Évora Cheese (DOP)

Évora or Queijo de Évora is a Portuguese gourmet cheese with a yellowish color that becomes gloomy in contact with air. This is a cured cheese made from raw sheep's milk, presented with a hard (60g & 90g; 120g & 200) or semihard (200g & 300g) consistency, of smooth rind.The paste is softer than the rind but has the same color, a very light yellow.

It has the aroma of a pasture and a creamy flavor of oats and fresh hay, little salty with fruity tones with a slightly acidic finish. The older the taste the sheepier the flavor becomes of this gourmet cheese. There is no rennet in this cheese and it is bound with thistle flower. This cheese is produced in the town of Évora in the Alentejo region (southern Portugal). Production begins in November and peaks in March and April. Sometimes these cheeses are preserved in olive oil and are then less hard.

Évora

The city was designated Ebora Cerealis during the Roman empire, gained the name Liberalitas Julia during the period of Emperor Julio Cesar. At the time it was an important city, as one can see looking at the ruins of the classical temple and the vestiges of the Roman fortress walls. It was conquered to the Moors in 1165 by Geraldo Sem Pavor (Geraldo, the Unfrightened), the year he restored his diocese. It was a royal residence, mainly during the reigns of king João II, king Manuel I and king João III. Its prestige was particularly relevant during the XVI century, when it was promoted to ecclesiastical capital and when the University of Évora was founded (subordinated to the Jesus Company) by Cardinal Infant Henrique, first Archbishop of the city. This was extinguished in 1759 (and would only be restored approximately two centuries later), after the Jesuit expulsion of the country due to an order given by Marquês de Pombal. Évora testifies the diverse styles and aesthetics and has collected throughout the years such important works of art that it has been classified by UNESCO, in 1986, as World Heritage.

Nisa Cheese (DOP)

The Alentejo is an extensive region covering almost a third of Portugal. The boundary in the north is the River Tejo; and in the south, the hills of the Algarve. In the east, it shares a frontier with Spain, and in the west it opens onto the Atlantic Ocean. Essentially rural and sparsely populated, it offers a landscape that is uncommonly well conserved. Alentejan cheeses and wines are consolidating their fame.

Queijo de Nisa is a raw ewe's milk DOP (Certificate of Protected Origin) status cheese made from the milk of Merino sheep. The milk is curdled after coagulation, provoked by the thistle. Salting is done directly on the paste after it is formed into its disc shape.

Nisa has a soft to half-hard paste with small eyes and a yellowish color. The flavor is robust and earthy when you first taste it. But then Queijo de Nisa's flavor opens up into a rich, herbaceous experience, with a slight citrus sweetness. It has a slightly acidulous finish, which comes from the particular aging of the sheep's milk. Potuguese cheeses can be very rare finds in this country, so enjoy this simply on its own or with fresh crusty bread. This cheese is versatile and complements both red and white wines. Pair with fresh, zippy Vinho Verde wines or jammy, fruity reds from the southern Alentejo.

Serpa Cheese (DOP)

Perhaps the most famous traditional cheese in southern Portugal, Serpa gets its strong scent and spicy flavor from the unique climate, soil and pasture of the Alentejo region. Made from sheep’s milk, the cheese is curdled with vegetable rennet and wrapped in cloth to mature. Inside the natural rind, the flesh is so creamy that it almost spills when cut. Serpa is one of the most genuinely crafted and high quality cheeses from Portugal.

Serpa is made solely from sheep’s milk, predominantly from the Lacaune, a French breed that has replaced the local Merino because it is more productive and easier to manage (the former can be milked by a machine) and can be raised in free-range conditions.

Queijo Serpa DOP is available in four diferent dimensions called "merendeiras" (weighting from 200 to 250 g), "cuncas" (800 to 900 g), "normais" (1000 to 1500 g) and "gigantes" (2000 to 2500 g).

The Presidium Slow Food Award
Slow Food’s Ark of Taste has cataloged hundreds of extraordinary products from around the world and the presidium Serpa is the only portuguese cheese to obtain this distinction.

"PDO status currently protects Serpa; however, the presidium was established to preserve the most traditional of the types of this cheese. The denomination covers a large geographic area that extends from the coast to the Spanish border, including a third of Portugal and passing by cork plantations and arid grazing lands. The PDO standards do not require long ageing periods, only that a slice of cut cheese must make a belly towards the outer edges. The market, in fact, prefers amanteigado cheese or rather cheese with a soft and melting consistency that one eats with a spoon (a type similar to those of the other two PDO of great renown, Azeitão and Serra da Estrela). However, traditional Serpa cheese is aged in an attic on cane mats and is consumed when mature. This rarer type of Serpa (firm and semi-firm) is markedly more interesting with more complex sensory qualities and personality. The presidium intends to protect the traditional version of Serpa cheese. The PDO standards will have to require narrower boundaries on the historical area, indicate a minimum ageing period and give the product uniform labeling, as it is currently impossible to precisely identify the type of Serpa by sight, as under this name one finds many different cheeses."

Source: http://www.slowfoodfoundation.org/eng/presidi/dettaglio.lasso?cod=333.

Serpa Solar Power Plant
Serpa Solar Power Plant construction began in June 2006 and was completed on January 2007. This is the worlds 2nd largest solar power plant capable of producing 11 megawatt electricity from the sun with no fuel costs or emissions. The Serpa plant is on a 60-hectare (150-acre) hillside and is a model of clean power generation integrated with agriculture.

Mestiço de Tolosa Cheese (IGP)

This is a IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) status cheese made of goat and sheep milk, separated and filtered through a cloth, made in proper rates in cheese-dairy. The production is artisan, such as in other cured cheeses in our country. It is a cured half-soft cheese of average dimensions. Tolosa cheese has wrinkled, fine, entire crust, sometimes lightly oily, of yellow or orange constant colour. The diameter varies between 7 and 10 cm, height between 3 and 4 cm and weight between 150 and 400 g, with regular shape, well defined outline, soft and firm consistency with tympanic sound. The pulp is well joined, slightly closed, with small eyes, of yellow or orange colour. Taste and scent are slightly aggressive, clean, spicy and pleasant.


This is a cheese coming from Alto Alentejo and it's production involves several phases: the first one consists in milk casein heating and coagulation recurring to animal curdle or to thistle (Cynara Cardunculus) as coagulator agent; in the second, the curdled-milk is placed in the cheese-press (with around 8-10 cm of diameter and 3-4 cm of height) constantly squeezing until the final size. Next, follows the making of serum (during about 15 min) allowing to separate the restrained serum in the curd. Then proceeds salting, this operation discloses the know-how practiced in dairies, without a definite measure they reveal the knowledge of several generations. They put salt in the superior face of the cheese and place it in the shelves, in the following day they turn it and salt the other face; finally goes to cure in chambers, the maturation occurs for 3 or 4 weeks until reaching the degree of maturation known by "half-cure” cheese the most appreciated by consumers. The normal production period of this cheese is between middle of January and middle of July, during the normal goat and ovine regular lactation period. The cure conditions are determinant to achieve this cheese, assuring the protection against exaggerate speeds of air circulation. The cheese must be manipulated and stored to a maximum temperature of 10º C.