"It's packed with fat and salt—yet a moldy blue cheese could help you live longer, say researchers. Though the French enjoy a diet high in saturated fats, its women share the title of Europe's longest-living, with a life expectancy of 85.3 years."
"That prompted researchers to investigate the so-called "French paradox," and they found that Roquefort cheese can fight inflammation, preventing cardiovascular disease—and when it ripens, those anti-inflammatory properties grow more powerful," the Telegraph reports."
Photo Source The Cheese Vendor, artist Edouard-Jean Dambourgez
photo Source Tongue in Cheek by Corey Amaro
"Observations indicate that consumption of red wine alone cannot explain the paradox," the researchers write. "We hypothesize that cheese consumption, especially of molded varieties, may contribute to the occurrence of the 'French paradox.'" In fact, the researchers suggest that the anti-inflammatory components of the cheese might be worth extracting for use in cardiovascular drugs or in anti-aging creams."
An endive takes a bow,
Endive Roquefort Walnut Tart:
Put puff pastry on wax paper in a tart pan.
Chop in chunks three or four endives (use all the endive except the hard part at the end.) Toss the chopped endive into the tart pan any which way.
Add a small handful of chopped walnuts over the endives,
Then crumble a generous handful of Roquefort cheese on top.
Bake for 30 minutes or so in a hot convection oven 200°
When the crust is golden, the endives caramelized and the walnut sweet perfume spills into the kitchen, turn the oven off, let it set inside the oven for fifteen minutes.
Not much has changed at the French Markets, the food, wine, the cheese is the same.
Painting above Dambourgez, Edouard Jean - Cream and Cheese Merchants of Les Halles
An individual cheese knife and a dessert fork pair up,
go out, have a swell time buttering each other up.
Looking for their pal Glass of Wine.
My friend Lea, who came to visit me a few years ago made these Amuse Bouche
(little bites that delight before the meal begins) for the taster teaser before dinner:
One grape on a soup spoon
the grape is stuffed with blue cheese and walnut
drizzled with honey.
Notes:
Do you like Blue Cheese,
or better yet, have a secret to share
about anything sexier than cheese?
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