They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day but how many people actually look forward to it? We are determined to not only make it the most important meal but the most delicious with our scrummy Stilton and Bacon Burger recipe.

And what’s more, this week is Farmhouse Breakfast Week here in the UK so what better excuse to treat yourself to a hearty breakfast that will certainly set you up for the busy day ahead.

Breakfast or Brunch, this recipe will leave you wishing it was Farmhouse Breakfast Week every week!

Stilton and Bacon Burgers, with the works

Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes

450g steak mince
Pepper
Stilton cheese, cut into thin slices
8 slices smoked streaky bacon
Olive oil

To serve: 4 Buns, 4 trimmed leaves of your favourite lettuce, sliced tomatoes, gherkins and red onions, mayo and ketchup, (or red onion jam).

Mix together the mince with lots of salt and pepper and shape into 4 burgers. Heat a griddle pan until smoking. Grill thoroughly until cooked through.

Set the burgers on a plate to rest for a minute or two while you get on with your bacon. Lay the bacon on the griddle and grill for 1 minute on each side or until crisp and golden.

When the burgers are done pop a burger in each of the buns and build to your liking. For me the works means putting mayo and salad on the bottom bun, then topping with ketchup and cheese, but do it however it feels natural to.

Credit: Stilton Cheesemakers Association

The Chester Whisky Festival kicks off on October 29th where over 30 of the finest producers of Single Malt Whisky, liqueurs, beers and vodka will be in attendance.

To celebrate, the Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association has revealed the best whiskeys and drinks to accompany this fine British cheese.

Stilton is a full-flavoured cheese, so it needs to be matched to an equally strong flavoured drink which is why Port is always a favourite. However, it is by no means the only option. Here are some simple everyday Stilton pairing suggestions to tantalise your taste buds:

Open Sandwich of Stilton and Smoked Scottish Salmon on Rye Bread/Single Malt Whisky

A bit like blue cheese, smoked foods demand a powerful liquid. Try this sandwich with a Speyside single malt such as The Macallan or a lighter Islay malt like a Bowmore 12 year old (widely available). For most people Malt Whisky is not an obvious pairing with Stilton but when a small amount of water is added to one of these peaty Malts it brings out a natural sweetness that complements the beautiful tangy/earthy flavours of the Stilton.

Stilton Ploughman’s (Crusty bread, Stilton, Sweet Pickles)/Strong Beer

Beer is often a better choice than wine whenever you have strong vinegar (sour wine) flavours as in pickles and chutneys. The sweet malty character of Guinness works really well with tangy Stilton. You could also try a strong ale like Bishops Finger (widely available) or even Barley wine where again the sweet notes complement beautifully the complex flavours of the cheese.

The trick is to experiment – these are suggestions others have made but if you have some interesting matches of your own, do let us know.

September is upon us and this can only mean two things for fruit lovers across the country - apples and pears - they are in season and flavour of the month.

The good news spread in July that English apples were already getting picked for an earlier than expected harvest, providing a bumper crop for fruit growers.

The extreme cold of winter and the warmth that arrived in April has ensured we’ll be having a great variety of apples and pears for the coming months.

Here at Stilton, we’re never short of ideas nor do we ever run out of recipes! The King of British cheese can be extremely versatile, if you're short on time a cold pear and Stilton makes for a great snack. 

If you’re ready to be more adventurous in the kitchen, whether you're looking for a sweet or savoury dish, we have something to inspire you so grab your Stilton and follow us into the kitchen

Stilton and Walnut Quesadillas with Apple Fig Salsa

These delicious shapes use so many of the flavours, such as California walnuts, complimentary to the bold taste of Stilton.

Ingredients

• 3 oz/75 g crumbled Stilton
• 2 oz/50 g California walnuts, toasted and chopped
• Half a large Golden Delicious apple, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 2 oz/50 g dried figs
• 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• four 6 - 7 inch flour tortillas
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C or gas mark 8

2. In a bowl stir together apple, figs, and lemon juice to form the salsa.

3. Put 2 tortillas on a baking sheet and brush with some oil. Turn tortillas over. Sprinkle tortillas with walnuts and Stilton and cover with remaining 2 tortillas, pressing gently.

