Last weekend was the girls birthday weekend on the Sunshine Coast. 10 of us spent the weekend ostensibly celebrating 3 of our birthdays which fall with in a few days. But really it is an excuse to get together and get away from the drab mid winter blaas that take hold at this time of year.
I get to cook for an appreciative audience try out some new recipes as well as cooking some tried and true dishes. Friday night we decided to have cassoulet one of my personal favourites, but the first time for a couple of the women. To go with this I made another old favourite halloumi cheese salad.
Halloumi cheese is a salty Greek cheese that is used for making saganaki, which I love. I usually make this salad in the summer as it goes so well with grilled chicken and kebabs, but it also was a nice sharp contrast to the very rich cassoulet.
Halloumi cheese used to be very hard to find, but like almost everything in this ever shrinking world it appears to be available in most decent supermarkets as well as speciality stores.
1 block of halloumi cheese sliced
1/4 cup of olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 red onion thinly sliced (or a bunch of green onions sliced)
1 box of mixed salad greens (or any lettuce will do really)
Mix the salad greens and onion in a shallow wide salad bowl we used a pasta serving bowl and it worked beautifully.
pour the olive oil in to a large frying pan heat up and add the cheese.
When they are starting to go golden brown on the underside (about 2 minutes) turn them over.
When the slices are golden on both sides take them out and place on top of the salad greens. Add the lemon juice to the hot olive oil and mix together and pour over the salad. You could add some capers to the dressing before you pour over for a little more zing, but this time we kept it simple.
This is delicious and easy and went well with cassoulet and is a personal favourite of Pat who shares my birthday week, so happy belated birthday Pat. I look forward to cooking this up in Summerland this summer on a hot summer evening which seems very far away on this cold midwinter day.
I get to cook for an appreciative audience try out some new recipes as well as cooking some tried and true dishes. Friday night we decided to have cassoulet one of my personal favourites, but the first time for a couple of the women. To go with this I made another old favourite halloumi cheese salad.
Halloumi cheese is a salty Greek cheese that is used for making saganaki, which I love. I usually make this salad in the summer as it goes so well with grilled chicken and kebabs, but it also was a nice sharp contrast to the very rich cassoulet.
Halloumi cheese used to be very hard to find, but like almost everything in this ever shrinking world it appears to be available in most decent supermarkets as well as speciality stores.
1 block of halloumi cheese sliced
1/4 cup of olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 red onion thinly sliced (or a bunch of green onions sliced)
1 box of mixed salad greens (or any lettuce will do really)
Mix the salad greens and onion in a shallow wide salad bowl we used a pasta serving bowl and it worked beautifully.
pour the olive oil in to a large frying pan heat up and add the cheese.
When they are starting to go golden brown on the underside (about 2 minutes) turn them over.
When the slices are golden on both sides take them out and place on top of the salad greens. Add the lemon juice to the hot olive oil and mix together and pour over the salad. You could add some capers to the dressing before you pour over for a little more zing, but this time we kept it simple.
This is delicious and easy and went well with cassoulet and is a personal favourite of Pat who shares my birthday week, so happy belated birthday Pat. I look forward to cooking this up in Summerland this summer on a hot summer evening which seems very far away on this cold midwinter day.
Thank you Gillian. Happy belated Birthday to you, too! I share your yearning for a hot summer night in Summerland.
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