Halloumi

This is officially my new favorite cheese. It's not that I hadn't seen the appeal of halloumi before. But living in India, it is hard to replace paneer with any other choice. London, on the other hand, has slim pickings as far as paneer goes. The packets of frozen or stale paneer don't really excite me and rather than compromise with bad versions of my favorite, I've been eating more of the other varieties of cheeses. And before you ask, yes, I know how to make my own paneer. But i have a rather hectic class schedule and paneer making doesn't fit in currently.

So back to halloumi. And London's short lived summer. For about a week, the temperature rose to 28 degrees and it was sunny. And everyone was wearing short skirts. Then it started raining and we are squarely back into the 14 degree weather and warm jackets all round.

I did have halloumi on a barbeque during the summer week. But then, I wanted to have it again yesterday amidst a rainy storm. So I made it on a grill pan. I cut thin slices of halloumi. Put them in a wide bowl and drizzled over a tbsp of olive oil and juice of a lemon. The cheese is already over salty so this is all you need. Half an hour later, I put the cheese slices on a hot grill pan and cooked both sides until browned.

You see it served here over sharp rocket and sweet baby plum tomatoes, both flavors that work very well with the cheese!