4. Brush tops with remaining oil and bake in middle of oven until golden, 8 to 10 minutes.

5. Cut into wedges and top each wedge with a spoonful of the salsa.

Serves 4

Recipe by Chef Sarah Moulton, Gourmet magazine

Burgundy Pears with Stilton Cream

Any cook can be made to look like a world-class chef with these stunning flavors and presentation.

Ingredients

• 4 ripe pears
• 1/2 bottle of good red wine
• 50g/2oz. sugar
• 1 bayleaf
• piece of lemon peel
• piece of orange peel
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 6 black peppercorns
• 2 cloves
• 110g/4oz Stilton
• 175ml/6floz cider
• 150ml/5floz double cream

Method

Peel the pears, removing the core but leaving the stalks in. Place in a large pan with the other ingredients. Bring to a boil. Skim off any impurities and simmer for 8-10 minutes until the pears are just cooked. Cool.

To make the cream, combine the cheese, cider and cream in a pan. Simmer for 2 minutes, then liquidize. Add pepper if required and pass through a seive.

To serve, pour a little of the cream over each pear and serve the remainder in a sauceboat. Garnish the pears with a little shredded and blanched leek.

Serves 4

Recipe by Steven Wheeler for the Stilton Cheese Makers' Association

 White Stilton, Apple, Pear & Pecan Nut Crumble

White Stilton offers a crumbly white texture and a clean flavour that complements fruit. The topping for this crumble has a delicious chewy quality brought about by the addition of white Stilton and pecan nuts.
 
Ingredients

• 1lb/450g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1lb/450g ripe pears, peeled, cored and chopped
• 175g/6oz plain flour
• 75g/3oz white Stilton cheese
• 50g/2oz medium oats
• 50g/2oz butter
• 50g/2oz pecan nuts
• 50g/2oz caster sugar (plus extra to sweeten fruit)

Method

1 Preheat to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F / Gas Mark 4. Place the fruit in an ovenproof crumble dish, scatter sugar over the fruit to sweeten and set aside.

2 Place remaining ingredients in a food processor fitted with blade attachment, and whiz briefly until mixture resembles fresh breadcrumbs.

3 Pile the crumble over the fruit, pressing down gently (the level of the crumble will drop as the fruit cooks beneath), and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes.

4 Serve with vanilla dairy ice cream.

Serves 4

Recipe by Steven Wheeler for the Stilton Cheese Makers' Association

Alas! The Great British Summer of 2011 will soon come to an end, but before we wave goodbye to the summer sun and head back to our hearty winter tradition, it's time to make the most of that chequered cloth for the remaining weekends and have ourselves a grand barbeque!

Make the most of your free summer time by adding some zing and flavour to all your barbeque favourites with some Stilton cheese. Try a generous slice of Stilton on a juicy burger and top it off with some lettuce, tomato and a dollop of ketchup.

Crumbled Stilton would taste absolutely irresistible on a bowlful full of nachos topped with sliced tomatoes, spring onions and a salsa dip on the side.

Recipe goddess, Gizzi Erskine, has an array of Stilton recipes that will tickle your taste buds and will surely spruce up your BBQ weekend.

There are lots of lovely recipes on the Stilton homepage to choose from-Simply click on the recipe tab and rustle up something special!

The world’s greatest cheese show?

Cheese lovers – what would be your ideal day out? Imagine being at the largest cheese Show in the UK (possibly in the world)!

Nantwich International Cheese Show took place on the 27^th July with more than 3,700 cheeses from all over the world, all competing for the top prize of Supreme Champion.

Over 100 judges spend the morning and early afternoon smelling, pressing, prodding and tasting the cheeses. The winners of each class (there are classes for different types of Cheddar – such as farmhouse, creamery, organic, vegetarian – all of different ages, plus classes for individual regional and speciality cheeses (such as Stilton, Lancashire, Cheshire, Wensleydale), Blue Cheese, white mould cheese, soft cheese, goats or sheep milk cheeses) go forward to a super panel of judges to decide “Best in Show” and the runner up.

While all this is going on cheesemakers from all over the world are talking and tasting each other’s cheeses at the various stands surrounding the cheese display. All of this takes place in a set of air-conditioned marquees with solid floors in the middle of a field in Nantwich, Cheshire. Another air-conditioned marquee hosts a buffet lunch for more than 800 paying guests where local food - and of course cheese - are on the menu.

