January 2015 - Heirloom tomato & haloumi salad

Just squeaking in here with my January recipe. Goodness it was a long hard road to get here. 

My cruise around New Zealand was amazing. The food was just incredible. So much variety and so good. I will post some of the photos I have in another post. I was incredibly good on the cruise though and didn't just pig out on the food. I came home without having put on any weight! Even though I tried a lot of food I ate small amounts of it. 

Unfortunately I came home and discovered that food didn't just appear in a buffet in front of me. The well cooked, tasty and mainly healthy food just wasn't appearing. I have actually put on weight since coming home and I have kind of fallen into a can't be bothered hole. A lot of people have said to me that if they lived on their own they wouldn't bother cooking. I have always said that I love to cook and, well, you have to eat decent meals. However, this past month the food hasn't been great. I have been eating breakfast most days. I do try to have a good lunch every day, even if it has involve buying it every week day. It is bloody expensive but it is better than nothing at all or just snacking.

I really need to get my mojo back. I need to get back into a routine. What I am eating is off a bit, I am not exercising as much and my sleep, while I am getting more it still isn't that restful.

Eat, sleep, exercise

They are the three main things that underpin all things in our lives. If there isn't some kind of balance there then a bunch of other things will sprout from it. 

The food has been random. 

My exercise has been less frequent. My main form of exercise is swimming and I got a new tattoo 2 weeks ago so have not been allowed to swim. They said give it two weeks but it isn't completely healed yet so will need another week. There are plenty of other forms of exercise though. So I really need to get off my butt and get out there doing them. 

Sleep is, well, I am not sure how to describe it. I bought myself a vivofit a few weeks ago. My doctor had suggested it as a way of keeping track of my sleep. It is really very interesting. I have been sleeping for a longer time than I had previously thought but I am very restless and don't hit a deep sleep for any length of time. 

When looking for another recipe to make out of this double issue this was one that caught my eye. Easy, quick and fresh. Even though it is a really easy recipe I still took a couple of short cuts but hey it got a good meal on my table. Do whatever you need to so that you can get back into it. I'm just going to write this as I did it.

Heirloom tomato & haloumi salad 

(serves 1)

1 tbsp garlic olive oil

1 tsp butter

1 slice sourdough bread, torn

haloumi slices

Mixed heirloom tomatoes (I got the cherry tomato mix)

1/2 lebanese cucumber, deseeded & sliced

handful salad leaves

your favourite vinaigrette dressing, I used Paul Newman's Classic 

Heat oil & garlic over a medium heat. Toss in bread & cook until golden. Set aside. 

Fry haloumi in the same pan until soft & melty (I cooked mine too long). 

Combine all ingredients. 

Haloumi French Toast with Chorizo & Mushrooms

This is a once a year, or maybe decade, breakfast. I found the recipe over on taste.com.au and I knew that I just had to make it. It was stunning. So much flavour going on in there. Incredibly rich and ridiculously filling. It was ever so good though and I would definitely recommend trying it. Chorizo and haloumi are natural companions. I use them together regularly. The only thing I did find was that it was a bit salty. I think that would depend on the brand of cheese. Like feta the brand seems to make a difference in the saltiness of the cheese. I think some cherry tomatoes thrown in the pan with with chorizo and mushrooms would be excellent. I didn't have any almonds so didn't worry about them.

Lentil salad with beetroot and haloumi

This is, sort of, similar to a recipe of Bill Granger's that I have made previously. That was so good that I decided to experiment with it a little bit. This turned so well. The flavours mingled very well. The sweetness of the roasted beetroot cut through the saltiness of the haloumi. The lentil salad and peppery rocket rounded out the meal nicely. I had put a lemon myrtle & ginger dressing on the lentil salad but it seemed to get lost in the rest of the flavours. Although I am sure it will come through in the salad that I have leftover. I would probably do a simple vinaigrette next time. 

Lentil salad with beetroot & haloumi

2 beetroot 

1 tbsp oil 

400 g can lentils, drained and rinsed

half cucumber, chopped

250 g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if they are large

1 stick celery, chopped 

2 green onions, sliced 

1 carrot, julienned

handful dill, chopped

handful parsley, chopped 

any dressing desired

100 g haloumi, sliced into thin batons

1 tbsp flour, seasoned with black pepper

1 - 2 tbsp oil

Rocket to serve

Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Wrap beetroot separately in foil added a small amount of oil to each parcel. Roast for 45 - 60 minutes, until done. Set aside to cool and then peel. Slice into thick slices

Combine lentils, vegetables, herbs and dressing. Refrigerate until required. 

Heat oil over a medium-high heat. Dust haloumi in flour and fry until browned on each side and soft and squidgy.

Place rocket on plate, top with lentils, beetroot and haloumi. 

