In the bag part 2

Devon Blue

Alas and alack, La Fromagerie (wonderful shop very close to where I work - and the website has cowbells!) had no Beenleigh Blue. So I opted for Devon Blue, made by the same cheesemakers but from cow rather than sheep's cheese. For me, it doesn't reach the same pinnacle of sheepy sweetness, but it's a lovely cheese all the same.
I mulled over what to do for the challenge (crepes? a simple sauce? gnocchi? added pasta?) but in the end decided, that as the broccoli was good but didn't have that same-day-as-it's-cut freshness, that I'd go for a soup. This is roughly based on a Sarah Raven recipe, from her wonderful Garden Cookbook. Usual apologies about vague quantities.

PSB and Devon Blue soup

About as much purple sprouting broccoli as this:

1 leek
2 potatoes
Around 600ml light stock (I used chicken)
juice of half a lemon
cupful of milk
As much blue cheese as you fancy
A swirl of double cream

Trim your broccoli; slice the leek and potatoes. Sweat the leek and potatoes in a glug of olive oil for about five minutes. Then add the broccoli and lemon juice. Pour in the hot stock and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the broccoli is tender. Let the soup cool a little then liquidise. Back in the saucepan, add the milk and heat gently. Add the crumbled cheese and season - most blue cheese is pretty salty. Add cream. Serve with crusty bread.

The finished soup is the colour of a useful woodland camouflage but the taste is good vegetal sweetness, perked up with the tang of the cheese.