Halloumi Kebab

Halloumi is the heavy-weight of the cheese world when it comes to being cooked. It can take the chars from a griddle pans' aggresive ridges like no other. Imagine a slab of Brie lasting 2-seconds under those kind of conditions? I discover this is due to it having an unusually high melting point for cheese, which is interesting. No, really, it is interesting, I never looked at cheese in that way and now it is all starting to make sense. Even better that it suits being hot in a pitta bread as it wins hands down against stinky old kebab meat any day. Way back when, when I lived in Chorlton, in Manchester, there was this lovely Greek man called Panicos (I think that's the right spelling) who used to make me up delicious 'vegetarian option' kebab, that was filled with halloumi, hummous, salad, and different pickles. I went back time after time for them. This halloumi sandwich is a homage to Panicos and a bit of a take on his halloumi kebab. It is really a easy-in-a-hurry-too-tired-tonight type snack.

Ingredients:
4 Large organic pitta breads
4 small Gem lettuces
6 vine ripe tomatoes
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves
1 lemon
Small handful from a jar of pickled Jalapeno peppers
1 block of Halloumi cheese, 250g
Houmous, 100g pot of Organic, (or make you own with blended up chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, tahini, and seasoning)

The deluxe added extra sauce (for those not counting the calories)

6 tablespoons of organic mayonnaise
Juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon of hot water
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4

Quarter the tomatoes and place cut side up on a non-reactive baking tray. Thinly slice the red onion into halve moons and scatter with the tomatoes. Finely chop the garlic and scatter half of this on the baking sheet. Place in the oven.

If you're making your own houmous just whizz the listed ingredients together with some olive oil for this dish I tend to buy a really nice organic houmous. For the dressing sauce stir together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, hot water, garlic and seasoning and put to one side.

Slice the halloumi block in to 1cm thick pieces and place on kitchen paper to dry off the moisture. Get a heavy based frying pan on a medium heat on the hob and add a very small drizzle of olive oil. Lay the halloumi around the pan so they each lay flat to evenly grill each side. Be careful as it will spit and sizzle a little. Leave it there for about 2 minutes lift one up at the corner to see if it has begun to brown slightly if they have turn it over gently so they don't tear. Cook the other side for a few more minute until they are brown on both sides. Remove and place on kitchen role to drain.

If needs be wash and dry out the lettuce. Slice a thin gap in the pitta breads before cooking, this makes it easier to handle when it's hot. I pop these in the toaster to easily toast through but you can grill them too. About now the tomatoes and onions are ready. Take these out.

Once the pitta's are toasted start to build them up. Hold them with a paper towel so it doesn't burn, open them up and paste either side of the inside with a little houmous. Now add some lettuce a slice of halloumi, and a small spoonful of the roasted mix from the oven. Repeat this with more lettuce, halloumi, and roasted vegetables. Once you have it pretty packed full drizzle the salad and cheese filling lightly with the garlic mayonnaise dressing. Press down and slice in two down the centre.