Hot Baked Brie with Autumn Relish and Bread

This is a great snack for two people to share.

1 whole 4 inch Brie or Camembert

1 Fresh, crusty French Loaf

A quantity of Autumn Relish to serve

Pre-heat your oven to 200C

Take any packaging from the brie and place in a ceramic oven to table dish. 

Slice a cross in the top of the brie and place into the oven. It should take between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on the efficiency of your oven. Keep checking the Brie and when its melted in the centre it is done. 

You need to serve this immediately as it will start to harden as soon as it cools.

Take the cheese from the oven. Place a good scoop of relish in the centre of the round and serve with torn up bread for dipping.

Tomato and Stilton Soup

As always, remember that the smaller you chop your ingredients the quicker they will cook! Keep chunks to less than 1/2 inch whenever possible. With the exclusion of the cheese garnish you could easily make this a vegan dish.

Ingredients

2oz butter

2 tbsp rape seed oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 celery sticks, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 lb tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 400g tin (= 14oz) of plum tomatoes

1 1/2 pints of water

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 pint red wine

4oz Stilton cheese, crumbled

Heat the butter and oil in a good size saucepan and over a gentle heat soften the onion, garlic and celery. Add the carrots and the fresh tomatoes. Cook on for a further 10 minutes and occasionally give it a stir to avoid sticking and cool spots. 

Add the canned tomatoes and boiling water, followed by the tomato puree, sugar oregano and wine. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to allow the soup to simmer for up to an hour while the vegetables cook. Once they are soft and cooked through take the soup off the heat and allow to cool some. 

Transfer soup to a blender and whiz until the texture is smooth and lump free. (If you do not have a blender you can push it through a sieve by hand). 

Pour the soup back into the pan and re-heat before serving. Pour into bowls and garnish with the crumbled Stilton cheese.  

Warm Avocado and Soft Cheese - Quick Snack

This is a great quick lunch snack for two people. Slightly unusual, but well worth a go if you're tired of having cold lumps of avocado in a salad!

 Ingredients

2 Avocados
Juice of 1 Lemon
5 ounces (125g) Cream (Curd) Cheese
5 Celery Sticks, chopped quite finely
6 dried Apricots, chopped
A small amount of ground rock salt and black pepper to taste
2 ounces (50g) White Cheshire or Stilton Cheese (any good crumbling cheese will do)


Method

Slice avocados in half lengthwise and remove the stone. Carefully remove the flesh, ensuring you don't break the skins. Rub the inside of the skins with lemon juice.

Mix the avocado flesh with cream cheese, celery and apricots. Season to taste. Place back in the skins. Sprinkle with crumbled pieces of your chosen cheese

Place under a medium-high grill and cook until the cheese has melted and starting to brown on the top.

Serve hot and on a bed of salad to finish the look!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Whilst all the cheese involved doesn't make this a diet food, its a wonderful yummy treat for when you've been good and don't want to give in to chocolate!!