No wonder the Brits have a reputation for slight eccentricities – how mad is that to have such a big event in a field at the end of July, especially with the unpredictable summer weather? Thankfully this year the sun shone and the ground was dry – no Wellingtons and umbrellas needed this time!

The Following day, the public had the opportunity to try hundreds of different cheeses on offer at the stands, see the winning cheeses and talk to cheesemakers. Before leaving for home, visitors could buy their favourite cheeses.

More than 30,000 visited the Cheese Show, which is part of the larger Nantwich Show where you can also see more than 600 cattle in the livestock show, gundogs and falconry, exhibits and demonstrations of rural crafts and skills, competitions on Arts & Crafts, Floral Art, Horticulture, Honey, Poultry, Pigeons and Dogs not to mention 350 trade stands. It’s a wow family day out but sadly it’s only on for one day.

But, getting back to cheese – ask people to name as many cheeses as they can and most will get to five and then stop. Odds are that the two they will recall are Cheddar and Stilton. So it is perhaps fitting and a tribute to the worldwide reputation of these two great cheeses that the Champion cheese was a cave-aged Farmhouse Cheddar from Dorset producer Ford Farm and the Reserve Champion was a Blue Stilton from Long Clawson Dairy. So Gold and Silver for England, rest of the world zero! You can’t accuse me of being jingoistic.

You may have missed the greatest cheese on earth but you can still have a cheesy meal and celebrate with us the fabulous cheeses now being made in the UK. If you have some cheese and bread, some salad or vegetables in the house you’ll always be a short step away from creating a tasty and healthy meal; and remember Stilton is not just for Christmas. One of my favourite ways of using Stilton in the summer is to simply crumble over a salad – almost regardless of the other ingredients it seems to work and give the salad that extra bit of oomph!

For other ideas try the recipe section on our web site for starters, soups, mains and even puds – you may even surprise yourself!

Having just seen the weather forecast for the week ahead one could be excused for feeling a tad depressed. How can Summer be like this - cold, wet and windy! Long evenings spent out of doors socialising, drinking or playing sport just don't seem to be the same when you're forced to turn to your Winter wardrobe.

But banish those Summer blues with a bit of British Blue - in fact probably the best blue cheese in the world. Yes, you've guessed it - Stilton - King of English cheese!

I always have a piece of Stilton in the fridge (and indeed in the freezer) as a standy ingredient for quick lunches, snacks and dinners. My favourites are to crumble it on a salad; to top some "ready to toast" Cheddar cheese on toast with a few dobs which then blend in with the Cheddar as it melts; to blend with mango chutney and spread on bread for a quick and tasty sandwich; to top a burger or steak for the last minute of cooking; and finally wash and de-stalk big portobello mushrooms, put a blob of Stilton in each and put in the oven (around 180) for 15 to 20 minutes and serve with a side salad.* You don't have to be a gourmet chef to create tasty, quick snacky meals  - if I can do it, anyone can!

*PS If you want a facy version of this try this recipe from Phil Vickery

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/portobellomushroomsw_85771

Our True Blue blogger Neil Sowerby prepares for the Royal Wedding... and decides against Belgravia for the big day

THE buntings up, my last few bottles of Belvoir’s Stilton ale, Blue Brew, are lightly chilling and there’s a wedge of the world’s finest blue cheese ready to be the mainstay of the street party spread.

OK it’s not our street. One a couple a miles away where we have been doing up a bijou terraced house for my daughter and partner to live in with their imminent child. The Royal Wedding’s a great opportunity to meet their new neighbours properly. Just don’t ask me to coo about Kate’s dress... and I promise not to comment on her consort’s male pattern baldness. Might toast the departed Queen Mum, though. Bet Ma’am was partial to a bit of Blue Stilton.

It’s not going to be as posh as Belgravia obviously. Terraces our way come a mite more affordable, but then they are not “Regency”. I stumbled upon a website touting the upmarket quarter’s choice pubs and bars as the best alternative to lining the nearby royal route. Talk about one-upmanship... and I quote:

“To keep your weekend regal, why not visit The Ebury, for dinner and cocktails where bride-to-be Kate Middleton was spotted recently – perhaps while planning the big day! Or try the special Royal Wedding menu at The Ebury Restaurant & Wine Bar, a favourite haunt of Prince William, featuring a Poached William Pear with Stilton en croute with a watercress and walnut salad.” Good choice.

