Weekly Wine: Stilton Stunners

Huzzah! It's National Stilton Week!

For me that means only one thing: going out to find the creamiest, saltiest, yummiest stilton on the market, cracking open a cheeky bottle to go with it, and indulging until I get the cheese sweats.

What goes with stilton? Well, forget the usual cheesy culprits - stilton is in a class of its own and most bottles that say 'a perfect match for cheese' on the label will whimper and retreat at the sight of this blue menace. Nearly all red wines simply won't come up the scratch - they're too dry, and too tannic (grippy).

What you need to do is match salty with sweet, and creamy with smooth.


The Exception that Proves the Rule

According to wine buyer and wine GOD Marcel Orford-Williams, a young, gutsy, fruity red might just work (less powerful tannins and the fruit acts as a sweetener) and Marcillac fits the bill quite nicely. It's not a name you see very often, but Domaine Cros is king of this wine and Slurp do a nice bottle for £11.90.

Real Sweeties

The absolute classic match is Sauternes, but they can be pricey little buggers. A half-bottle from Asda of some fairly tasty but not exactly top of the market stuff is £10.07, but as usual I am being all sneaky and cunning: Saint Croix du Mont is an appellation right next to Sauternes that makes similar wines without the hefty price tag. Cambridge Wine do a brilliant example - a whole bottle for £11.99 and enough left over to enjoy with various puddings (it'll keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.)


Get Fortified

The other classic match is port - I used to wrinkly my nose at the thought of it, but with food like this port is an absolute smasher. Taylor's are one of the A-listers and Majestic do a cracking 2005 version for £13.99 - it's a treat.

You can also go with decent aged Amontillado - rich and sweet without being cloying, it stands up well to stilton's strong flavours. Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Amontillado is twelve years old and - unless you're a sherry snob - should fit the bill nicely, which is pretty cool for £7.99.

Lastly, but very much not least, is Madeira. Yes, I know, my elderly relatives drink it too, but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome. Henriques & Henriques are one of the best names in the business and the discovery of their 10 year old Malmsey made my Christmas a couple of years back. Majestic do a 50cl bottle for £16.99 and once opened you don't have to worry about drinking it all up quickly: it would quite possibly outlive hamsters.


Total Weirdos
If you want to veer away from tradition altogether, The Wine Society has a couple of wildcards. They like to give smaller producers a chance, and in doing so they bring us Samos Anthemis from Greece for £6.95 per half and Bleasdale's Wise Old Tawny from Australia for £10.50. Both are rich dessert wines - decadently smooth, full of flavour and sticky-sweet. Your slab of stilton will love it, and I reckon you will too.

Will you be indulging in some stilton this week, and if so: how do you eat yours? Let's talk all things cheesy in the comments, or on Twitter and Facebook.
 

Photo taken from Keith Williamson's photostream under the Creative Commons License

Sluttishly Simple: Baked Camembert

 I'm a simplistic girl for whom the promise of something lovely at the end of something awful is my motivation for doing practically everything I dislike. What's that you say, if I do this tidying up I can have a lovely chilled glass of Viognier? Done. A morning of paperwork is made all the better with the lure of an afternoon trip round the "pretty" shops and the working day is made equally more appealing with the reward of gooey melted cheese at the end of it.

As if hot, gooey, melted cheese and crusty bread isn't already enough to spur me through a cold rainy Friday this dish also contains herbs, garlic and yes, wine...happy days! All you really need to go with this is some lovely crusty bread, a sofa and well, you have opened that wine to cook with so you might as well pour yourself a glass and congratulate yourself on a week well done! Start with your cheese at room temperature to make sure it is extra gooey and lovely.

You'll need:

• 1 Camembert in its wooden box
• 1 clove of garlic 
• some thyme leaves (or sprigs of rosemary, both brilliant)
• good splash of white wine (or a nutty sherry like Amontillado is really good too)
• sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper.

Make it!

1. Preheat your oven to 190C. Take your cheese out of its box, pierce the top of the cheese all over with a knife and insert some finely sliced slivers of garlic and your herbs.
2. Place the cheese back into its box, place it on a sheet of foil on a baking tray then pour over your wine and season lightly with the salt and pepper.
3. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is completely gooey.

Tip: If you are using sherry then a dried clove placed on top of the cheese and then completely covered in tin foil so it steam bakes works so well. There is something about sherry and cloves that just makes me swoon, just remember to remove the clove before serving! Also a drizzle of truffle oil sends the flavours stratospheric - Heaven!

