Haloumi and Store Cupboard Rice Salad

Living and working in Paris, my flatmate and I are often too hot to eat a hot meal, and really can't afford to eat meat for every meal either. We have however managed to eat healthily with meals like this one, using cheeses such as haloumi and feta as meat substitutes, and making use of nutritious red peppers, onions, peas and olives. I know Andrew sells great quality Greek feta and Cypriot haloumi which per person are such good money for value! His range of different olives are also pretty amazing too, and what's nice you don't have to buy a whole tub like you do in the supermarket.

Ingredients for two people:

Half a pack of haloumi, four to six slices | Half a red onion, finely chopped | Half a red pepper finely chopped | Frozen peas | Drop of olive oil and balsamic | Sprinkle of dried oregano or mixed herbs | Rice, about 1 mug full | Feel free to adapt accordingly for what you need to use up in the fridge

1| Slice your haloumi and drizzle over a little olive oil and sprinkle some dried herbs, massage in and set to one side.  2| Then start to gently fry your onion, and a little crushed garlic if you have it. 

3| Meanwhile add your rice to boiling water and cook for ten minutes. 

4| Add your pepper and olives and cook for a further five minutes. 

5| Add your green peas and a dash of baslsamic vinegar cooking on a high heat now for around two minutes before adding your cooked rice. 

6| Mix and pour into a serving dish so that you can quickly give your frying pan a clean before cooking the haloumi. 

7| Heat up the pan and fry the haloumi for about two minutes each side until it is nice and golden all over. 

7| Serve immediately with the rice and enjoy! 

Deli Favourites- Fun Tips and Ideas

From talking to customers in the shop over the last few weeks, it seems that everyone's appetite is disappearing with the hot weather, and I couldn't agree more. I myself have been snacking and lunching on different cheeses, olives and cold meats from our lovely delicatessen, so I thought this week I would show you how I've been putting them to use to eat more lightly in the hotter weather.

1. Parma Ham and Melon has long been a favourite on Spanish tapas menus and is deliciously refreshing in the hot weather. My mum made these gorgeous little bundles as nibbles for a BBQ we had the other weekend. Simply cut melon into small sections, and add a folded piece of Andrew's Parma Ham, sliced thinly on request, attaching to the melon with a cocktail stick.

2. As well as our excellent Italian Buffalo Di Mozzarella that we sell as a whole ball in a pot, we also sell the same cheese in little individual balls in a pot. This makes it really easy to tear into salads for lunches. Serve here as I did with a plate of tomato spaghetti for a quick yummy lunch on a hot day.

3. I absolutely adore this Finnochiona salami which has to be my favourite of all the salamis that we sell in the shop. Finnochio translates as fennel in Italian, and the small pieces of fennel running through the salami give it a delicate but very unique taste. What I love about the salamis we serve in the shop, apart from their taste, is that we slice on request so customers can have as much or as little as they like and as thick or thin as they like it. A friend made me a lunch of a couple of slices of the Finnochiona salami with a light salad the other day and it was simply delicious!

4. We have now started selling small pitted black olives, thankfully, as it means I no longer have to fiddle about taking the stone out each time I want to cook with them. For easy potatoes with a summer feel, I slice roasting potatoes and add them to a roasting dish with thyme, olive oil and sliced black olives. Roast for 45 mins in a hot oven until golden, stirring occasionally. The olives give the potatoes a delightful flavour even if you want to discard them afterwards. This potato dish is also lovely if you add our Bridge Farm lamb cutlets 10 mins before the end of cooking, as the meat juices enrich the flavour of the potatoes even more. 

Haloumi Heaven

Finally the sun is shining so I decided to make one of my favourite summer dishes. I may not have been able to grill it on the barbecue but this basic haloumi recipe is still delicious fried in a pan. Haloumi is also a great cheese to buy and have in the fridge ready for when the sun does come out as it has a long date on it until opened; this shouldn't be a problem, it is so yummy it soon gets eaten up!