I was surprised that Stilton only featured once in the rather fanciful culinary combinations gleaned from top chefs by Gourmet Traveller magazine. Nottingham’s Sat Bains (who in the 2007 Great British Menu came up with ‘rhubarb and strawberries, rapeseed oil pastille with Stilton, port and black pepper’) begged her Majesty’s permission to roast a swan. More tongue in cheek, Jacob Kennedy from Soho’s Bocca di Lupo offered up a bee set in royal jelly aspic.

It was left to a Frenchman, Pierre Gagnaire, mastermind behind London’s Sketch to suggest a much more tempting dish of iced Stilton parfait and lychee sorbet with rhubarb. Here’s a Stilton parfait recipe (not his) that I intend to take down to the party. If the current weather sticks around, it’s unlikely to stay iced for long!

Parfait of Stilton, Pickled Walnuts & Grapes – Caramelised Onion Chutney

Ingredients:

Parfait

500 grams Stilton Cheese

75 grams Butter

10/15 Pickled Walnuts

Bunch of 20/25 Grapes

Chutney

3 Medium Sized Red Onions

25 grams Brown Sugar

50/75 ml Red Wine

Splash Balsamic Vinegar

Method:

Parfait

Put a pan of water on the gas ring and boil

Put Stilton and butter in a mixing bowl (stainless if possible) and place over steam to melt (this prevents burning)

Whisk Stilton and butter together until you get a smooth consistency

Pour a third of the mixture into a stainless steel terrine tin or loaf tin (suitable shaped mould which is not metal can be used but you must line it with cling film before filling with mixture).

Wait two to three minutes for mixture to start to stiffen, then add grapes in pairs, in a uniformed manner, equal distances apart all the way along the tin.

Pour a third more mixture over grapes, and repeat the process using the pickled walnuts.

Cover with 'cling' and put the finished Parfait in the fridge to set.

By applying heat with a blow torch or holding over a gas ring will ease the Parfait out of a metal mould. Or pull ends of 'cling' if you have used a 'cling'-lined mould.

Cut to size and serve.

Chutney

Slice red onions in to even strips (not too thick)

Put into a hot pan and stir, as the natural sugars are produced from the onions (do not burn)

Add brown sugar, splash of balsamic & red wine and stir in.

Simmer on low heat for two to three hours, checking and stirring at regular intervals. You do not want it to burn the bottom of the pan or boil dry.

You are looking to reduce this down slowly caramelising the sugar so the chutney is sweet and sticky. Don't be afraid to add a splash more wine or more sugar if needed. 

This month on our blog, courtesy of Argos you could win a Bush Undercounter Fridge, worth £129.99.  We don’t all have space for 6ft fridge freezers in our kitchens so for those of you who are looking for something smaller that will sit under your work top then this fridge is ideal. 

The white fridge freezer fits 103 litres of fresh food and 15 frozen, so there is plenty of room for anything you need to keep chilled or frozen!

The fridge also has a freezer compartment, energy rating of A and holds over 100 litres of fresh food – a perfect prize to fill with your favourite blue cheese or Stilton’s beer, The Blue Brew.

Stilton is best kept in the fridge and brought out two hours before serving, which allows it to be at the perfect texture, to put on a cracker, top a juicy burger or even crumble on a pizza – it really is a versatile cheese that has a lot more uses than just the festive cheeseboard!

To win this amazing prize, simply comment your answer on this blog to the following question (the answer can be found somewhere on the Stilton site):

How many dairies are permitted to make Blue Stilton cheese?

Plus tell us your favourite way to eat Stilton.

Deadline is 14 April 2011. Good luck! For more Stilton info or tips, follow us online:

www.facebook.com/stiltoncheese

www.twitter.com/iloveStilton

For more information on Argos:

www.argos.co.uk

Terms & Conditions

* The competition is  only open to UK residents aged over 18

* The prize is not redeemable for cash or resale.