Sluttishly Snackish: Miller's Toast

I shouldn't be this excited about things you put cheese on (surely I should be more excited about cheese?) A couple of weeks ago, I was on cheese duty for dinner and these Miller's Toasts jumped into my shopping basket. You should always put me on cheese duty.

I've bought about five packets since.

You see, I don't like a lot of biscuits for cheese. They're often oaty, they're heavy and they get in the way of all the cheese goodness. But if I'm spending a lot of money on cheese (and I do, because I think it's entirely reasonable to buy nearly a kilo for two people), then I don't think a Jacob's Cream Cracker really cuts it.

These toast bread cracker thingies are tomato and chilli flavour (you can also get hazelnut and pecan or cranberry and raisin varieties) and they're the tastiest cheese biscuits I've ever had. They're just the right level of spicy. You don't actually need chutney with them, and I haven't found a cheese that they didn't work with (believe me, I'm working my way through the entire Waitrose cheese counter). They're so much more interesting than oat cakes and they're so tasty I keep eating them even when all of the cheese has gone.

They're £2.45 from Waitrose. They make me eat more cheese. I'm always going to recommend things that make me eat more cheese. I wish I was always in charge of cheese.

Sluttishly Easy: Cheesy Beet Gratin

No, not cheesy feet gratin. Cheesy BEETroot gratin. It's almost 100 times better than cheesy feet, I promise.

This is simply a beetier (and dare I say it, better) version of dauphinoise potatoes, complete with lashings of cream, garlic and gruyere cheese. It's a lot less carby than a potato gratin, and the volcanic magenta bubbles of cream are particuarly fetching.

If you don't want pink fingers for the rest of the week, wear rubber gloves when peeling and slicing the beetroot. And if you feel like adding a few slices of potato or apple into the mix, I certainly won't hold it against you.

Cheesy Beet Gratin (serves 4 as a side dish)

You'll need:

• A bunch of fresh beetroots (I used 4 large ones)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 300ml whipping cream
• 100g gruyere or another hard cheese, grated 

Make it!

• First wash, peel and slice the beetroots into thin discs. I used a food processor to make wafer thin slices, but a good old kitchen knife will do just fine.
• Preheat the oven to 180c / Gas 4.
• Warm the cream and garlic in a pan to let the garlicky goodness infuse into the cream.
• Butter a roasting dish, then put in a layer of beetroot, pour over some garlicky cream, season and sprinkle a little cheese.
• Keep layering - beetroot, cream, seasoning, finishing with a good sprinkle of cheese on the top.
• Pop it in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the gratin is bubbling and the beetroot slices are tender (this will depend on how chunky your slices are).

Sluttishly Savoury: Tartiflette

When you can't tell if the main ingredient in your dinner is cheese or potatoes, you're onto a winner. Tartiflette is a contender for the tastiest thing the French have ever invented (and let's not forget, this is the country responsible for Thierry Henri). Say it out loud: tartiflette, tartiflette, tartiflette. It sounds sexy, doesn't it? It's basically potatoes and bacon smothered in cheese so it is sexy.

But we're not talking a baked potato with cheese (king of snacks), we're talking a whole new level of cheese-based joy. I should have used a whole reblochon cheese, but Asda didn't know what that was. Instead I used brie. You cut the cheese in half, still in the rind, and then cover your dish with it before baking until golden brown. You'll have more cheese than dinner on your plate and you just plain won't care.

Hats off to French cooks everywhere. I think I love you all.

(Serves four, apparently.)

You'll need:

• 8 large potatoes, peeled
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 3 rashers of bacon, chopped
• five cloves of garlic
• 200ml of double cream
• 1 reblochon (or 400g brie if your supermarket hasn't heard of reblochon, a Camembert would work too - basically anything in a white rind)
• salt and pepper

Make it:

• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees
• Get the potatoes on to boil.
• While they're boiling, season and saute the bacon, garlic and onions until they're all reduced and tasty.
• When the potatoes are boiled, slice them and lay half into an oven proof dish. Add some of the bacon mix and pour some cream over. Repeat.
• Slice your cheese in half and lay rind side up over your potato mix. Season.
• Pop in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the cheese is all melted and the rind is a golden brown.
• Slice, serve with salad and collapse in a heap.

