When I got home from work today, there was a FedEx slip on the door. I went to the concierge and picked up a small box from Williams-Sonoma, sent by my parents. Nice and thoughtful, and it was the right size for a fruitcake, which I woulldn’t have minded normally, but I started Atkins two weeks ago.
I get it to the apartment and open it, and this is no fruitcake. Nay, this is two pounds of Stilton from Melton Mowbray. The real deal, the venerable old man of English cheese. I’m having some right now with toasted walnuts, and it’s nice and stinky.
I’m a strong cheese fan, but what the hell am I supposed to do with two pounds of whole-milk blue cheese? I can’t eat it out of hand like Cheddar, and I’m not supposed to have that much fruit, so eating it with pears is mostly out of the question.
Souffles? Cheese sauces? (The wife won’t touch it. She thinks anything that smells like that developed the aroma as a warning.)
Why can’t you it it out of hand? I do:)
Grill steak rare, a little or a lot of Stilton on top and some nice sliced tomatoes on the side. (Do tomatoes have carbs?)
Ploughmans lunch doesn’t work with the bread, how about with slices of good tart apples, some Branston pickle, and a salad?
French onion soup with Stilton on top.
Hmm, most of my other ideas are loaded with carbs, sorry.
Pleeeease feel free to send it to NZ. I seem to spend far to much on stinky cheese when grocery shopping. I can’t offer helpful advise though, cause mine never seems to make it into the fridge. Yummmmmmmmm you lucky bugger.
Get yourself a nice bottle of port, and use it to accompany the Stilton. Myself, I’d include some apples, pears, and nice bread, but since you’re on the Atkins diet, maybe not. And I’m with MikeG: why can’t you eat it out of hand?
Mmm…Stilton. Not called the King of Cheeses for nothing!
Lindy, False_God was the one who said he could not eat it out of hand, I was merely questioning that.
Oh here’s another recipe I use a lot with blue or feta cheese.
Boil or steam asparagus (trimmed)
toss with balsamic vinegraitte, some Stilton or other crumbly blue cheese ( I find saltier ones work well), and walnuts. You can toss in some diced roasted chicken as well for a one stop meal.
In Sweden we, well some of us, put it on gingerbread cookies. It might sound a bit strage but try it out and that two pounds are sure to diminsh fast as hell…
Make apple, stilton and parsnip soup (equal weights of each, simmered in vegetable stock until soft/melted, then pureed). Dear God it’s nice. Garnish each bowl with crumbled stilton. I made a similar soup yesterday from the leftovers of my Sunday roast, using roast parsnip, beef and roquefort.
Do you have any Brittish friends? If so invite them over for a wine (or port) and cheese party, they’ll love you forever
Though it won’t use up much of the stilton try this for a pasta sauce
Fry some bacon (if you eat pork) untill crispy, then put asside and cut into small pieces when cooled down.
Heat a 1/2 cup of thick cream slowly,
add crushed garlic, alittle olive oil,
salt and pepper to taste
Slowly add stilton to the hot cream and stir in until melted.
Taste and add more stilton until sauce is strong enough for you.
Add in the bakon (if used) and
any fresh herbs that you have arround (parsley, basil best, but Taragon, Cilantor and anything else will work if you like them)
Serve with freshly cooked pasta as a sauce.
Cheers, Keithy
Thanks for the ideas, all. I’ll try some of them this weekend, especially the tomato salad one and maybe the fondue.
So far, I have procured a pound of walnuts, half of which are roasting with butter, brown sugar, rosemary and balsamic vinegar as we speak (they get all toasty and caramelized, and all with only a tablespoon of brown sugar). Cockburns ruby ten-year-old is waiting in the bottle rack. I made a compound butter with Stilton, parsley, garlic and pepper, and I’ll have that on my lunch steak tomorrow. I’m also giving chunks of it to my teacher and another officer. One pound down, one to go!
Grill a chicken breast, at the same time sautee some onion and white pepper…add a little lemon juice and reduce. Bring the sauce up with butter. The chicken should be done now, crumble stilton on top. Add fresh basil(coarsly shredded) and sundried tomatoes(chopped) to the lemon butter and pour over top the chicken. Delish.