* The prize cannot be shipped outside of the UK

* Delivery will be within 28 days of Argos receiving the winner’s address, and the competition  prize may vary at the discretion of Argos

International Women’s Day leads our Stilton blogger Neil Sowerby to salute the important role women have played in the cheese’s evolution

 Arguably BRITAIN’s finest cheese shop, La Fromagerie, off London’s Marylebone High Street, is run by a woman – the formidable Patricia Michelson. Her last book, The World’s Best Artisan Cheeses, was particularly complimentary to Blue Stilton.

 She’s not alone. Forget the Clubbable Male-and-Stilton stereotype. I’ve found many female food lovers with a more acute perception of the cheese’s olefactory and gustatory triumphs.

 It’s similar to the ascendancy (once they were allowed) of women tasters in the wine trade. There may be a physiological reason or an innate ability to catalogue taste memories better. It’s too complex a subject for this particular hard-pressed blogger.

 Noticeable, too, is the increasing pre-eminence of female cheesemakers such as Mrs Kirkham (Lancashire), Catherine Mead (Cornish Yarg) and Mary Quicke (Cheddar) and you get my drift. 

 Quenby Hall Stilton being named Supreme Champion at the 2009 British Cheese Awards owed not a little to the assiduity of cheesemaker Sara Strong, whose reaction demonstrated her respect for tradition – the cheese’s return to its roots at Quenby.

 “Since reforming the dairy in 2005, we’ve worked hard to re-establish traditional farming cycles. For starters, we only use milk from local herds here in Leicestershire; and rather than discarding the whey, we pass it onto local pig farmers to use as feed. Their meat is then used in Melton Mowbray pork pies.

 “The gentler the curds are placed into the drying trough, the better. We think of it like laying a sleeping baby down in its crib.

 “Next, we hand-mill it by hand so as not to compromise the creaminess of the end product.”

An almost maternal approach to the world’s best blue cheese, I’d say!

 Of course, in the 18th century gender demarcation lines between husbandry and dairy were more strictly drawn than today, be it in a fine country pile or a more modest farmhouse. A working woman’s place was in the kitchen and in the dairy making the cheese – whilst husband farmer toiled in the fields.

 Quenby Hall, magnificently Jacobean, was built in 1627 by one George Ashby. In the 1700s, when park enclosures were introduced to control grazing, milk production went up quite dramatically.

 It was then that the housekeeper Elizabeth Scarborough started making and selling a distinctive unpressed cheese at local markets, based upon and named after a recipe from an Ashby relative Lady Mary Beaumont.

 In 1759, Shuckburgh Ashby took over the magnificently Jacobean Quenby Hall and restored it as a working, farming estate and purpose-built cheese dairy. He was capitalising on the success of the blue-veined cheese that was all the rage among travellers after being “exported” down to the village of Stilton. Another formidable woman, Frances Pawlett, played a major part in the development of this trade having secured a contract to supply Cooper Thornhill – owner of The Bell Inn in Stilton in the mid 1740s – with this cheese to her recipe from Wymondham, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. 

 To Beaumont, Scarborough, Pawlett, Strong – and many another long forgotten female cheesemakers toiling in some farmhouse dairy... Vive les femmes!

 THIS blog’s recipe has to be by a woman, the deliciously named Linda Tubby, who created a interesting take on the classic Stilton and pear combo for the Daily Mail this weekend. I’ve cooked it and it really is a winner – Stilton and pear tart in pine nut pastry with Manuka honey. Tubby, incidentally is not a pseudonym but the real name of an accomplished food writer and food stylist!

 Ingredients

125g (4½oz) plain spelt flour

30g (1oz) pine nuts, plus 15g (½oz) for the topping

75g (2¾oz) cold butter, cubed 

1 egg yolk mixed with 2½tsp cold water 

175ml (6fl oz) double cream 

250g (9oz) blue Stilton, sliced – cut into fine shards 

4 eggs 

3-4 ripe pears, each sliced into 8 pieces, cores removed 

Manuka or other strong-flavoured honey to serve

Watercress to serve 

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/gas 4 and place a tray on the centre shelf. Put the flour and pine nuts in a food processor and whizz until you have fine crumbs. 

Add the butter and process again until crumbly. Add the egg yolk and water and whizz again until the dough comes together. 

