Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Breakfast of champions

I helped out a friend this week by preparing a tray of nibbles for her to take to a fancy-schmancy function. It is one of my favorite easy and impressive recipes. I made up a platter this morning, and had just enough left over to have a few of these delightful little rolls for breakfast.

First, you take thin sliced roast beef and lay it flat on a prep board. Then you break a piece of chicory (endive is ok too) in half and lay it on the beef. Then you put a few little crumbles of bleu cheese on the leafy stuff, and roll the whole business up into a tidy little roll. I cut them in half and stab a toothpick through them for easy handling by circulating guests. For breakfast I skip the toothpick and just pick 'em up with my fingers.

Bleu cheese and roast beef for breakfast. That's a guaranteed good start to the day. Yum.

Oh, and a word about bleu cheese. L hates it. Won't even eat anything off a plate that has any bleu cheese anything on it for fear of contamination. I have only developed a taste for it in recent years. I like a brand called St. Pete's Select, produced by a company called Amablu. It is available at my local Hannaford grocery store and it is aged in natural limestone caves in the riverbank in Faribault, Minnesota. The temperature and humidity are perfect and constant, and it shows in the creamy sharpness of the cheese. Faribault sees temperatures that range from 40 below in the deepest winter to 110 in the heat of summer. The caves don't care. They are just right. All the time. Nature is so freakin' cool!

We lived and worked in the Faribault area for a year and a half. We didn't like it much, and it didn't really like us any better. But the cheese was really good. And it still is. I just glad we can get it here.

3 comments:

Marie Monteux said...

If you like bleu cheese, have you ever tried Stilton? Just a tiny bit goes a long way (it's pretty pricey). We go to the cheese shop in Scarborough once a year and splurge on unusual cheeses. Will definitely try that appetizer, thanks!

Robin said...

I've always said that if I had to pick just one food to eat for the rest of my life it would be bleu cheese, any bleu cheese. I'd die quickly, but oh so happy.

MRMacrum said...

Roast beef is a great choice for most any meal during the day. And Blue Cheese, well, just reading your recipe made my mouth water.

Just a possible add on that might add even more zip to an already tasty sounding treat might be spreading some hot horse radish sauce on the beef before roll up. Now that would be a wet event.