
- a quarter teaspoon of fine sea salt
- 115 g walnuts, roughly chopped
- 250 g Cabrales or another blue cheese
- 1 baguette or a few slices of rye bread
How to make it
- Put a sheet of baking paper or a silicone mat ready on the worktop.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add the butter, the soft brown sugar, the water and the salt.
- Stir until the butter has melted, the sugar has dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble, about two minutes.
- Fold in the walnuts and stir them through the mixture for one to two minutes, until they are coated and sticky.
- Spoon the nuts onto the baking paper, spread them in a layer and let them cool completely.
- Break the nuts apart and place them with the cheese and the bread on a board. Take the cheese out of the fridge half an hour before serving.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this Pedro Ximenez between 12 and 14 degrees according to the Consejo Regulador; Valdespino itself mentions 8 to 10 degrees, so cooler is fine too and makes the wine a little less thick in the mouth. A white wine glass or a catavinos of about 200 millilitres is more than enough, with just a little in the bottom. Once opened, this sherry keeps for about two months, with the bottle closed and stored cool.
Everything about El Candado Pedro Ximenez ValdespinoBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
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