Making Halloumi Cheese at Home

Great Fun & Very Easy

Whenever we camp we have a tradition of starting our meal with griddled Halloumi cheese - sometimes we serve it with a side salad, occasionally it is on skewers, often it is just griddled and served with a squeeze of lemon juice or some sweet chilli sauce. I find it a really useful thing to have in the fridge for impromptu trips because it has such a long shelf life. It does have to be refrigerated or kept in a cool bag with ice blocks but that doesn't really pose too much of a problem.

The other day, our love of 'the squeaky cheese' as my kids called it when they were younger, got me thinking. Is it possible to make Halloumi cheese at home? It turns out it is not only possible but really very simple. It is also great fun and it will leave you feeling like a slightly mad professor as the milk reacts with the rennet, turning the milk into jelly which then turns into cheese!

I should say that it probably works out more expensive to make Halloumi at home in small batches than it does to buy it from the supermarket, but where is the fun in that? Also, if you make it yourself you know what has gone into it (no added preservatives for instance) and you will feel unbearably smug when you serve it up!

The one thing to remember when you make cheese at home is that everything you use must be very very clean. For the most part this just means pouring boiling water over utensils and muslin cloth before you use them. That is about as complicated as it gets.

Before I get started, I should mention that, until you actually get to the point of cooking your cheese, it will look very unappealing and you will start to question your efforts and your sanity - have faith, it will all be worth it!

So, here goes with the recipe.........

INGREDIENTS

Halloumi Cheese

2L Whole Milk (can be pasteurised but mustn't be homogenised - it needs to have a layer of cream at the top like milk used to)

2 tsp Rennet (available in vegetarian or animal-based versions from good supermarkets and Lakeland Ltd)

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

Dried herbs (optional - we like mint and oregano)

Brine

1/2 L Whey (left over from the cheese making process)

1/2 L Boiling water

100g Salt

METHOD

In a wide-bottomed pan gradually brink the milk up to 32-36C. I use a meat thermometer for this part.

Add the rennet and stir gently. Cover the pan with a tea towel and leave it alone for an hour. It will set like a jelly - amazing! The 'jelly' is called curds.

Cut the curds into 1 inch cubes with a knife by making a grid pattern.

Leave it for another half an hour to settle. The curds will come away from the watery whey and you will feel like a genius!

Next, bring the entire mixture up to 38C over a gentle heat over a period of about half an hour.

The next step is to scoop the curds into a perforated container such as a sieve lined with muslin. Make sure you have another container underneath to collect the whey. At this point, add any herbs you want to use, sprinkling them in as you go, along with some salt.

Leave it all to drain for about an hour (longer won't hurt).

Now you will need to poach the curds. Heat the whey to 85C in a large saucepan or deep frying pan. Add 1 tablespoon of salt.

Turn the curds out and cut them into slices about 2in thick (please don't measure them though - it isn't that critical).

Once the whey is at 85C, add the curd slices and watch and wait. When they rise to the top of the liquid, they are ready. Remove them with a slotted spoon and put them back into your draining container (sieve). At this stage, I use a plastic takeaway tray into which we have poked some drainage holes because it is rectangular and so it creates a block of halloumi that is easier to slice.

 It will feel very wobbly at this stage but it will firm up as it cools down. Make sure you pack the soft cheese in and squash it down a bit.

Once cool and firm, it is ready to cook.

 Put a little oil in to a hot pan and fry slices of the cheese for a couple of minutes on each side until it is brown. Alternatively, cook it over a hot griddle pan or a BBQ. Sometimes, if I can be bothered, I lightly coat the cheese slices in seasoned flour before frying them as this makes them a little crispier, giving you both crunch and squeak in each mouthful!

Brining the Cheese

If you want your cheese to last for longer, you will need to brine it. It will then keep for about a month in the fridge. Just add the 1/2L of the whey to 1/2 L of boiling water and 100g salt. Stir to make sure the salt has dissolved and then leave to cool. Pour the cooled brine over the cheese and keep it immersed in an airtight container in the fridge.

Best served with a large glass of chilled white wine!