Quinoa & haloumi stuffed mushrooms with pesto cream

I really, really need to use some of the food that I have stored in my fridge, freezer and pantry. I honestly think with a bit of imagination I could eat for a week on what I have already only spending money on milk and cat food. Oh and perhaps fruit...I know that I don't have any canned or frozen. Not sure I can actually do a month but I am going to try for a couple of weeks and see how I go. I have actually tried this before. Last time I did it I went to buy milk and cat food and ended up spending a bunch on more stuff. I actually managed to go to the supermarket today and get only 4 things, all of which were on my list and these included milk and cat food.

I had purchased some large flat mushrooms last week to make mushroom burgers but never got around to making them so I decided to do something with them tonight. I have a large amount of quinoa in the cupboard so decide to use some of that as the base for a stuffing for the mushrooms. I really just tossed things in and hoped it would be good. It was very, very good and I will definitely be making these again. I used this mixture to fill two flat mushrooms, but there is plenty left over. I think I could fill at least another two if not four mushrooms.

Quinoa & haloumi stuffed mushrooms with pesto cream

1 c. cooked quinoa

1 small sweet potato, finely chopped and roasted 

1 small red onion, finely diced 

1 clove garlic, crushed

6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

3 piquillo whole roasted peppers, chopped

100 g grated haloumi, I had a herb & pepper one

handful of basil, oregano & parsley, chopped 

Flat mushrooms 

1 tbsp light sour cream 

1 tbsp basil pesto,

Preheat oven to 180 C. 

Saute onion & garlic until cooked. Combine with quinoa, sweet potato, tomatoes, peppers, haloumi and herbs mixing well. 

Place mushrooms on a tray and pile quinoa mixture on top. Roast in the oven for 15 - 18 minutes or until mushrooms are soft. 

Combine sour cream and pesto and serve with the mushrooms.

Chorizo, haloumi & roasted vegetables with pearl couscous

One Friday night I just wanted something easy, quick and tasty. I also didn't want to have to go to the supermarket and buying more food when I knew that there was already a bunch of stuff in my house that I could use to make something good for dinner. 

I looked through the fridge and cupboards and decided to make a warm salad with pearl couscous. I do really like pearl couscous but don't use it all that often. It is very good for salads though. I also had some haloumi and chorizo in the fridge so decided to use them along with some roasted vegetables. It was so easy to just throw everything in the oven, boil the couscous and mix it altogether. It also gave me a chance to finally show off the wonderful serving plate that I bought from a lovely little kitchen store while on holidays in May. 

Chorizo, Haloumi & Roasted Vegetables with Pearl Couscous

Ingredients:

• 1 chorizo, chopped 
• 1/2 red capsicum, roughly chopped 
• small red onion, cut into wedges
• 1/4 eggplant, roughly chopped
• 1 small sweet potato, roughly chopped
• half a punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 150 g haloumi, diced
• handful of olives, 
• 1/2 c pearl couscous 
• 1 c chicken stock (3/4 c might have been better)
• handful of torn baby spinach leaves 
• handful of basil leaves, shredded

Method: 

• Pre-heat oven to 180 C
• Place chorizo, capsicum, onion, eggplant, sweet potato and cherry tomatoes on a tray. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Add olives and haloumi and roast for a further 5 - 10 minutes or until everything is cooked. 
• Meanwhile cook pearl couscous in the stock until it has been absorbed. Drain if necessary. 
• Combine couscous, roasted veg, chorizo and haloumi with spinach and basil leaves. Serve immediately. 

August 2004 - Haloumi with Santorini Salad

Two posts in two nights...yay! I may actually get all these post done this month after all. I had hoped to get some cooking done tonight but I will have to wait until tomorrow night now as it is starting to get a bit late to do any baking now since I have to be up early for work tomorrow. Oh well, as long as I get it done tomorrow night it will not be a problem so that I can get cake decorating on Saturday. 

There were plenty of recipes that interested me in issue #30. The first of those was Jamie Oliver's Lamb chops with bay, paprika and chickpeas. A wonderful spiced combination. I had everything but the lamb cutlets. Although it would have meant seriously depleting my bay tree of leaves and since it is still fairly cold here I wasn't all that keen on doing that as I have had one die in the past. 

The next one that I considered was Bill Granger's Glazed salmon with bok choy and brown rice. This is a nice healthy meal. A bit of a healing one really. The salmon is glazed with a combination of ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce. It sounds wonderful. Satisfying but light at the same time. I had it on my menu plan for the month. 

On a Saturday afternoon, after I had been out shopping and doing errands I needed something quick and easy to make for lunch. It was then that I recalled Valli Little's Haloumi with santorini salad. A wonderfully simple salad made from onion, cucumber, tomato capsicum and olives with seasoned fried cubes of haloumi. This was a fantastic lunch dish. I used some parsley and garlic, onion & alfalfa sprouts in it as I didn't have any fresh oregano and I had a big punnet of sprouts to be used. I was so pleased with this. I think the addition of some chickpeas or beans would round it out a bit and make it last a bit longer. The ease would make it the perfect work lunch as it doesn't take long to fry up a bit of haloumi. The other ingredients could already be chopped and mixed together in the fridge just waiting to be eaten. It would also be a wonderful side dish for for a grilled or barbecued steak.