Cheese

Standby for a food post. Dieters, look away now. Yup, my turn to nominate an ingredient in the international cooking fest this week and I've chosen cheese.


This particular handsome devil is a Colston Bassett Stilton. A gift from hubby's colleague Dave, whose family are from the same village as the cheese. We Brits can be fairly fanatical about our cheeses (More Wensleydale Gromit?) but I have the misfortune of living with three boys who can't stand it. So what's a girl to do? I need cheese-friendly dishes, which work without cheese too.

My stilton standby is Cream of Celery soup. Mine gets a handful of crumbled stilton stirred into the bowl of hot soup just before eating. His is unsullied.

Recipe? So easy it doesn't really warrant one, but take some celery sticks, clean and chop (0.5 cm thin ish). Melt a couple of ounces of butter and cook the celery for about 5 mins until soft but NOT brown. Stir in 2 tbsp or so of flour and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add about half a pint of milk and half a pint of chicken stock. I could lie and tell you I always make my stock from scratch, but in this case, a good quality stock liquid works just fine.
Bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 mins until the celery is tender. Stir in your stilton (or other cheese of choice, I like something blue).

So, are you ready to join in this week? Let's all generate some cheesy dreams.

Comments

[Sarah and Jack]

Oh man, I should NOT have looked at that before I have even had breakfast this morning!

[Laurie]

Don't hate me, but I don't like cheese. Can you believe that? I do eat melted mozzarella and Monterey jack on things, but cold cheese...blech.

[capello]

i love me some cheese. almost all cheeses except blue cheese. i don't know how it started but it didn't work for me.

which turned out to be a good thing, as most blue cheeses have wheat added to start the marbling effect. shocking, i know.

[radiogirl]

Mmmmm. The recipe sounds delicious. I'll definitely be trying it. Thank you for sharing!

I love all cheeses I've ever had, but I've never had Stilton. I tend to prefer very mild nutty cheeses, but I do love feta and especially in spanakopita.

[nuttnbunny]

"Cheese me" - we ask when we're taking Z's photo :-)

Made cheese last year. Big plans for this too.

Thx for the recipe. Making for lunch this weekend!!!

[Rose]

mmmm, that sounds good, I'll have to try it some time :)

[AnastasiaC]

I love love cheese!! thanks for the recipe, it sounds delicious!
we have a cheese series on the food channel....Yum!!!
I love ricotta cheese the best - sprinkled with brown sugar, cinnamon and rose water! my favourite snack!

[nicbiccie]

Oh...cheese is my best friend! I was just getting into blue cheeses, but thanks to the little bun in my oven(!) I'm restricted to the non-mouldy hard cheeses! So I'm working my way through Swiss ones at the moment!

[tiel s-k]

you've brought a nice cheesy grin to my face. Hated cheese as a child, but love it now. Could quite easily eat cheese on biscuits with stone fruits for lunch...and quince paste ont the side.

I bought some fresh figs and plan on eating them with some goats cheese.

We have some really good quality bries and goats cheeses in Australia, but I don't think we can beat the English and their cheddars!

OK, it is good to be on the receiving end, I'm in probably do something on the weekend. YOu've got me thinking!

[Soo]

yum! I could eat cheese and crackers all day!!!

[Flibbertygibbet]

Well my nickname as a child was Miss Mouse so you can imagine how much I like cheese... with sourdough bread, kalamata olives and quince paste. Thank god I've just had breakfast.

[julie]

yummy photo - we never pass christmas without stilton in our fridge - to us it's as much a part of the seasonal feasting as christmas pud. Thanks for the recipie - I've never tried it but now have the ingredients on my shopping list so will be giving it a go next week.

[lazylol]

I am going to try and cook something cheesy too! I used up all the cheeseboard leftovers last week making some fancy cheese-on-toast. So I will hve to remember to grab some at the supermarket.
www.lazylol.typepad.com

[monica]

you know, at the cost of repeating myself... I don't like celery.

BUT, before you raise your eyes to the sky and kick me out of the country... BUT I think I will try this soup because it sounds really nice. (exactly how much celery are we talking about here?)

AND so that you don't cancel our next meeting... I've made stroganoff WITH dijon mustard last night.

Happy?

[hannah]

Mmm, stilton. I love stilton, it is so yummy, we nearly always have some on the go here, I can just stand and eat it slice by slice, as happens occasionally when it is too close to the front of the fridge and I am cooking dinner!! Another recently discovered favourite british blue cheese is shropshire blue. have you tried it, if not you should, it has a similar edge and is equally yummy, plus it is a fantastic orangy yellow colour, watch out for it!!

[jojo*]

Hmmm. I'm a fan, but hubby isn't. Therefore, there are things I'd looove to make but can't. This being one of them. Zucchinis and mushrooms being the others. Bummer.

[Cherry Menlove]

That picture made my mouth water. My fiance (can they not think of a better word!!) loves Wensleydale with his Christmas cake. I am yet to try it but will do next year.

Cherry Menlove

[Rosalie]

I love stilton! I was not at all keen as a child but now I love it! Have you tried sherried stilton and walnut dip? in a food processor, blend 125g cream cheese, 125g stilton cheese and a slurp of sherry and a pinch of pepper. Blend till smooth. Refridgerate until firmer and top with chopped toasted walnuts. yum!

[jodie]

Mmm..that cheese looks so good! I could eat cheese in any form...cheese and biscuits...cheesecake...cheese sauce...yum.

Would love you to see my blog if you have a sec!

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