Stilton, Walnut and Apple Strudel

Serves 6

Preparation:  About an hour

Cooking Time: 15 mins and then 25 mins

This is a classic Delia Smith recipe produced for the You Magazine some years ago. 

This makes a wonderful and unusual vegetarian main course and you can substitute Stilton or another blue cheese, as I chose to do. 

The apple is not meant to cook through but remain crunchy.

This takes longer to prepare than you might think, but well worth the effort - looks amazing and tastes fantastic.

We chose to serve it with the Beetroot, Goat's Cheese and Apple Salad (Vegetarian)

Ingredients:

350g prepared weight of young leeks (700g bought weight) chopped into 1 cm pieces

225g prepared weight of celery, reserve the leaves

110g butter (however, you may need more)

1  Bramley Apple

2 Cox’s apple, or similar eating apple (I used Braeburn)

225g mild goat’s cheese, cut into 1 cm cubes

12 spring onions, sliced – white parts only

100g ready-chopped walnuts (lightly roasted in a hot oven for about ten minutes (Don't allow them to burn!)

3 tablespoons of parsley (either flat leaf or curly)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

75g white bread, crusts removed

4 medium cloves garlic, peeled and minced

10 sheets of fresh filo pastry (I only needed seven as they now come with less sheets but in a bigger size.)

175g Stilton cheese, cut into 1 cm cubes

1 large flat baking sheet 40 x 30 cm

AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO….

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C / Gas 5. 
   
   
2. Place the walnuts into a hot oven to toast to a golden brown, then lightly whizz in a food processor to chunky pieces.  Set aside. 
    
3. First, prepare the leeks by trimming and discarding the outer layers, then slice each one vertically, almost in half. Wash them under a cold running tap, fanning them out to get rid of any grit and dust. Then cut them in to 1 cm pieces. 
   
   
4. Now wash and slice the celery down vertically to create thinner lengths, then chop the celery into slightly smaller pieces. 
   
   
5. Then melt butter in a large frying pan and, with the heat at medium, sauté the leeks and celery for 7-8 minutes until tinged brown.  Stir them and keep them on the move to stop them catching at the edges.  The water on the veg should help to steam/fry.
   
   
6. Then tip them into a bowl and while they are cooling, you can deal with the other ingredients. 
   
   
7. The apples need to be cored and chopped into 1 cm pieces, leaving the skins on, then, as soon as the leeks and celery have cooled, add the apples, diced goat’s cheese, spring onions, walnuts and 1 heaped tablespoon of chopped parsley. 
   
   
8. Then carefully season everything well and stir to combine it all together.  Leave to cool.
   
   
9. Now you need to make a breadcrumb mixture, so place the bread, garlic, remaining parsley and reserved celery leaves in a food processor and blend until everything resembles fine green breadcrumbs.  If you don’t have a good processor, grate the bread and chop everything else finely and mix together. 
   
   
10. Next, take a large clean tea cloth and dampen it under cold water.  Lay it out on a work top, then carefully unwrap the filo sheets and lay them on the damp cloth, folding it over.  Keep the filo in the damp cloth to prevent it drying out.   
    
    
11. To assemble the strudel, it is important to understand that it sounds more complicated than it actually is. 
    
    
12. Begin by placing a two buttered baking sheet on a work surface, because the filo sheets are quite large. 
     
13. FIRST LAYER:  We are going to have to weld them together. To do this, first melt the remaining butter in a saucepan, then take 1 sheet of filo pastry, remembering to keep the rest covered, and lay it longways towards you on one side of the baking sheet, brushing it lightly with melted butter.  This will dangle over the edge of the table for now.
    
    
14. Then place another sheet longways beside it, overlapping it by about 2.5 cm; brush that with melted butter. 
    
    
15. Now take a tablespoon and carefully scatter a quarter of the garlic breadcrumb mixture over the two buttered sheets of filo.
    
    
16. SECOND LAYER:  For the next layer, place a third sheet on top of the first two, but this time in "landscape", overlapping it again by 2.5cm with a fourth sheet.    Brush with melted butter and sprinkle another layer of garlic breadcrumbs.
    
    
17. THIRD LAYER:  Repeat No. 13 and 14, brush with melted butter and then a sprinkling of breadcrumbs. 
    
    
18. After that, place half the cheese and vegetable mixture all the way along the depth of the filo, sprinkle the cubes of Roquefort on top and then finish off with the rest of the mixture. 
    
    
19. Now just pat it together firmly with your hands. 
    
    
20. Take the shorter edge of the pastry that is nearest on one side, bring it up over the filling, then flip the rest over to cover the vegetables as if you were making a giant sausage roll. 
    
    
21. Push the vegetables in at the ends, before tucking the pastry ends neatly underneath.
    
    
22. Now brush with the remaining butter, scatter the rest of the crumb mixture over the top and bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until it has turned a nice golden brown colour. 
    
    
23. To serve, chop the ends off and cut into slices.
    
    
24. We served this with the Beetroot, Goat's Cheese and Apple salad as it was so complimentary.