Fried halloumi with capers and lime

Oh I wish I could claim that this were my recipe! But no, this is a well known and well loved Delia recipe, let me first acknowledge that. I love Delia. She has probably been biggest influence on me as a home cook over the years. My most used cookbook is her Complete Cookery Collection, but this is taken from, I believe, her Summer Collection which I don’t own. I got it online, after it had been playing on my mind due to seeing it featured recently in a delicious magazine article celebrating the 10th anniversary of the book. 

It strikes me as such a ‘current’ dish; it hasn’t dated at all despite it being created 10 years ago. I am currently much hearting interesting veggie recipes, and am choosing to make/eat them over meat or fish dishes – it must be to do with me being pregnant and craving a wide variety of nutrients and flavours too. This coincides nicely with my belief that everyone would be much better off if we all ate less meat anyway. 

It is a perfect starter or light lunch. But I wanted it as an evening meal, so I made it as part of a small veggie mezze, with a No Feta Greek Salad (no need for feta when halloumi is also being enjoyed at the same meal) and some Cannellini Bean Houmous, with some pitta on the side. This is the reason I thought it was worth including it on the blog (maybe other people want to enjoy it in the evning but aren’t sure what to serve it with to make it more of a meal) despite not amending it at all, which is my normal ‘rule’ for the inclusion of other people’s recipes on here. It’s really good; the zingy flavours blend perfectly. You must try it! And if you do want to serve it for dinner then maybe try my suggested sides to make it more complete and filling. 

Serves: 2 adults
Prep time: 5 minutes 
Cooking time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:
1 packet of halloumi cheese, sliced into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons of plain flour
Pepper (Delia uses salt but I don’t as halloumi is salty anyway)
1 tablespoon of olive oil 

For the dressing: 
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tablespoon of capers
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil 
1 clove of garlic, pounded with a pestle and mortar or grated on a fine grater (use the back of a metal spoon and some salt on a bread board if you don’t have any other means of crushing)
1 tablespoon of grain mustard (Delia says 1 teaspoon but I used more)
1 tablespoon of chopped coriander (if you don’t like coriander you could replace this with fresh chopped flat leaf parsley I suppose)
Pepper (Delia uses salt too but I left out as halloumi is salty as are capers)

No Feta Greek Salad:
Half a cucumber, cut into chunks
About 7 tomatoes, cut into chunks of same size
About 7 fat Greek green olives
Generous sprinkle of dried oregano 
Good glug of olive oil 
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Make your dressing by mixing all the ingredients together. 
2. Dust your slices of halloumi in the flour and shake off any excess. 
3. Heat the oil for a minute or two until it’s fairly hot (you want the cheese to sizzle) and fry for 1 minute on each side. Pat each piece dry with kitchen roll. 
4. Dress the pieces liberally whilst it’s fresh from the pan. You don’t have to put all of the dressing on – we had some left over which we dipped bread into.