Hand-Smashed Blue Cheese Dip with Stilton
Some day I’ll write a book about dinner parties, assuming books still exist and AI hasn’t cast writers into outer space like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. In that book, I’ll talk about balancing out a meal; how if you have a heavy main course, you’ll want a lighter first course, and a refreshing dessert. That was my line of thinking, last night, when I was serving up one pound lamb shanks with Basmati rice and homemade flatbread (more on that soon), plus a walnut cake for dessert. We needed vegetables. Preferably raw ones.
That’s when I opened the fridge and saw, staring right back at me, a wedge of Stilton that I bought to put on salads. The salads never happened. But the Stilton was ready for its moment in the spotlight.
This is less of a recipe, and more of a technique. Start by crumbling your Stilton (you could also use Roquefort or any other impressive-sounding blue cheese) into a bowl. I won’t give you an amount because it’s all proportional. Put a big spoonful of mayo in there. Then add an even bigger spoonful of whole-milk yogurt or sour cream. Grate in a garlic clove, shake in some Tabasco, maybe a tiny sprinkling of salt. Go on and squeeze in some lemon.
Then it’s all about mushing. Smashing. Smushing. I started with a spoon and when that proved ineffective, I switched to a potato masher. You want to do this by hand so you still have some texture in there. (In a food processor, you’d basically have blue cheese-flavored yogurt.) You’ll know you’re done smashing when your dip looks like a dip. If it’s too solid, add more yogurt and keep working it together. Taste for lemon, salt, Tabasco, etc. Sprinkle in some hot paprika if you have it, and then sprinkle some more on top.
I served this with Persian cucumbers, celery (leaves still attached, for prettiness), radishes, and little cherry tomatoes. Right before presenting it, I added some finely minced chives which helped everything pop. Our dinner guests, Ryan and Treg, were delighted: they came hungry and were happy to have something to snack on. As the host, I was glad that their snacking wouldn’t make them too full for the lamb shanks to come. As the bartender, Craig was glad to have something to pair with the Last Words that he made.
Some of you may laugh at the idea of a blue cheese dip being a “light beginning” to a meal, but this is a dinner party after all and we’re not going to serve people protein powder dip, are we? Give it a try, the next time you’re having people over.