Put the dough into the middle of a 23cm x 2.5cm (9in x 1in) loose-bottomed fluted tart tin, spreading it out evenly towards the edges and sides so that it protrudes just above the edge. 

Cut off any excess pastry and use a finger to press into the flutes to create a good shape. Chill for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the cream and the eggs in a jug. Lay half the cheese in the bottom of the pastry case. 

Pour the cream mixture into the tart case and then arrange the pears on top with the shards of Stilton. Grind over a little black pepper and scatter over the 15g (½oz) pine nuts. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden. Serve warm or cold, drizzled with the honey.

It serves 4-6.

So where are the paparazzi? Our Stilton blogger Neil Sowerby has a dishy time at a posh London launch

SHADES of Blue Peter, alongside Blue Stilton. “Here’s one I made earlier” came to Tom’s Kitchen when the eponymous chef demonstrated his way with cheese twists.

These deceptively spicy twirly snacks are just one recipe in Cooking Creatively With Cheese: Tom Aikens Celebrates 100 Years of Long Clawson Dairy, launched at his restaurant inside Somerset House.

For the centenary volume Tom created 10 special dishes for each decade of the dairy’s existence – to stand alongside alongside an abundance of other cheesy recipes.

“Over the space of a couple of months I had between five and ten kilos of cheeses to do all the recipes, so my staff were eating cheese for at least six weeks,” Tom said. “Cheese every day!”

Why was I down in London for the launch, gorging myself on twists and more substantial Stilton-based fare? Well, I had a big hand in putting it together, including sourcing lots of tasty social history, so felt I deserved my moment in the media spotlight. 

Well, I sat next two nice lasses from BBC Good Food, a blond gossip writer from the Indy... and the Earl of Bradford, who owns Porters English Restaurant in Covent Garden, was there too. OK, it wan’t Posh and Becks, Brad and Angelina, but I was spared the attentions of the paparazzi.

The book itself (and I can be impartial about it, honest) is an A-list production, which I hope will promote the World’s Greatest Blue Cheese as well as the whole Long Clawson range. It is available on Amazon, in hardback at £7.95.

Meanwhile Tom is one of the south-east candidates in this year’s Great British Menu. Probably too much to expect him to add a cheesy twist to proceedings, but good luck!

I’M obviously not among them, but some folk might find an entire volume devoted to cheese-based recipes over-facing. Yet – vegans look away now – lots of dishes in the book are as healthy as it gets. It’s all about balance. That’s my cue for a delicious recipe just published in the food blog, mostlyeating.com.

The blogger, Sophie Clarke, is a registered dietitian based in Oxford. She works with individuals and companies to promote healthy lifestyles and good nutrition. 

Her Warm Winter Salad of Leaves, Stilton, Cherries and Walnuts does just that.

She writes as a prelude “Everybody knows too much cheese is bad for you and full of calories and saturated fat. Except that really this isn’t true at all – yes, cheese is fairly high calories but it’s also a good source of protein, calcium and above all JOY...”

Serves 2

Half a small savoy cabbage, thinly sliced (discard any overly tough parts)

1 tsp olive oil

1 cup red cabbage, thinly sliced

1 cup seasonal salad leaves

60g Stilton cheese, crumbled

2 tbsp walnuts, roughly chopped

2 tbsp dried sour cherries

For the dressing

2 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 heaped tsp english mustard (hot!)

Juice of half a lemon

Pinch of pepper

Prep all of your ingredients before you start to cook, chopping them all as described in the ingredients list.

Make the dressing by mixing the ingredients together (I keep an old jar for shaking up dressings).

Heat a large frying pan or skillet and toast the walnuts in the pan until they start to give off a nutty fragrance. Take care not to burn them. Put the toasted walnuts aside for later.

Heat the 1 tsp olive oil in a pan and add the savoy cabbage. Cook, stirring regularly, until the cabbage starts to soften slightly (about 3 or four minutes). Take care not to let the cabbage brown – reduce the heat if necessary.

Add the red cabbage to the pan and cook for a further minute to warm the red cabbage but retain all of its crunch and colour.

Tip the cabbages into a mixing dish and pour over the dressing.

Add the salad leaves to the mix.

Dish the dressed salad cabbage mixture onto two plates and top with the Stilton, dried cherries and toasted walnuts. Serve immediately.