Weekly Wine: Easy peasy wine and… cheese-y

Psst… don't tell anyone but CHRISTMAS STARTS TOMORROW. Oh, okay, so it's only December 1st, but that does mean we're officially allowed to mention the big day without getting scroogey looks from people.

This week, I'm going to drool incessantly at the thought of my Christmas cheeseboard. Yeah, it's maybe not quite as important as the turkey or the mince pies, but as a cheese fangirl it's definitely a treat for me, both on the big day and at the parties leading up to it.

"But cheese and wine matching is easy!" I hear you cry (…silently.) Traditionally-speaking, you're right, and we all think red, red, red. I think most people are food-savvy enough to know you put Bordeaux reds with hard cheddary stuff, mature Burgundy matches mature softies like brie and camembert, and Port is stilton's absolute bezza.

But a post telling you what you already know is no fun at all, plus traditional doesn't mean 'right', and I like to shake things up a bit. So this year I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, wine and cheese-wise. And you'd be surprised how tasty these matches are.

Hard cheeses

Oh, yum-central. Cheddar, parmesan, Lincolnshire poacher… salty, flavourful, dry and sometimes a tad nutty. Before I fall into a cheese-induced coma, I should tell you that reds sometimes overpower these wonderful flavours. Throw a Christmas curveball and serve the hard cheeses with a medium-dry Vouvray, like Vouvray, Les Coteaux Tufiers, Demi-Sec 2009 at a surprising £6.95 from The Wine Society. The slight rich sweetness offsets the cheese's salty dryness, and its honeyed delicacy smooths out the nutty flavours. Heaven.

Soft cheeses

The gooey, melt-in-your-mouthy ones. Camembert, Brie, and even stinky goats cheese. A red-free zone in my household - I much prefer a nice crisp sauvignon. The tangy cheese is well-paired with an aromatic white, so a zingy gewurztraminer might even do the job too. My choice would be a Loire Sauvignon like Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Touraine Sauvignon for a very reasonable £7.99.

Blue cheeses

Roquefort, Saint-Agur, Stilton. When you get a really good one, it's so salty and harsh I can't quite believe people enjoy eating this stuff. But OH WE DO. Those canny French people have matched Roquefort with sweet white Sauternes for donkeys years, and I can't get believe we haven't cottoned on yet. Massive saltiness, meet massive sweetness... Wow, you guys should totally get married.

A half-bottle will do the job, and Waitrose's own-brand Sauternes is made by the massive name Chateau Suduiraut, and yet is only £14.99. It'll probably last the Christmas season in the fridge too if you don't scoff it all on the big day.

There we go, some ideas for a cheeseboard with a twist that'll make the end of the Christmas meal worth staying awake for. Three wines, and feel free to mix and match - I reckon the sauvignon would be great with some of the hard cheeses too, and Vouvray and the softies will probably be delish.

Maybe mix it up a bit with the traditional red suggestions if you don't want to be too avant-garde, but hey, this could be the start of a whole new set of cheese and wine-matching traditions…

Feel free to wax lyrical about your wine and cheese heavens on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Image taken from thezartorialist.com's photostream under the Creative Commons License.

Baking for beginners: Mozzarella and Oregano Savoury Muffins

I'd love to tell you that dinner guests in my house are welcomed with the rustic scent of freshly baked bread and a cool glass of Chablis. Now, whilst the wine part is certainly true, my hectic lifestyle means I almost always sacrifice the long drawn-out process of bread baking in favour of time to get my face on for company.

However, this is not to say that my guests go without when it comes to a suitable accompaniment to their fresh truffle pappadelle or rich penne al'arrabiata.

These are the most perfect alternative to bread, will take you a half-hour to prepare and can be altered to suit whatever you're eating. Goat's cheese and sundried tomatoes, Stilton and walnut, Edam and fig … the list is endless!

Whatever you put in, you can be sure that your guests will love this unusual take on the humble bread roll, and it'll leave you with enough time to beautify before your friends arrive.

Mozzarella and Oregano Savoury Muffins (makes 12)

You will need:

• 300g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• one tablespoon of baking powder
• black pepper (freshly ground)
• 150g mozzarella, finely chopped
• heaped tablespoon of dried oregano
• two medium eggs
• 250ml buttermilk
• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• fresh basil leaves and sundried tomatoes for decoration

Make it!

