Halloumi with mint and creamed aubergine
-
Loading... - Siomi Kennedy
- 10 Jan 2021
- 1608 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
The recipe
Set the oven at 220C/gas mark 8. Place 2 medium-sized aubergines and half a head of garlic (about 6 cloves) in a roasting tin and bake for about 45 minutes, until the skin of the aubergines is black and the flesh is soft. Remove the aubergines from the oven, slice them in half and scrape out the flesh with a spoon, discarding the skins as you go. Roughly chop or mash the aubergine and place in a mixing bowl.
Separate the garlic cloves, then squeeze their flesh into the aubergine. Beat in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Squeeze in the juice from half a lemon, a tablespoon at a time, tasting as you go, then season with a little salt and set aside.
Place 100g of dried breadcrumbs on a plate, then mix in 2 tsp of dried thyme and a few twists of ground black pepper. Break 2 eggs into a small dish and beat lightly with a fork to combine yolks and whites. Separate the seeds from half a pomegranate. Cut 250g of halloumi into thick fingers.
Roll the fingers of halloumi first in the beaten egg, then in the seasoned crumbs and place on a plate. Warm a shallow layer of olive or groundnut oil in a shallow pan, then lower in the halloumi, a few fingers at a time and fry for a minute or two until crisp, then rest them briefly on kitchen paper.
Divide the creamed aubergine between two plates, then add the crisp halloumi and a scattering of the pomegranate seeds and a handful of small mint leaves. Enough for 2.
The trick
The aubergine needs to be baked until it is truly soft and the flesh can be crushed effortlessly with a fork. The halloumi, once fried, should be eaten immediately, as the crumb crust needs to be crisp to be good.
The twist
Bake the halloumi instead of frying it. Slice the block of cheese in half horizontally, then place on a large sheet of tin foil. Pour over a glug of oil, some black pepper and dried thyme, scrunch the foil loosely to seal then bake for 20 minutes at 200C/gas mark 6.
