A Winter Halloumi Recipe. Halloumi Saganaki.

West 4 or 5, occasionally 6 at first, backing southwest 6 to gale 8 later, perhaps severe gale 9.

Moderate or rough, occasionally very rough.

Rain at times.

Moderate or good.

I had high hopes for December. In my mind I would repost my recipes on the first and add at least 24. Like an Advent Calendar. All of course delightful Christmas morsels, charming like a Williams-Sonoma catalogue. It turned out to be nearer to the mad reality of life and me just throwing things together. Not quite as hilarious as the annual Williams-Sonoma parody but close enough. But I promise to write my recipe for the peppermint bark. Just not today. For today it is about cheese. A cheese I have in my mind as a summer cheese, but which is wonderful in winter too. As long as you deep fry it (Spoiler alert: There will be more deep fried recipes!) Soon!

And because this recipe is a promise. And a dedication to a wonderful person which happens to be a wonderful artist. And likes Halloumi.

Halloumi Saganaki is a recipe I came first across in Rick Stein`s wonderful book: From Venice to Istanbul. Unfortunately it has few Vegetarian recipes so might not be your choice of a last minute Christmas present for the one Vegetarian in your life. But Rick Stein is a wonderful cook and even his meat recipes give me inspiration to make them Vegetarian.

A sagani is a frying pan, so cheese Saganaki is fried cheese. You don’t need to buy “special” Saganaki cheese, this is just a marketing trick. The cheese in question is either Halloumi or Kefalotiri , and since Halloumi is easily available in every UK supermarket, why not go directly to the real deal? BTW: Waitrose sells Kefalotiri, but I have not tried it yet.

However Halloumi is not to everyone`s taste, or shall I say texture? I never met anyone who objects to the taste but quite a few people I know cant stand the squishy, slight rubbery texture of Halloumi. And this firmness never goes quite away. On the other hand this makes it the perfect cheese for an open fire (BBQ or grill), btw this Delia recipe is still one of the best for Summer Halloumi recipes, and it makes it also one of the best binding cheeses. Just grate it and mix it with whatever vegetable you want (grated beetroot and grated Halloumi makes a mean Vegetarian burger). Or you could deep fry it. I wont promise that the firmness will go away, but you wont mind.

And if you are hesitant about using a salty cheese with something sweet, just replace in your mind the Halloumi with Camembert and the honey with cranberry sauce and you have the well beloved 70`s dish Deep Fried Camembert and you know it will work.

Despite the deep fried component this is a lightish dish, but just perfect when the rain, storm and snow beat the windowpane and your body screams: Cheese, Cheese, Cheese.

Halloumi saganaki

4 tbsp olive oil

1 block halloumi cheese

1 small egg, beaten (remember quail eggs?)

4 tbsp fine semolina

A sprinkle of salt and white pepper

2 tbsp strong honey (I quite like the dark Alpine version with pine, but any honey will do= incidentally the honey above is from Guatemala. Not because it is superior, but I just happen to have it. Dont ask, it is a family thing, a kind of running joke)

1 tsp nigella seeds

1 sprig fresh oregano

freshly ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan.

Mix the semolina with the salt and white pepper. Cut the halloumi horizontally through the middle. Take one slice and use the rest for another dish. Cut it again vertically so you end up with two slices which are finger thick. Dip the halloumi slices in the beaten egg then roll in the semolina mixture. Fry on a medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side until golden-brown.

In the microwave, warm the honey. Serve the Halloumi squares drizzled with warm honey and sprinkled with Nigella seeds, oregano and black pepper.

A slight bitter salad, like radicchio or rocket, drizzled with either balsamic syrup or, even better, fig balsamic syrup (Aldi!) complements it perfectly. If you want to make it a bit more substantial, use my Pide recipe and mop up the juices.

Enjoy, G. And I feel deeply honoured about your acknowledgment in your PhD. And congrats. You rock!

And enjoy everyone else. Καλή όρεξη! (Kali orexi)

A neat egg trick. Devilled mushrooms.

South or southeast, veering west later, 4 or 5.

Slight or moderate.

Mainly fair.

Moderate or good, occasionally poor later.

What a summer. It was apparently here and now it is gone. Didn’t really have time to enjoy it, was working like mad. But now the days are getting shorter, the work madness has eased and I hope to find more time again for my write ups.

I will restart with a bonus recipe, the neat egg trick. It is dead simple, yet you need to tweak it. I hear you saying: “How can it be dead simple if I need to experiment?”

Well, I don’t know your microwave, your mug size or how thick the walls are of your mug. Just bear with me and you will understand:

Heat the kettle. Pour into a wide, big mug with not too thick walls (something like above) the hot water until the mug is about 1/3 full. Crack an egg and let it glide carefully into the water. Put mug uncovered into your microwave and give it 40 seconds.

Let stand for another 10 seconds. Glide egg onto a perforated spoon, let water drip and put it onto your warm and buttered toast: Perfect poached egg.

So basically you put the kettle on, put bread in the toaster, make tea, make the egg and have toast with a poached egg within one minute.

What can go wrong? Obviously it could be too soft..give it a few more seconds. Too hard..OMG, you have to eat a hardboiled egg- just give it less next time.

Egg yolk hard and egg white slimy: use less water next time.

As you can see: the worst thing that can happen is that you have hardboiled egg. So just give it a few tries until you know exactly what you are doing, and you will have in the future in “instant” poached egg (Eggs Florentine anyone?)