• Get your oven nicely pre-heated to 200ºC. Don’t scrimp on heating-up time; a hot oven allows your muffins to rise and cook through evenly without burning. Whilst it’s warming up, pop 12 muffin cases into your muffin tin. You can daydream about a pay-rise whilst you do this if you like.
• Sift together all your dry ingredients into a glass or ceramic bowl. Add the mozzarella and oregano, distributing evenly throughout the mixture.
• Beat the eggs then add the buttermilk and oil. Be sure not to over-blend.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the beaten mixture. Mix together gently and by hand. Over-mixing will leave you with dry muffins – moisture is key!
• Divide the mixture into the muffin cases; taking time to ensure each muffin has a decent amount of mozzarella.
• Add a basil leaf and slice of sundried tomato to the top of the muffin and bake for 20 minutes. Your muffins should rise a little, be golden in colour and spongy to the touch.
• Serve warm with butter as an alternative to a bread roll.

Sluttishly Vegetarian: Quesadilla with Guacamole

Mexican food is one of my very favourite types of food and, due to the fact that until recently finding a decent local Mexican restaurant* was akin to beating one's head repeatedly against a wall, I have been rustling up my own Mexican goodies for many years now.

It also pretty perfect when you are catering for both vegetarian and meat eaters alike as a lot of Mexican food just involves grabbing a handful of stuff, be that veggies, meat or beans, and chucking it in a tortilla. Earlier this week Sara shared her recipe for fajitas and if you enjoyed them then you will love these quesadilla, which are essentially a toasted sandwich Mexican stylee!

This recipe is for a vegetarian version of a quesadilla but you can tweak it to your personal taste by adding meat and/or substituting veggies. If you want to make them for more people just increase your quantities accordingly.

Quesadilla with guacamole (serves 1 or 2 for lunch)

You will need:

For the quesadilla

• 2 flour tortilla
• 75g Cheese, grated
• 1 large Carrot, grated
• 2 Spring Onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Red Chilli, thinly sliced

For the guacamole

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 ripe tomato, deseeded and diced
• 1 red chilli, diced
• Lime Juice, to taste
• Salt, to taste

Make it!

For the quesadilla

• Mix together the vegetable and cheese.
• Lay one of your tortilla in a dry frying pan. Spread the vegetable and cheese mixture over the tortilla and place the other tortilla on the top. Cook over a medium heat for 1 - 2 minutes until the cheese starts to melt.
• Flip over the quesadilla and cook on the other side for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from pan and serve immediately cut into wedges with some guacamole, salsa or sour cream.

For the guacamole

• Mash your avocado in a bowl with a fork to your desired level of chunkiness.
• Add the diced tomatoes and chilli pepper and mix together.
• Add lime juice and salt to taste. Serve immediately.

* In case you are wondering my holy grail is Salsa Mexicana which is one of the very best authentic Mexican eateries I have had the pleasure to visit. If you live in or around Leeds, or even if you are just visiting, go eat there as soon as you can.

Cox & Cox platters

Platters mean good food. You can't put boring cereal or soup on a platter. Oh no. Platters mean cheese, platters mean meat. And cheese and some more cheese and a little bit more meat. Nothing bad has ever been served on a platter.

So I want one.


See? Cox & Cox are only showing their large platter with yummy things on. Look at all the bread! All for me! This one is £25, and arrives in mid April (you can order in advance though, and plan all the tasty things you'll buy to put on it).


Nothing that's basically invented for carrying cheese can be a bad thing. This small platter is £15.

If you need me, I'll be in the fridge eating cheese.

Koziol Cheese Grater

I don't really need anything to make me like cheese more than I do. It is what it is, and it's darn tasty. Nothing needs changing. More just needs eating. But then, I didn't know about the cheese grating hedgehog.

It wasn't even me who found him. Our Twitter friend @Erin_hunter found him on Firebox nibbling on their cheddar and she's already planning on giving him a new home. He's not available yet (still hibernating, I imagine), you'll have to wait until March 28th. But you can pre-order him and soon a little army of hedgehogs will be leaving Firebox HQ to help with the cheese grating needs of Britain. All for £8.99.

I'm going to grate things that need don't even need grating, just because he's cute. I know it.

Want to tell us about the cool things you find? Or know about our new discoveries and recipes? Follow us on Twitter.

All I Want For Christmas: Alex E

What does a foodie want for Christmas? If they're anything like me, this collection of goodies will keep them happy well into the New Year.