Four simple ingredients for your basic haloumi: half a block of cypriot haloumi cheese from Andrew's, 2 crushed garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil, dried mixed herbs. Haloumi can take a LOT of flavour so don't be shy on your garlic and use as many fresh herbs or spices as you think best. Slice into 4. Leave to marinate while you prepare a salad or accompaniment. (Andrew's sell a great Mediterranean couscous that would go well). Heat your pan on a high heat. Add the haloumi and cook browning it each side making sure you let the cheese soften, you will see it changing texture. Slice into pieces, serve and enjoy! 

Cooking For One: Buffalo Clementine Salad

Cooking for one at uni, I'm normally obliged to not buy certain things if I'm not going to be able to eat it all, especially if it's expensive and I don't want to be eating the same meal for three nights in a row. Buffalo Mozzarella might not seem exciting but when it's really good quality, like the one we sell at Andrews, its smells and tastes divine. This week I'm going to create 3 delicious yet different meals to make the expense worth it.

My first creation: Mozzarella, Clementine and Parma Ham salad. This combination, admittedly stolen from J.O, is great as all three different textures work really well together. I simply tore up some mixed salad leaves and rocket (the rest to be used later in the week), tore up two slices of Parma ham and sliced one clementine into segments. I want to make the mozzarella last three meals so made a small slit in the top of the bag and poured the 'milk' into a small bowl. I then split the mozzarella into three and placed  two pieces into the bowl, covered and put in the fridge. The milk is necessary to keep the cheese from going dry. The remaining third was again torn and arranged on the plate. A small amount of extra virgin oil can be drizzled over with a sprinkling of black pepper.

Parma Ham, Mozzarella and Peach Salad

Parma ham is a variety of prosciutto (dry cured ham) that can only be called so if it is produced in Parma, Italy. In my opinion it is the best- the smell that hits me when slicing it for customers in the butchers is heavenly and it tastes so deliciously sweet! 

I recently had to think up a starter for my mum's 50th birthday dinner and chose this dish because of how easy yet impressive-looking it is to make for a large number. The recipe is my summer adaptation of Jamie Oliver’s “Fifteen Christmas Salad” in Cook With Jamie. The dish can be prepared up to an hour before served, and is easily adaptable to the number you want to cook for. 

Ingredients

Small block of parmesan cheese.

Half a ball of mozzarella cheese per person. (As the cheese isn't being cooked, it really makes the dish if you can get hold of a good quality mozzarella such as the authentic buffalo mozzarella we sell at Andrews.) 

A mixture of rocket and red lettuce leaves, enough for one handful per person.

Bunch of mint leaves (optional).

Fresh peaches (not too firm not too soft!) 3 segments per person (half a peach), so multiply this by how many people you’re serving and add one peach to replace any messy slices. Jamie uses clementines for a winter alternative. 

Parma ham, 1 large slice per person. 

3 tablespoons of olive oil to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. 

Zest of one lemon.

Salt and pepper. 

Tear up the mozzarella into chunks roughly of the same size and into a bowl and drizzle with a touch of extra lemon juice to preserve. Cover bowl with cling-film and place in the fridge for later. 

Your salad is going to be wrapped in parma ham so chop your red lettuce leaves in thinnish vertical slices and mix with the rocket and finely chopped mint leaves in a bowl. 

Prepare your peaches. Carefully slice peach into 6-8 segments, pulling away gently from the stone. Again drizzle with a touch of lemon juice if preparing in advance and put in the fridge. Make your dressing. mix 1 part lemon juice to 3 parts olive oil and season with salt and pepper. 

Dress your salad then lay out your parma ham. Wrap each slice of ham around a small compacted handful of salad. To plate up, lay out your torn up mozzarella in the centre of each plate. Sprinkle with a touch of lemon zest and again season with a touch of pepper. Balance your parma ham salad parcels across the top of each, and arrange 3-4 peach segments around the mozzarella. Garnish the plate with either a few loose rocket or mint leaves and drizzle a touch of the lemon dressing around the edge of each plate. Grate some parmesan cheese on the top of each parma ham parcel.