Halloumi and Thunderstorms.

The storms keep lashing against the kitchen window and I wish I was a Duck or a plant in the garden as apparently its the kind of weather they like. I am neither so I shall just have to put up with being caught without a rain coat while walking on the beach in my Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts and sunglasses !

Raindrops in Rock pools !

In search of Sunshine I thought the kitchen food cupboard would shine a ray of warming light my way. I have said it before food can instantly lift your spirits. A Steak and Ale pie smacks of winter warmth and a lovely salad with crisp salad leaves and wonderful succulent ripe vine tomatoes is a fab accompaniment to a barbecued steak when the sun does shine !
Today I decided on using an ingredient I mainly use as part of a Vegetarian option on my work menu and that's Halloumi Cheese.
Halloumi is a semi ripened brined cheese made usually from a mixture of Goats and Sheep milk. Its High melting temperature means its great grilled or better still pan fried and that's what I did.

Pan Fried Halloumi salad with a Harissa.

This is really simple to make. For the dressing you need some Harissa paste. I brought a pre made jar from the supermarket.You can make it with chills, coriander, garlic, lemon juice and caraway seeds if you want just place the lot in a blender and add some oil. Job done but the jars are pretty good and cooking for me at home is all about ease and speed so to quote Tom Cruise " I feel the need for speed ! " OK he jumped into a F-14 Tomcat and Kelly Mcqillis and at no point in the film do I recollect him knocking up a top salad otherwise the film would have been called "Top Salad..highway to the garden zone !  and that would have just been silly ! ha ha ! Not funny Kev. Sorry.
Place a good table spoon of the harissa  paste into a bowl and then add some olive oil slowly to the paste to make a dressing.

The sun has exploded !

Now its time to put the salad together. To a bowl add some quality mixed leaves and a good handful of fresh fragrant coriander. I love Coriander. Next add some sliced cherry tomatoes.....

And now some sliced pickled chills.....

Next I love the Roasted red peppers you get in the jars and so slice some of these beauties and add them to the party bowl of salad ! ha ha !

Next add your harissa dressing and gently massage the lot until it coats every last tasty ingredient in the bowl. I like to think of this part of the salad as adding the heat to the sunshine that the bright red colours of the peppers bring.
Now the Halloumi to quote the great chef philosopher Richard "White lightning" Norris of Treehouse restaurant fame is as he says " A vehicle for flavour Kev man " which basically means eaten on its own it just tastes salty and not much else but the combination of the Harissa salad squashing the surface of the cheese complements it wonderfully.
To cook the Halloumi place some oil in a pan. Basically you are going to shallow fry the Halloumi so when the oil takes on a shimmering effect add your halloumi carefully into the oil.
I sliced the halloumini into what were effectively big chips and patted them dry on kitchen roll.
I then seasoned them with a garlic, lemon and black pepper mix which I brought from the spices and herb section in the supermarket.

Halloumi chips.

Now gently place them into your frying pan and cook on all four sides until they are lovely and golden on each side.

Colour is Flavour...yes Steve I know ! ha ha !

When nicely coloured just plate everything up. I cannot think of anything that is so light to eat and something with its vibrant Red peppers bringing a pleasing colour to the salad and the heat of Harissa giving you a wonderful warm feeling to your taste buds it truly did bring a little bit of sunshine to yet another rainy summers day ! Enjoy.

A few Extra pics !

All I seem to take pics of at the moment is Storm clouds. Quite dramatic though.

Sunday on my break from work taking a few pics of Alnmouth estuary.

I seem to remember taking a similar picture to this in a Rapeseed field back in April looking forward to a wonderful warming summer. This is a field of barley near Embleton just before it rained again !

The washing line .

"Feed me Seymour ! "

Even Billy the garden gnome was looking in a bad way !

It was good for the Roses though !