Under £10 - I couldn't get enough of Kate Jenkins' exhibition of knitted food earlier this year, so this crocheted radish keyring is the perfect stocking filler for me. Useful, cute and crafty (without me having to wrestle with wool & needles). There are several different vege varieties and they cost £10 from the V&A shop.

Under £25 - I'm a messy cook, a very messy cook, and I have an ever growing collection of aprons. This Battersea power station design by Snowden Flood is a bit different though, and I love it. No frills, cupcakes or polka dots here, just a funky modern print of the iconic building.
The apron costs £17.50 from Hidden Art.

Under £50 - Cheese is fantastic. Fact. So what better Christmas gift than this "I Love Cheese" Board from British Fine Foods? The set comes complete with cutesy heart-shaped cheeses, lavender oatmeal biscuits and a slate board to write loving messages on. Or to scrawl abuse at the housemate who ate the last of your Vintage Organic Godminster Cheddar. Whichever you prefer.
£39.90 from British Fine Foods.

Under £100 - We loved Artisan du Chocolat at Easter, and we still love them now it's Christmas. Their Indulgence hamper is packed with over a kilo of the finest chocolate - from their legendary liquid salted caramels, to bars, truffles and nougatine. Heaven in a handbasket.
£90 from Artisan du Chocolat.

Souper dooper: Cauliflower, broccoli & blue cheese soup

I really should be a member of cheeseaholics anonymous. I just can't get enough, and the stinkier the better. So on finding some sad little heads of broccoli and cauliflower in my fridge, I knew exactly what to do with them. Cheese can sex anything up. Fact.

Cauliflower and broccoli are pretty cheap vegetables and amazingly good for you, bursting with vitamin C to keep those colds away and with some pretty stonking anti-cancer properties too.

And I know blue cheese can be scary for some people (mould - ew!), but this recipe is quite subtle and the cheese doesn't overpower it, so do give it a go. If you really hate the idea you could always substitute some good, strong cheddar.

Cauliflower, broccoli & blue cheese soup (serves 2)

You'll need:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 large potato, peeled and cut into chunks
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 300g cauliflower and/or broccoli, cut into florets
• 50g blue cheese, I used Blacksticks Blue, a yummy cheese from Lancashire

Make it!

• Cook the onion in the vegetable oil until soft but not coloured, about 5 minutes on a gentle heat.
• Add the potato chunks and the vegetable stock. Simmer the potatoes until soft, about 10 minutes.
• Add the cauliflower and/or broccoli florets. Simmer for a further 5 minutes until they are tender. You might find they poke out of the stock (depending on the size of your saucepan), in which case, put the lid on and they'll part simmer, part steam.
• Bung everything into the blender, along with the cheese. Whiz until smooth.
• Season to taste.
• Eat. Don't think about the mould.

Charming Charcuterie: Unearthed Foods

When the kind people at Unearthed Foods offered to send me some of their tasty treats, there was no question about my accepting. A UK-based continental food brand, Unearthed charcuterie is available from Waitrose, Ocado, Abel & Cole and independent delicatessens across the country.

Their foods include classic and authentic ingredients, regionally-sourced to provide a strong and eclectic mix of tastes and flavours from all over the world. My box of goodies, which arrived beautifully packaged, included barrel-aged feta, hot chilli olives, Spanish chorizo, Serrano ham and a selection of other cured, cooked and downright delicious meats, as well as a sexy wooden board to present and serve them all on.

As well as the ready-to-eat treats that I received, the Unearthed range also includes dishes for cooking, such as pork meatballs in chipotle sauce and bean tapas with manchego. Whether for snacking or cooking, all the Unearthed foods have been carefully selected so that they're easy to prepare and share. I took my box of treats on a weekend away to visit a friend in her new home. And what a feast we had. The barrel-aged feta was perfect in our avocado salad, and although I wimped out and separated the chillis from the fiery olives, both were soon demolished between mouthfuls of meat and red wine.

I'd definitely recommend Unearthed, their snacks are ideal for lazy hostesses like me and perfect for feasting on. All you need to do is buy the bread and booze to go with them, and you'll be set for an evening of food, banter and fun. Just don't blame me if you decide to finish off those chillis at 3am when all the booze is gone.

Sluttishly Savoury: Creamy Chicken Risotto

I warn you now, this is not risotto for the purists due to me doing terrible things like putting cream and cheese in but it is one of my favourite meals. Very filling, very comforting and very yummy. It takes a bit of effort but the end result is worth it.

