2013 Catch Up #1 - Fried Halloumi Salad

I love halloumi.

Ever since a very bawdy night out at the Blue Nile Egyptian restaurant in Nottingham, years ago with my work mates from my first "proper" job as a typesetter at CCS on Mile End Road in Colwick. A time when typesetting didn't mean whipping up a poster on your lap top. Typesetting was sitting in front of a giant, blue, metal computer that took 5.25" floppy disks,  it had a black screen with green type and a big green flashing cursor. The job was saved to disk, transferred onto ticker tape and then onto film loaded onto a cartridge which we had to take to be developed and then pass the strips of black and white text on to finish artists who chopped it up with scalpels and positioned it on pages with spray mount....I know..virtually the dark ages! Back to the night out - before too much and some impromptu belly dancing we had mezzes of pickled chillies, chicken and lemon kebabs, stuffed vine leaves, lamb koftas, spiced rices, juicy olives, houmous, fried aubergines and the star of the show slices of crispy, salty, slightly chewy fried halloumi.

It's now readily available in big white blocks from all supermarkets, it's an unconventional cheese in that it doesn't melt when cooked.

Back to present day, we had it on a salad. I sliced the cheese and lightly floured it, then fried it until golden in hot olive oil. I rested it  on some kitchen roll topping my salad.

The salad comprised of crisp Kos lettuce, rings of red Romero peppers, sweet baby beetroot, crunchy cucumber, lean shredded cooked chicken, squeaky green beans and some soft, smoky chunks of chorizo. 

All served with curly fries.

Plenty of flavour and texture for a hearty lunch.