One of the Greatest Trips of My Life yields a Recipe for a Soup I’ll never forget
For someone who loves to travel and does so every chance I get, there are some trips that live on in memory long after I’ve come home. Onto that list, I have to put Cheese Journeys’ British Cheese Odyssey at the very top. It’s a spectacular way to spend five days exploring England’s magnificent countryside from London and back. And I have a spectacular offer for Chewing The Fat readers. You can take this luxury trip March 30th to April 3, 2020 and you can take $500 off just by mentioning our name!
Your Private Cheese Odyssey Chef’s Recipe for Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup
Before I get to all the details, I want to share a recipe I learned on my Cheese Odyssey. Traveling with the group is your own private French chef. Sylvain Jamois
created the incredible recipe for soup I am sharing with you today. This is a lovely rich, creamy soup. Broccoli and a slew of supporting vegetables create a broth to which Cream and Blue Cheese are added at the last moment. While I went out and bought England’s most famous Blue Cheese, Stilton, specifically to make the soup, you could easily use any leftover Blue from your next Cheese Board.
How to cook this most memorable of Cheese Odyssey souvenirs
To make this soup, take your time cooking it. Let the leeks, onion and garlic melt into the butter before adding the celery, carrots and broccoli stalks and cook them 
down before adding the Chicken Stock and water. Cook that for a good half hour or more. Puree the soup with an immersion blender. (If you don’t have one, use a blender and purée the soup in batches.). Add the florets for a further 15 minutes, puree again. Then add the cream and the cheese, use a heavy hand with the salt and taste as you go along. There’s one caution: Ringing in my ears as I ladled the leftover soup into containers was the admonishment by one of my fellow travelers and cheese authorities, Jamie Png, ‘never, never, never freeze cheese’. If you don’t serve all the soup at once, enjoy it the next day or two. You’ll find the complete recipe below. Now I can’t wait to tell you about the trip and the $500. Savings.
Put a British Cheese Odyssey on your travel schedule and $500 in your pocket.
You hardly have to be a Cheese Head to enjoy every minute of your Odyssey. After all, who doesn’t want to sample life in a glorious English country house owned by the Montgomery Family, arguably the most iconic Cheddar makers in the country. North Cadbury Court is magnificent! You can swim in its indoor pool, shoot clay pigeons, paddle boat race in its private lake—even shoot golf balls off the mansion’s roof! There are cooking demonstrations, a food photography class and a Cheese Painting Class taught by Philadelphia’s Mike Geno, a renowned painter of—you guessed it—cheese.
Oh to be in England now that April’s there!
Your adventure starts in London. More precisely in Borough Market home of Neal’s Yard Dairy, a company that can be credited with supporting and, in some cases, saving England’s great Cheese Makers. You’ll have a crash course on England’s award-winning Cheddar, Cheshire, Stichelton and, of course, Stilton. Then you’ll head to Somerset through the breathtaking English countryside. In Somerset, the birthplace of Cheddar, as well as the purported location of King Arthur’s Camelot, the exquisitely restored North Cadbury Court awaits.
Live as if to the Manor born at North Cadbury Court
Your four-night stay will introduce you to renowned cheesemakers and affineurs. Jamie Montgomery himself, will guide you into his family’s world of cheese. You’ll see the dairy, the pastures of Jersey cows, the legendary ruins of Camelot. Sample Camembert-style Tunworth, delightful chevre and sheep’s milk cheeses. There’s Cider Brandy to sample at a visit to Tom Calver’s award-winning Westcombe Cheddar where the young cheesemaker also produces Duckett’s Aged Caerphilly and Somerset Ricotta. Your tasting is paired with craft beers from Wild Beer Company, one of England’s best Ales. The culmination of your stay is a “Cheesemakers Dinner”. Here you will enjoy a magnificent feast prepared by Chef Sylvain Jamois and attended by Britain’s cheese doyens from all over the country. This narrated evening of cheese pairings is truly the culmination of your extraordinary British Cheese Odyssey.
Do not delay. Collect $500 when you go.
Take advantage of this exceptional offer at savings of $500 a person, simply go to www.CheeseJourneys.com. Tell them Monte sent you. Do it today. Space is extremely limited.
Here’s the recipe for the Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup and after it some other great Cheese recipes using British Cheeses.
Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup
A creamy, rich soup flavored with England's most famous Blue Cheese--Stilton. But you can substitute any great blue cheese.
Ingredients
- ¼ pound Unsalted Butter
- 2 Leeks, sliced, white parts only
- 1 Sweet Onion, diced
- 4 cloves of Garlic, crushed
- ½ head of Celery, sliced
- 1 cup Carrots, sliced
- 2 Heads of Broccoli, the stalks separated from the florets, in large dice.
- Chicken stock 6 cups
- 2 cups water
- Salt
- 1 cup of Heavy cream
- 1 cup Stilton, crumbled.
- Lemon Zest
- *I gilded the soup with cubes of pancetta for color and texture. The original soup did not contain these.
Directions
- Step 1 In a Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the leeks, onion and garlic and cook them until softened and lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
- Step 2 Add the celery, carrots and broccoli stalks and cook a further 15 minutes until they are softened.
- Step 3 Add the Chicken stock and water. Bring the soup to a rolling boil then turn the heat down and simmer for at least 30 minutes.
- Step 4 Use the immersion blender to thoroughly blend the vegetables into a smooth purée.
- Step 5 Add the broccoli florets and cook for about 15 minutes more.
- Step 6 Use the immersion blender again to puree the florets.
- Step 7 Add the cream and stir. Then add the Stilton (or other blue cheese) in chunks pureeing and tasting as you go. Use salt liberally until the taste is just right.
- Step 8 Using a Microplane, liberally dust the top of each bowl of soup with lemon zest. Serve, preferably with some crusty bread and salted butter.
