Strawberry Salad with Halloumi

Back again! A few days ago, Phil and I bought some Halloumi cheese from a new shop in Twickenham. I'm not sure I've ever eaten it, but I have heard of it. So this evening I decided to use it, it has a surprising shelf life and said it wouldn't go off till April 2010. I looked online for some recipes that had some ingredients from the fridge, after a bit of searching I found Jamie Oliver's recipe for Strawberry Salad with Speck and Halloumi, from his book 'Jamie at Home'. I haven't been the biggest fan of fruit in salads, but I was willing to give this a chance as it came from Jamie Oliver. Generally I can't think of a single recipe of his that I didn't like.

Preparing the ingredients was very simple, however I only had 255g of strawberries and the recipe called for 300g. It seemed like a lot once sliced up, so I didn't think much of it. The Halloumi was to be cut into 8 slices, this I found a little challenging. The cheese kept sticking to the knife and would break in half, after the first break I found that its important to slide the cheese off very carefully. I placed all the slices in a row on the chopping board and put one leaf of basil on each. Making the dressing, for lack of a better name, consisted of putting the prepared strawberries in a bowl and squeezing 1/2 a lemon, seasoning with salt and pepper and a "a good splash" of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I replaced the olive oil with walnut, as I've just run out and really need to buy some more. Then just mix them up and that’s it.

Next I fried the Halloumi basil leaf down for about a minute, initially I put a large glug of oil in the pan but once the cheese was down massive splatter erupted. I used a spoon to take some of the oil out, seems like the cheese is just too wet for that much oil. Once the pan was hot, they started to brown and looked really fun. As for turning, I think I just have a crap spatula. I had one break, again, and 3 lost their basil leaves, which I had to retrieve and place back on the white basil-less spot. Once cooked, the only thing needed was plating up. The last step in Jamie's recipe was to add the salad leaves to the strawberries, which, in my excitement, I skipped. However, I liked it without the leaves being smothered by the strawberry juice. I then pilled everything on the plate, drizzled some dressing and it was done.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, the flavours were really interesting. I loved the strawberry and balsamic, I will definitely be combining them again. I'm not too sure of Halloumi, it's a bit "squeaky". I would recommend this to everyone, it looks very fancy on the plate and had interesting and complex flavours.

Phil here, stepping in to throw down my impressions. Annie very kindly whipped this up as I was on my way home from work (which suggests it is pretty speedy). Halloumi, well, I've never had it before to my knowledge. I've known about it but it has never come up. Loved how salty it was and that contrasted excellently with the tart little strawberries from our own plants. The crust on it was super as well, adding a grand crunch to the pulpy fruit. The only downside is that it tends to sound a little bit like someone is cleaning windows in your head. If you can put up with that, you're away. I shall certainly be giving it another go.

Also worth noting is the lack of Speck which is in the original recipe. What can I say? Annie's just not that into pig (see her scotch eggs).

Nearly forgot to mention, we drank this with some of our late-season elderflower cordial. Made just yesterday the blooms picked toward the end of the season tend to offer a slightly duskier flavour. Elderflower, strawberries, mint? I think so.

A&P