I love cheese, all cheese and very definitely blue cheese. I love mild and creamy blue cheese as well as crumbly and sharp blues. I have a weakness for Stilton but also a strong loyalty to local Aussie blues.
Here are some of ways I use blue cheese in my kitchen
Omelette – Eggs and cheese are excellent friends. A simple omelette can go from mild to wild with the addition of your favourite blue cheese. Spinach or sauteed mushrooms, some fresh cracked pepper and happy days are on their way.
Pasta – Not for the faint-hearted, I believe this baked pasta template needs a Gorgonzola spiked bechamel to balance out layers of lasagne sheets and wilted, dark leafy greens such as radicchio, kale, chard, spinach. Like lasagna, only better (I know, them’s fighting words).
Pizza – This one is hardly even cooking. Choose your most reliable pizza base and add a little grated mozzarella as a base, then some blue cheese, slices of pear and whack it in a hot oven. Once cooked, serve topped with peppery rocket.
Salad – A blue cheese salad may seem old school but classics never go out of style. Heading into Autumn as we are now, all you need to do is grab some ripe figs, tender salad leaves, a handful of toasted walnuts and crumble in a generous amount of blue cheese. I’m thinking Berry’s Creek Riverine Blue would be perfect.
On a related note, when was the last time you made a Cobb salad. Cos lettuce, diced tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, crispy bacon, chopped cooked chicken, avocado all dressed with a lemon/olive oil dressing all topped off with dices of your favourite blue cheese. More a meal than a salad in my opinion.
Soup – If you know me, you know I’m not much of a soup person but if I soup, it’s as much about the toppings and bread as it is the soup base. A small bowl of hot and creamy cauliflower soup benefits from a generous crumble of an assertive blue cheese such as Tarwin Blue or even Queso Valdeon.
Steak sauce – You can go to the effort of making blue cheese sauce with cream or you can do what I often do. Christen your resting steak with a slice of your favourite blue cheese and let nature take its course. The cheese will melt onto and into the nooks of the warm steak. Mop up the plate juices with bread or potatoes. You’re welcome!
Did you know that blue cheese doesn’t actually start out blue?
Penicillium roqueforti is added to milk and/or curds during the normal cheese making process. After the curds are drained, the rinds are salted and left to cure in temperature and humidity-controlled rooms.
Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks later, the cheeses are then spiked with long needles (similar to knitting needles) which then allows air in, activating these cultures. These veins then start off light blue/green developing over time to a darker blue, impacting the development of flavour and texture along the way.
Did you also know that the mould that gives Roquefort its distinctive character is found in the famous Combalou caves near the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, France?
Traditionally, the mould was cultivated by leaving rye bread in the limestone caves for 6-8 weeks until it was consumed by mould, then the dried bread was ground and added to the milk during the cheesemaking process.
Now you know.
We live in a small apartment with a very small kitchen, so I run a tight ship. Anything that earns space in there has to punch above its weight. Products have to prove themselves. If they don’t earn their keep, they’re out.
This is a hug in the shape of a loaf tin, reassuring in only the way an old-school reliable pantry cake can be. I say pantry cake because mostly I have all the ingredients in the pantry, even if that is a set of drawers in my small, city apartment.
Last weekend I gathered a handful of friends at someone’s house and we cooked together. Not a dinner party where one person does the work and everyone else arrives with a bottle. Not a formal class in a commercial kitchen. Just a group of curious eaters in a real home…