Friday, April 2, 2010

EASY CHEESY



I was thinking of calling this post "Keeping Hubbie Happy" but just could not bring myself to do it!  But this is the dish that keeps "the other half" really happy, and the really great thing is that it is simplicity itself.  How can a dish so simple bring so much pleasure?

It really is as simple as it looks, halloumi cheese - a wonderful Greek hard cheese, which keeps (almost) forever in the fridge, fried in some olive oil.  Red peppers roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add the crispy cheese to the roasting peppers for the last five minutes. Put some baby potatoes in to roast at the same time as the peppers ... Bing Bang Bosh dinner is ready.

When I'm feeling very generous (!) instead of ordinary peppers, I serve the cheese with Piedmont Peppers.


Piedmont Peppers

3      red peppers
3      tomatoes or 6 cherry tomatoes*
4      anchovy fillets + oil from the tin
2      cloves of garlic
basil leaves

Preheat oven to 180 C

Half the peppers and remove the seeds.  Quarter the tomatoes (if using large) and divide between the pepper halves.  Chop up the anchovy and garlic and spread this mixture over the tomatoes.  Put one teaspoon of oil (mixture of anchovy oil and olive oil) into each pepper half.  Bake for about 45 mins.

*I skin the tomatoes if I am having guests, otherwise they are fine with skins on.
Enjoy.

7 comments:

Jutta said...

My hubby is also a huge fan of halloumi. He often dices up veggies to fry in olive oil with diced halloumi.

I discovered halloumi through an aussie chef Huey who I saw on tv in about 1997 making a veggie stir fry with halloumi. I rushed out and got the ingredients and loved it. I have been using halloumi ever since, either fried and sprinkled with lemon or as zucchini (courgette) and halloumi fritters. Yum! A veggie friend of mine always makes halloumi and veggie skewers when she is invited to a bbq.

Bigarade said...

never used halloumi cheese,(i should probably be ashamed!!)
But i was wondering is it anything like paneer?

BetterLate said...

This *looks* and sounds delicious. I love the flavour of halloumi... but... I can't bear the way it squeaks on your teeth. It goes right through me !

Brownieville Girl said...

I know what you mean BL, I have heard it compared to styrofoam! But if it is melting (the cheese not the plastic!)this isn't a problem.

I haven't tried paneer Bigarade, so not much help to you!!!

Jutta, will you blog about those fritters at some stage - they sound great.

Jutta said...

BG I promise to do the fritters some time. The recipe is I think in my head so wish me luck.

Bigarade, halloumi is not at all like paneer. Halloumi is a mixture of goat's and sheep milk but sometimes cow's milk. Paneer is made by adding food acid (eg lemon juice) to milk which separates the curds from the whey, and then it is hung in a cloth to remove the excess liquid. Making paneer does not include adding rennet, unlike most other cheeses.

The really important thing about halloumi is to eat it as soon as you have fried or grilled it, otherwise it squeaks and makes me think of eating styrofoam. So this is something you make at the last minute!

I do love cheese!

arista said...

Wow this looks so tasty. I have to be careful around grilled halloumi because I would gorge myself with it given half a chance.

Anonymous said...

Going to try this, sounds good :)