OPB’s “Superabundant” explores the stories behind the foods of the Pacific Northwest with videos, articles and this weekly newsletter. To keep you sated between episodes, Heather Arndt Anderson, a Portland-based culinary historian, food writer and ecologist, highlights different aspects of the region’s food ecosystem. This week she offers a recipe for cheese-herb pupusas to celebrate Oregon’s Latinx cheesemakers..

Click here to subscribe. For previous stories, go here.

Ice cream and milk shakes are all well and good, but this weekend (April 27-28) is the Oregon Cheese Festival, a celebration of the local makers of our favorite cracker partner. Though Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue may be the longtime darling of the global cheese circuit and Tillamook is a stalwart for Oregonians living both locally and abroad, one Salem cheesemaker has been quietly turning out some of the best Mexican-style cheeses for decades, and has the awards to prove it — Don Froylan Creamery took home four American Cheese Society awards in 2023 alone. The nice thing about cheese is its universal appeal; there’s a cheese for every cuisine. It’s as at home on a bowl of spicy Korean ramen as it is toasted between two slices of white bread. We aren’t sure how old cheese is, or even where it originated — but anthropologists have a hunch about which animal’s milk was used for the first cheese. Do you know? Read on to find out!

Pome prices plummet, a local leviathan, watching women win and good things in markets and gardens

Apple prices not so sweet

The apple may not fall far from the tree, but apple prices have fallen by a whopping 32%. As a result of last year’s bumper crop — the second-highest harvest in Washington state’s history — apple growers are grappling with both increased operating costs and decreased market prices. Read about it at the Capital Press.

A new terror has entered the chat

Based on fossil evidence, scientists have known for decades that monstrous salmon once ruled the Pacific Northwest’s waters, but recent CT scans show that these weren’t “saber-toothed salmon,” as they were previously dubbed — these ancient fish had forbidding tusks more similar to a warthog’s.

Throwing like a girl pays off

When chef Jenny Nguyen lamented the lack of women’s sports on sports bar televisions a few years ago, the only solution was to open her own place. Now, the owner of Portland-based women’s sports bar The Sports Bra is making official plans to go national with a cash infusion from a Reddit cofounder, reports the Portland Business Journal.

Good things in markets

As far as springtime foods go, asparagus and morels are still holding down the fort along with crispy-sweet turnips and radishes, pea shoots and rhubarb. We saw fresh tamarind pods recently; after we excavate and plant the seeds, we’ll turn the pulp into sour syrups to use in Thai dishes and cocktails.

If you live near a Korean grocery stores, head over for garden starts — you can typically find the same plants (likely from the same grower) at both smaller and larger markets for just a couple bucks each. Expect Korean cucumber (similar to the “White Sun” variety), a kabocha-type pumpkin, “twisted” pepper (the Korean version of sweet shishito chiles), a Cheongyang-style chile labeled “hot pepper” (about as hot as a serrano), a broad-leaved perilla labeled “sesame leaf” (delicious when used as a wrap for Korean BBQ) and eggplant.

In the “Superabundant” garden this week

Not much has changed since last week — herbs are still the main ingredient we’re pulling, along with sorrel, cress and cucumbery salad burnet. The apple trees and loganberries have begun to bloom, and the peach and Italian plum trees are setting fruit. We planted a selection of the aforementioned Korean veggie starts (they’re always so productive!), but as it’s still a bit too chilly for nightshades and cucumbers we’ve put protective row covers on top (this also helps deter squirrels’ tiny digging hands and neighbor cats from befouling the beds).

Last fall, after the heirloom pumpkins on the porch were ravaged by hungry critters, we chucked the remains into a corner of the garden and the seeds have begun to sprout. We’ll transplant these seedlings around the edges of the beds and see what happens.