I also warn you that the measurements are a guide. I very rarely weigh things out when I cook regular dinner, a result of learning at the apron strings of Momma Shoes who's very much a 'throw it in and see what happens' kind of cook. If you follow the ones below, you'll end up with enough to feed an army. Well at least 4-6 of you.

You'll need:

• 200g chicken
• 400g arborio rice
• 200g sliced mushrooms
• 2 pints stock plus up to 1 extra pint of hot water
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Basil
• Pepper
• 1-2 cloves garlic (or, if you're like me, 1-2 teaspoons of lazy garlic!)
• 130g cheese
• 50ml double cream

Make it!

• Cut the chicken into small, bite sized pieces and gently brown in a sauté pan or a deep frying pan with the garlic. Once the chicken has browned, add the mushrooms and cook until they're just starting to go brown. At this point add the rice and stir until all the juices have been soaked up.
  

• Add 1 pint of stock, lemon juice, basil and pepper and stir (did I mention there's a lot of stirring? Sorry!) before covering and leaving on the lowest heat to simmer for a few minutes. While it's simmering, pour yourself a nice glass of wine of other beverage of your choice.

• Give it another stir and add more stock if needed - you'll probably need another 1/4 pint at this stage. Stir it some more and then cover and leave to simmer for a few more minutes.
  

• Been able to resist the smells yet? Of course not. Give it a stir (apparently it's the stirring that activates whatever it is in the rice that makes it go creamy) and add the rest of the stock. Stir and stir some more until you get bored, cover and simmer.

• If it looks a little dry, add some hot water - go easy though, about 1/4 pint at a time - and stir it through. The stirring should be starting to make it thicken anyway but add water as necessary. The rice should be starting to go al dente at this point.

• Add the cheese and stir until it's melted. I've not specified what cheese as it's completely up to you. Sometimes I use Stilton or gorgonzola but in this case I used an extra mature cheddar.

• If you want to, stir in the cream. It does make it a bit more indulgent but you worked hard today, you deserve it.

Serve with a hunk of ciabatta and another glass of wine. Yum.

Sluttishly Savoury: Stilton, Broccoli & Chicken Pie

It's British Pie Week this week. A week commemorating the nation's deep adoration and affection for carbs, grease, or fruit encased in layers of lovely pastry.

So, what better occasion than this to share this simple but tasty recipe for Stilton, broccoli and chicken pie? It's perfect for using up any white meat leftovers, and you could just as easily make it with turkey or for vegetarians with Quorn pieces instead of chicken. And since it's made with tinned soup as the base for the sauce, it's super speedy to prepare but still tastes satisfyingly homemade and comforting when it's cold outside.

For a pie large enough to serve four, you'll need:
1 tin of Stilton and broccoli soup
400g chicken, turkey or Quorn
300g puff pastry
100g broccoli
2 tbsps olive or vegetable oil
1 egg

All you need to do is:
1.Stick your oven onto 190C so it can be pre-heating. Dice the meat or Quorn into small chunks, warm the oil in a saucepan and add the meat or Quorn pieces. Chop your broccoli into teensy florets and add them to the pan too for five minutes or so until the broccoli has softened and the chicken is cooked through.
2.Stir in the soup and cook for another couple of minutes. Spoon the soup, chicken and broccoli mixture into a pie dish.
3.Roll the pastry out on a floured surface, place onto top of the pie dish and seal the lid around the edges. Use a knife to make a couple of holes so the steam can escape.
4.Beat the egg and brush over the pastry, then bake for 35 minutes until the surface is gold and puffed up to perfection.

Valentine's gifts: She's a Cheesy Lover

I don't 'do' Valentine's - and certainly not cheesy gifts and soppy, gushy greetings cards. So the fact that I'm posting about this very subject may come as a shock... but! I have, in fact, found the most perfect edible dairy-based gift for your loved one (or indeed yourself, if like me you are a cheese lover: a fancier of fondue or an eater of Edam) this Valentine's: Godminster's heart-shaped vintage organic cheddar:

This 400g heart-shaped chunk of purple waxed Cheddar (or a 'truckle', to use the technical term) by Godminster is made in Somerset with organic milk so it tastes extra creamy. Mmmm! Best of all, it's even presented in a lovely little gift box:

They say the way to your loved one's heart is via the stomach - and they (who exactly are 'they', anyway?) are certainly not wrong. Get me this for Valentine's (or anytime, it's only £13.75) and this Cheesy Lover will heart you forever.