By Seren Charrington-Hollins
Tangy, ripe and deeply savoury there is no doubt that it is an acquired taste, but there is no denying its ability to pep up sauces, add depth to pizza and pasta and even makes a delicious savoury custard.
If you find that you have blue cheese of any description loitering in your fridge, whip it out and create something delicious for this is one left over ingredient that is just too good to waste.
Creamy Blue Custard
Don’t be put off by the name of this recipe; it is absolutely delicious especially when served with hunks of freshly baked bread and crunch salad
Serves 8-10100g full fat milk
250g stilton or other blue cheese
100g egg yolks
500 ml double cream
1 tbsp honey
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Salt and black pepper to taste
Butter for ramekin dishes
To serve
Walnuts, rustic salad, hunks of bread
1 Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark
Butter the ramekin dishes
- In a food blender blitz together the milk, honey, nutmeg, blue cheese and egg yolks until smooth. Mix in the cream and season to taste.
- Pour into buttered individual ramekin dishes and bake in a bain marie* for about 20 minutes. (*Simply sit your ramekin dishes in a tray of water in the oven)
4 Sprinkle with roughly with chopped walnuts and serve with lots of salad and crusty bread.
For a super quick salad dressing simply combine 100ml double cream
100g gorgonzola or other soft blue cheese and generous pinch of flaked sea salt in a food processor and blitz. This sauce can also be used in pasta I love to toss broken walnuts and toasted pine nuts through cooked pasta before stirring this sauce through: simple, quick and delicious!
Or for cheese on toast with a difference simply crumble blue cheese over toasted bread (bagels are fabulous for this). Drizzle with honey and then grill until the cheese begins to melt. This works with most blue cheeses whether hard or soft, especially gorgonzola, roquefort, cambozola, stilton and dolcelatte.
Bon appétit!