This recipe evolved from a new cheese I recently spotted called “Quinta dos Moinhos Novos – Queijo Puro de Cabra Curado”.

This cheese turned out to be a bit of a surprise. I somehow missed the part of the label that said “Curado” so when I cut into it I was expecting something of a creamer texture and found it was much more solid than I had imagined.

Note to self…it’s good to read the label. Anyway, sometimes wonderful accidents happen, and since I was already a fan of other Quinta dos Moinhos cheeses, I left my faith in their good name and wasn’t disappointed.

Queijo Puro De Cabra

Cured Goat Cheese & Mango Puffs
serves 2 – 4

Ingredients:
Defrosted, prepared puff pastry
Pure cured goat cheese – Quinta dos Moinhos Novos
6 Garlic cloves, roasted – Monchique garlic if available
½ Medium onion – finely chopped
1 Tblsp. Olive oil
2 + 2 Tblsp. Butter
½ Medium ripe Algarve Mango – chopped
1 Orange – fresh juice of one small orange
½ Tsp -Piri Piri with Jindungo
1 Tblsp. – Chopped cilantro
Flor de Sal
2 Tblsp. Milk for brushing

Cured Goat Cheese & Mango Puffs

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 115 C (240F.)
Defrost pastry dough until firm but keep cold. For best results, puff pastry needs to stay cold and firm until used.
Crush whole garlic cloves but leave skin on.
Add butter and a dash of olive oil to small sauté pan; let butter melt at medium low heat. Oil will help keep butter from burning, but needs to be watched depending on heat.
Add garlic and increase heat slightly, let garlic brown around edges without burning. If browning too quickly remove from heat until pan cools slightly. Garlic needs to be golden brown around the outside and slightly soft in the center. Leaving skin on garlic keeps it from drying out while browning. Once well browned, set aside to cool.
Roll out sheet of puff pastry on floured surface and into a square until dough is approximately ¼ inch think, and 35×35cm. Cut square in half and then half again, making 4 smaller squares
Cut rind off the tip of cheese and then cut 4 slices approximately 2.5cm thick. Place a round slice in middle of each puff pastry square.
Remove skins from garlic and add to top of each cheese slice, drizzle a little of the butter from the pan, and top off garlic and cheese, with a pinch of Flor de sal.
With a pastry brush, gently wet pastry round edges with a little water, then bring up corners of pastry to allow pastry to stick together. Bring corners together to form a peak at the center, press side together to gently join along seams.
Brush outsides with a little milk.
Bake in oven for 15 -20 minutes or until golden brown, puff pastry will loosen during cooking and corners will spread, this is ok and will create a well in the center for the hot and spicy mango sauce.

Queijo Puro de Cabra Curado

Mango and Piri Piri Sauce

Mango Sauce

In small sauce pan add remain butter and let melt
Add finely chopped onion to melted butter, let onion become transparent
Add orange juice and chopped mango to pan and bring it to a gentle bubble for 5-7min, until mango is soft and saucy
Add Piri Piri sauce, stir well to incorporate
Finish with chopped cilantro

Let mango sauce cool slightly. Serve puffs warm with a good dollop of the warm mango sauce on top and garnish with a sprig of cilantro. If you want an added touch, give the mango sauce a small splash of rum or brandy ;o) We tried the puffs with a nice bottle of a slightly sweet Vinho Verde – Via Latina, and polished off all 4 puffs in one sitting.

A note about Portuguese cheese, it comes in practically hundreds of varieties, cows, sheep, goat milk or a mix of some or all. Then styled in soft, hard, semi, creamy, cured, fresh, old cured, soft rind, hard rind and the list goes on and on….so its easy to see how much we love cheese.

This pure cured goat cheese has an ever so slight edge, but I was very pleasantly surprised how mellow it became when mixed with the sweetness of the hot and spicy mango sauce.

Enjoy 🙂

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