But today`s recipe is my Vegetarian take on “devilled kidneys”. According to Wikipedia it is a Victorian British breakfast dish consisting of lamb's kidneys cooked in a spiced sauce, referred to as "devilling”. Apart from some men in Gentlemen`s Clubs I can’t imagine anyone having it for breakfast. It is incredible rich tasting (albeit less fatty than a fry-up) and cries out for a fresh white wine or a glass of champagne to go with it. Might be something for a Boxing Day or birthday breakfast, or, as I do, a luxurious supper for one.

BTW, if you don’t mind eating meat, use lamb or veal kidneys instead of mushrooms. No pork kidneys, they are vile. And clean them properly and fry very quickly or they become hard. Or save yourself the trouble and use mushrooms.

Devilled mushrooms

2 slices of good quality white bread

200 gr. mushrooms (be brave, mix wild mushrooms into your bog standard shrooms, or use a mixture of shitake, brown and Portobello)

1 shallot, finely cut

A bit of butter

1 hefty glug of Port wine (or Brandy or Sherry)

A timid shake of Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

A pinch of cayenne pepper

1 heaped tbsp redcurrant, Cumberland sauce or any red fruit jelly or jam

2–3 tbsp double cream

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chopped flat-leaf parsley, to finish

1 poached egg (see above)

Cut the shrooms into slices. Set a frying pan over a high heat. When it is hot, add the butter and let melt, add the shallots, followed by the mushrooms.

After about 1½ minutes, add the Port (or Brandy). Let it bubble and reduce down, then add Worcestershire sauce, mustard, cayenne and fruit condiment. Stir to combine. Give it about 3 minutes.

Now stir in the cream and allow the sauce to bubble and reduce down to a thick coating consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning or cayenne heat as required.

Toast your bread, get your egg ready, put the toasts on a plate, cover with the mushrooms, add the poached egg on top and finish with freshly chopped parsley.

Serve with a glass of bubbly.

And enjoy a golden autumn evening.

Tzatziki! Gesundheit!

East becoming variable, 3 or 4.

Smooth or slight.

Fair.

Moderate or good.

I know: First I am quite for weeks and then I post two recipes in one day (I actually feel tempted to write up a third). But I just happen to have some time now, which is unusual.

And this is a request and my memory is not that good, so I might forget that request. And I helps that I am nibbling on yesterday`s leftover Tzatziki, so I can as well write it up now.

Tzatziki! More than a dip or a sauce. Its a starter or a stand- alone light dish. Not quite sauce, not quite cucumber salad.

And while the commercial ones tend to be really vile, the dish is dead easy to make. Of course there are rules, but rules are there to be broken.

However: Dont skip on the garlic. It is supposed to be gutsy and sharp. And benefits from resting.

And please serve it with bread, at least pita bread. Dont waste an excellent dish on mediocre crisps. If you want a dip for that, go to the supermarket and buy one. But feel free to use it as a sauce for grilled chicken breasts.

And don’t forget Retsina. While Retsina somehow fell out of fashion, it is still an excellent wine to go with it, since its strong herby taste balances the gutsy sauce.

Tzatziki (for one as a stand- alone dish or for two as a dip)

200gr Greek yoghurt (at least 10% fat)

Half a cucumber

3 cloves of garlic

A handful of Dill

Salt

Olive oil

optional- a squeeze of lemon juice

Strain the yoghurt as if you would want to do Labneh (see the technique here), but do it only for a few hours. You want thick yoghurt, not cheese. (If you are time pressed, do it for half an hour, the time you need for the cucumber).

Peel the cucumber and cut it lengthwise into 4 batons. Remove the seeds with a spoon and cut the cucumber very fine. Sprinkle salt over it and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Bash the garlic with a bit of salt in a mortar until you get a paste. Add a tbsp olive oil and incorporate well. Let rest.

Once the cucumber pieces have released some water, put them into a cheesecloth and try to extract as much water as possible. Come on, give it another twist, you will be surprised how much water you can squeeze out of it. If you get tired, strengthen yourself with a glass of Retsina.

Add the dry cucumber pieces to the garlic and pound a bit with the pestle. You just want to create more of the paste, but still keep a fair amount of pieces intact. Plus it incorporates the garlic nicely into the cucumber.

Add the strained yoghurt and mix very well with the pestle. Be careful with the salt now, remember you did put salt onto the cucumbers and the garlic.

This is it in its very basic. From then on it depends on the region. And personal taste. Some regions add fresh mint, but dill is actually more common. And gives a very nice taste. Just chop it very fine and add it with a squeeze of lemon juice to the yoghurt. Nothing stops you using both, mint AND dill, which is maybe an Athens` thing (at least I had it there). A Lady I know and who lives in Athens also recommended a glug of ouzo for a change, which I sometimes use as well. But then omit the dill, the ouzo has already a herby note.

Serve with bread and pour another glug of olive oil over it.

Καλή όρεξη!

Oh, and if you really just want a dip to go with your crisps and it is midnight and you are full of ouzo and don’t care if it is authentic or not: Mix 1/3 cream cheese and 2/3 plain yoghurt, chop up one whole dill pickle, add a good squeeze of garlic paste, salt and a hefty glug of ouzo and mix it. But please don’t call it tzatziki, call it [yourname]`s Greek inspired midnight dip. And please don’t tell anyone that the single gourmet at the sea told you to do it like this.