Marie Claire fresh and fast: simply delicious healthy food, 256pp.
by Michele Cranston
Murdoch Books, Millers Points NSW, 2008
Cooking on page 32
I’ve cooked from several Marie Claire cookbooks written by different authors. This is a companion to Michele Cranston’s Fresh and easy. A while back we enjoyed a beef and potato curry from that book.
My friend, Chloe, loaned me this book. She’s done a couple of guest blog posts here including a moist buttermilk cake with strawberries and a tomato and bread salad with anchovies and capers.
Pan-fried haloumi with roasted tomatoes
Ingredients
2 branches of truss cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
400 g (14 oz) tinned white beans, drained
2 small zucchini (courgettes), finely sliced
a handful of parsley leaves
2 handfuls of rocket (arugula) leaves
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
250 g (9 oz) haloumi cheese, sliced
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6).
Cut the truss tomato branches into two so that you have four sections of tomatoes. Place them onto a baking tray and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the skins are beginning to split.
Put the white beans in a bowl with the zucchini, parsley leaves, rocket leaves, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss to combine before dividing between four serving plates.
Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add the remaining olive oil. Pan-fry the haloumi slices until golden brown on both sides. Arrange the haloumi slices over the salad and top with the baked tomatoes. Serves 4.
How it played out
I had my first taste of haloumi in Egypt in 1976 and I have loved it ever since. I’ve been wanting to make this recipe for ages, but some of my herb plants got trampled by workmen in the backyard.
Luckily a friend has a good supply of parsley and I grabbed the supermarket’s last packet of rocket. Made as written using butter beans and extra lemon juice.
Verdict
I’ll always love haloumi in any way possible. Go on, try it. Hope you’ll love it too.
Travel
We’re finally back to travelling—this time 54 days in Arabia with camping and hotels. Feel free to check out our rocky campsite in Oman.