Fresh cheese and herb pupusas (pupusas con queso fresco y hierbas)

The first cheese was probably made from sheep’s milk, since those were the first dairy animals domesticated. The earliest architectural evidence of cheesemaking, clocking in at around 7,500 years ago, comes from Poland. But have you ever noticed that many cheeses have analogs in completely different parts of the world? Why is halloumi so similar to paneer? Is ricotta salata basically just Italian feta? Aren’t tvorog, quark and queso fresco kind of the same thing?

To cheese purists, these kinds of questions may be heretical, but at the end of the day, many ingredients are entirely interchangeable. It’s just science. Chervil might sound like a weird herb to add to a Turkish dish until you realize that rakı (an anise-flavored liquor popular in the Mediterranean) and chervil both contain isomers of the same aromatic compound (licorice-y anethole and estragole, respectively). The same goes for cheese: one country’s mild, creamy fresh cheese will work the same way as another’s, as long as the type of milk and technique used are roughly the same. For most intents and purposes, a gorgonzola will taste pretty much the same as a veiny Stilton (at a fraction of the price).

Just as cheese has fairly international appeal, cheese-stuffed bready things are also universal, and that’s not even counting dumplings and sweet pastries like Danishes and blintzes. You’ve got Romanian plǎcintǎ, Italian calzone, Georgian khachapuri, Croatian burek and too many Mexican and Central American dishes to count. Quesadillas aren’t the only Latinx carb with a molten interior — pupusas, which hail from El Salvador and Honduras, come with the bonus accompaniment of crunchy, sour curtido — a spicy, lightly fermented kraut that, at the end of the day, isn’t that different from Vietnamese đồ chua (pickles are also universal). Makes 8 pupusas

Note: If you ever go to the trouble of making your own tortillas, we recommend using the freshest masa you can find. If you live in the Portland area, you can get freshly nixtamalized masa from Three Sisters Nixtamal, which is locally milled from organic corn (speaking of which, watch the corn episode of “Superabundant” while you’re at it!). If you can’t get Three Sisters Nixtamal, Masienda brand is a splurge that we think is worth it for the truly outstanding flavor (we used their red corn masa here). If you don’t make tortillas very often, stash the masa in the freezer to keep it fresh.

Ingredients

Curtido

3 cups shredded cabbage (red or white)

4 tbsp salt, divided

2 carrots, julienned or shredded

1 small onion (red or white), finely sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 jalapeño, finely sliced

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp Mexican oregano

1 cup apple cider vinegar

Pupusas

2 cups masa harina

2 cups warm water

A few pinches of salt

1 cup queso fresco, tvorog or fromage blanc

1 cup shredded queso Oaxaca, mozzarella or Monterey jack

2 tbsp crema, sour cream or crème fraîche

1 handful herbs such as cilantro, basil, papalo (yerba poloso), green onions and/or hoya santa, finely chopped

Pinches of salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Make the curtido: Sprinkle the shredded cabbage with a few fat pinches of the salt and mix well, using your hands to squeeze and massage the salt in. Set aside for an hour, then squeeze the liquid from the cabbage. Mix the wilted cabbage with the remaining ingredients and stuff the curtido into a quart jar. Let it sit in the fridge at least overnight, preferably 2-3 days.
2. Mix the masa with the warm water and a few pinches of salt until a soft (but not sticky) dough. Cover with a bowl and set aside for 15 minutes to let the dough hydrate.
3. While the dough is sitting, in another bowl, stir together the cheeses, crema and herbs. Taste it and adjust seasoning according to your taste.
4. Divide the masa dough into 8 balls. Using a tortilla press or rolling pin on wax paper, flatten each ball to a circle approximately ⅛-inch thick and 6-inch in diameter. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the cheese filling onto the middle of the tortilla, then fold the edges of the masa over the filling, pressing gently to seal and flatten it back out to around ¼ inch thick. It’s OK if a little bit of the cheese is poking out, but try to get it sealed as best you can. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
5. Heat a comal, griddle or cast iron skillet over medium heat, then cook the pupusas until lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes per side. Serve while still warm, with the curtido on the side.

Get these recipes sent to your inbox every week. Don’t forget to tell a friend!