Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Take three ingredients: red peppers, salty halloumi cubes and a pinch of cumin

Peppers with halloumi / Halloumi-täidisega paprikad

That's the whole recipe. Just three ingredients (plus some olive oil), ca 20 minutes and you've got an unusual and flavoursome dish on your plate. I've already blogged about the wonderful mint-infused and very salty white cheese, halloumi, that hails from Cyprus. I first wrote about Paul Hollywood's Cypriot mint and halloumi bread, and more recently about fried halloumi slices with chilli oil a la Nigella Lawson. Few days ago I came across a tempting recipe at the Finnish Herkkutori website (click on the last recipe link), that stuffed raw red peppers with fried halloumi cubes and served them alongside bean stew. I'm not too fond of raw bell peppers, so I decided to roast them first, and serve them with halloumi as a meal on its own.

A wonderful dish - if you like halloumi cheese, then do give it a go!

Red peppers with cumin-scented halloumi cubes
(Hallumi-juustuga täidetud paprikad)
Serves 4

4 small red bell peppers, halved and deseeded
250 grams halloumi cheese, rinsed, drained and cut into 1 cm cubes
1 Tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of cumin seeds

Roast the red peppers in 220˚C oven for about 20 minutes, until they soften.
About 5 minutes before the peppers are ready, heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add cheese cubes and cumin and fry, turning cheese cubes to brown evenly, for about 5 minutes.
Arrange the peppers on a plate, fill with fried halloumi cubes.
Serve with some rocket salad.

A beautiful combination of salty and squidgy halloumi cheese, soft and sweet pepper and bitter salad leaves.

UPDATE 16.11.2006: Andrew of Spittoon Extra tried this recipe, too. Check out his post. Mia Maailm was also inspired, and made a similar dish using green peppers and mozzarella, but her post is in Estonian :)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are there any good alternatives in the US to that cheese?

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Halloumi! This recipe seems to be a perfect one; simple and delicious!

Anonymous said...

That looks delicious, I've never had halloumi.

Anonymous said...

Halloumi juust on tekstuurilt nagu soomlaste leipäjuusto, mis pole üldsegi soolane ja väga maitsev ka moosiga. Kas Eestis leipäjuustot veel müüa ka on?

Anonymous said...

Hi! I second Pat's query...what would make a good alternative? I have been reading recipes using this cheese but I can't get it where I live...

I actually have some left over peppers from a batch I roasted...perfect timing! :)

Alanna Kellogg said...

Hi Pille ~ if you share your e-mail address, I'd love to have it! ; -)

Ilva said...

Pille-this sounds delicious! Unfortunately I can't find halloumi where I live but at least I bought some cummin today!

Kalyn Denny said...

Fabulous. I can see that from all the comments I'm not the only foodie who thinks this sounds fantastic. I've yet to find haloumi here though. But,we are getting a Whole Foods store soon, so there's hope!

Jeanne said...

Haloumi rocks!! It is one of my favourite cheeses - used it the other day to stuff a chicken breast, together with some chopped sin-dried tomatoes - what a great combination. Your stuffed peppers look like a lovely quick Sunday night supper :-)

Unknown said...

Tegin ka selle täna...täitsa hea värk!

Pille said...

Pat - I don't know about substitutes (foodsubs.com suggests feta for a similar flavour and mozzarella for a similar texture, but I don't think I'd try to fry mozzarella myself). Heidi of 101Cookbooks claims that at least in the San Francisco area you should be able to find it in Rainbow, the cheese store at Divisadero and Oak, Whole Foods and also some CostCo stores ( http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001489.html ). You might also want to check out the Greek/Cypriot/Lebanese/middle-eastern grocery stores, if there's any in the neighbourhood. Hope you'll find it!

Dagmar - I made it again last night, and it is truly delicious!

K&S - you should try it!

Anonüümne - leibjuustu on ikka saada. Tekstuuris on sarnasusi, aga maitse on nii erinev, et neid asendada küll retseptis ei tasu:)

Joey - can you get hold of Indian paneer cheese? That has a similar structure, but again, the taste is quite different. It'd could make a nice alternative in this particular recipe though..

AK - now you've got it:)

Ilva - try this website: http://www.fageitalia.it/products/halloumi.aspx

Andrew - I'm so pleased you tried my recipe, and it looks lovely! As I said, I'm a bit puzzled that you managed to melt the halloumi though;)

Kalyn - I keep my fingers crossed that your soon-to-open Whole Foods would stock halloumi cheese - it's very versatile ingredient.

Jeanne - I know you like it, and I still remember your hallomi and boerwors sticks from June party in London.

Hugo - rõõm kuulda ja teretulemast Nami-namisse! New Yorgis on vist halloumit vabalt saada?

Andrea Meyers said...

This sounds fantastic. I can find halloumi cheese at one grocery store near me, so will have to give this a try.