Taleggio cheese and providores - a lucky dip
"a strong aroma and a rich yet mellow taste. Soft tones of fruit play in tune with a composition of mild and buttery notes, finishing with a tangy aftertaste that lingers on your palate." Castello website
Apologies I am going through another lazy patch. so all I could think of was lucky dip time, although this time I got my husband to guide me because I sort of know where everything is, and so my lucky dips are sometimes a bit contrived.
Anyway the book chosen is Providore by Simon Johnson and, like all lucky dips it offers a few different topics - taleggio cheese, because of the page I chose, Simon Johnson and his shops and providers in general.
Let's start with the taleggio. Actually the taleggio cheese was the thing that made me think that yes, this was a good thing to go with. I have noticed it a lot in delicatessens, and even supermarkets of late. It's a trendy cheese, but I knew nothing about it or where it came from - other than Italy. And I have to say that it looks gorgeous. The photograph at the top of the page is from the Providore book and here is another from the Castello website.
It looks rather like an orange rinded brie to me. The orange colour is apparently called the smear and comes from the various moulds with which it is washed. Here is how it is made:
"Newly formed curd is separated twice to help it release excess whey. The curd is then poured over a table containing the signature square molds of Taleggio and left to sit until the remaining whey has been drained. Brined by hand, the cheeses are placed on seasoned wooden shelves to age, and are turned regularly to ensure that the salt is spread evenly. Over the next month, the cheese is washed rigorously with a special solution. This prevents an overgrowth of mold and encourages the fostering of good bacteria. After a minimum of 25 days spent aging, the Taleggio has achieved its desired state. Castello website
I gather it can be made from pasteurised or non-pasteurised milk, that the liquid with which it is washed is sometimes seawater, and that it is sometimes left to mature in caves. When Castello says it is washed rigorously I think this means every day.
Val Taleggio, it's traditional home, is a rather beautiful valley to the east of Lake Como in the Italian Alps and the cheese has been made there since the eleventh century. Nowadays - well since the nineteenth century it is also made elsewhere in Lombardy. But it also has a DOP which I guess means that the Australians can't make a cheese called Taleggio. Indeed when I looked for what you could use instead I only found other foreign cheeses such as brie were suggested. It's main feature seems to be its smelliness and its melting ability which led Yotam Ottolenghi to call it the queen of the cooking cheeses. Which may therefore be the reason for its current popularity. Of the recipes I saw, several of them seemed to include mushrooms, so I am guessing it has a special affinity with these. It also seemed to be popular in pizzas. Two from my favourite cooks that you could try are Nigel Slater's Baked onions, taleggio sauce, which I include because of the baked onions of a few days ago, and Yotam Ottolenghi's Stuffed portobello with taleggio.
Just go hunting on the net and through your more recent cookbooks though, if you want to try cooking with it.
A providore is, as you might have guessed from the name a provider and began life as someone who made sure that there were sufficient supplies for whoever was employing him. The example was given a couple of times of Venice as a city and the providore making sure that the militia had sufficient supplies of food. Over time it has come to mean something much more specialist - and posher. A provider of 'quality' food.
So Simon Johnson, providore.
Well Simon Johnson has a small chain and an online business of very, very posh food shops. I remember there used to be one just off Brunswick Street which I visited sometimes at Christmas to find some expensive foodie gifts. It was an absolute treasure trove and I did indeed usually find something - in amongst his cheaper foodstuffs. That particular store no longer exists - his Melbourne presence is now in Toorak. Of course. But the eponymous Mr. Johnson no longer owns those stores - there are others around the whole of Australia - for back in 2011 he sold them for an estimated $20 million to the Chinese. He stayed on as the manager and the providore for some time. And indeed he may still be there, but I think probably not. I could not say definitively but the implication seemed to be that he had left the business and is now looking for different opportunities.
Simon Johnson began as a chef in his home of New Zealand, and then, growing tired of the pressure and the long hours moved to Australia where he began by providing quality cheese to the top restaurants. At the request of some of those chefs he expanded into other areas and the store now includes quality kitchen equipment as well as the food. The website is rather gorgeous - here you will find truffles, valrhona chocolate and caviar, and beeswax wrap - some of which I now realise was given to me recently as a birthday present by my son. So it obviously continues to be an excellent source of surprising foodie presents.
As to the book. Well - gorgeous looking again - and if you want to know something, but not everything about all the foods represented therein it is a useful source. It was published back in 1999 and I have no idea why I bought it really. I was probably sucked in by the design. There are recipes from all sorts of famous chefs, but I'm not sure I have ever made anything from it. I assume that it is written by Mr. Johnson - the copyright is certainly his but he does not write the introduction. That is left to Leo Schofield who says of him that:
"He has taught us that shopping for food can be a joy."
Well if you are shopping in Simon Johnson's shops it can really only be a joy if have quite a lot of money in your pocket. Although I suppose window shopping can be a joy too.
