After an incredible food weekend in New York (Mary’s Fish Camp, Momofuko, and Cabrito), I settled on a simple meal for my last night with William. (I return to Miami, and he stays in NYC and slaves away at his internship … just six more weeks to go.)
I’ve seen several grilled halloumi recipes and references lately, and I wanted to give the Cypriot cheese a go. The only problem being: We have no grill or even a grill pan in William’s current dwelling. Our simple (and only) solution was to pan fry the cheese with just a touch of olive oil.
To get started, I cut the cheese into 1/3-inch slices, brushed each side with olive oil, and placed the slices in a hot, non-stick skillet. The cheese took just a little more than a minute on each side to reach a deep golden brown and the desired springyness—the center should give a bit and look as if it’s melting when you press it with the tip of a spatula.
I placed the fried cheese over a simple salad of arugula and sugar snap peas with a dressing of lemon, mint and green garlic. The salty halloumi and sweet peas made a lovely pair, and the mint gave the dish a dash of the Mediterranean. To round out the meal, I served prosciutto-wrapped white asparagus and a TomKat baguette on the side. Not too shabby.
For us, halloumi’s appeal is that it tastes like a classier—more versatile—version of fried mozzarella sticks. A version that you could eat as a late night snack or serve guests as the star of a fresh vegetarian dinner.
We’re looking looking forward to making halloumi our salads’ guilty pleasure more often.
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