Celery, Apple and Stilton Soup

This will take two hours to cook. You need:

Two complete heads of celery
Two large onions
Two eating apples
A handful of crumbly stilton
100 mls of dry sherry
Butter
A spoonful of mascarpone per bowl
Old vegetables for stock
A garlic clove
A bay leaf
Salt and pepper (use celery salt if you have it)

The beauty of this is to make your own vegetable stock so nothing is wasted.

Put two litres of salted water on to boil with the garlic clove (whole) and bay leaf. Add the complete base of both celery heads, the onion skins, one of the apple skins and cores and any other vegetables that are decaying on you a bit, such as bendy carrots, outer cabbage leaves etc. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a gentle simmer, check taste and season, then cover. Leave on for at least 90 minutes (the longer the better).

In the second pan place a generous lump of butter and melt gently. Add the chopped onions and let them sweat slowly for about 10 minutes. Chop all the remaining celery. Set aside a few leaves and one stick. Put the rest of the celery and the peeled/cored apple into the onion pan, add the sherry and bring to a boil for a minute or two to boil off the alcohol. Check taste and season. Turn heat right down, cover and put a double layer of damp grease-proof paper between the pan and the lid. Simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove celery pan from heat and set aside.

When ready to serve, sieve the stock and add the clear liquid to the soup mixture. Whisk or blend this as fine as you can get it. Check seasoning but remember that a slightly salty cheese will be going in at the end. Pass resulting mixture through a sieve into a clean pan.

Reheat and at the last minute crumble in a generous handful of stilton. Stir until melted in and check seasoning again.

For garnish, core the remaining apple and slice thinly. Quick fry the slices until golden. Add to soup with chopped celery leaves, quick-fried celery slices, a tea-spoon of mascarpone and fresh black pepper.

Serve with good bread and garnish. 'Tis an autumn treat.