Marinated Rump Steak - Another BBQ spectacular

STEAK SLICE WITH GARLIC, LEMON AND THYME

 

This wonderful, straightforward recipe comes from Nigella Lawson. It is one I have used on many occasions, both at home and when camping, because it is incredibly simple, very quick to prepare and it always tastes amazing.

Unlike most other BBQ recipes that require you to marinate the meat in advance, this recipe calls for the just-cooked meat to be placed into a marinade while it rests. Somehow the hot meat seems to absorb more of the flavour this way.

If you make it away from home, the marinade can be made in advance and taken with you in a screw top jar to make it even easier. Having said that, it will only take about 5 minutes to put together wherever you are.

The only things you will need with you are a sharp knife, a chopping board and a BBQ or griddle pan.

The recipe serves 2-4 depending on how hungry/greedy you are, what else you are having with it and whether you own a rather demanding, fat brown spaniel!

INGREDIENTS

1 x 2.5cm thick piece of rump steak (about 600g)
5 stalks of thyme
2 cloves of garlic
80ml extra virgin olive oil or rapeseed oil
Zest and juice of half a lemon
1 tsp salt
Pepper

METHOD

Light your BBQ or pre-heat a ridged griddle pan over your camping stove (or your hob at home).

Remove the fat from around the edge of the steak and brush with oil to help prevent it from sticking.

Slap the steak on the BBQ/Griddle pan and cook it for 3 minutes on each side. If you want to be cheffy you can then rotate it through 90 degrees and give it another minute on each side to get  lovely criss-cross griddle marks. Try not to over-cook it because it will continue to cook as it rests in the marinade.

While the steak is cooking, mix the oil and lemon juice together. Bash up the garlic and the thyme a little with whatever you have to hand and add them to the oil and lemon mixture along with the salt and some pepper.

Put this marinade mix into a shallow dish that is large enough to fit the steak once it is cooked.

After cooking, add the steak to the marinade and leave it for 4 minutes before turning it over for another four.

Remove it from the marinade (by which time it will be beautifully rested) and slice it thinly on the diagonal.

We like to eat this as it is with new potatoes and salad or stuffed into a nice crusty baguette with anything else that takes your fancy (salad, fried onions, horseradish sauce etc) alongside a nice glass of wine.

In the photo below my steak was thinner than the recipe states. Unfortunately I had already consumed a couple of glasses of wine after a very hot day on the beach and I forgot to take that into account and cooked it for too long. Not surprisingly, it was overdone (although the rotund spaniel didn't seem to mind!)

Happy days!

 

 

Cheat's Frittata

This recipe came about after we over-indulged one night at the mobile fish and chip van that came visiting a site we were staying on. I was left with some chips that non of us could finish and I didn't want them to go to the barrel-shaped brown spaniel so I wrapped them and popped them in the cool box for the next day, thinking I might try to make something delicious for dinner (I get brilliant ideas like that after several glasses of wine!!)

The following evening the challenge was on to make a whole new meal out of my cold and rather unpromising looking chips. All I could think of was to try a frittata and I am pleased to report that it worked a treat. We all felt it was tastier than one made either from scratch or from left over boiled potatoes.

I tend to make mine fairly plain because we often serve it alongside something from the BBQ. If you want it to be more of a main meal you can always add other ingredients such a ham, bacon, vegetables on so on.

I can confirm that the Frittata passes the fat brown spaniel taste test too!

CHEAT'S FRITTATA RECIPE - Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
400g left-over chips, chopped into bite-size pieces
4 eggs, beaten
4 spring onions, chopped fairly finely
25g Cheddar cheese, grated

Method

Heat a frying pan over a medium heat with the oil and add the chips. Cook for a few minutes, turning to heat the chips through.

Whisk the eggs and add the spring onions and some seasoning.

Lower the heat under the chips and pour in the egg mix. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and cook for around 8 minutes until the egg mix is almost set.

While this is happening, if you have a grill, light it and let it heat up. Pop the frittata under the grill to brown the top. This is more for appearance than taste so, if you don't have a grill, don't worry because it will still taste delicious.

Serve with tomato ketchup or brown sauce. Lovely with sausages for breakfast too!

The Best Ever Beef Burger Recipe

I know that is quite a claim for a burger recipe and there will, undoubtedly, be many people who disagree with me but, for my family, this is the best recipe for beef burgers that we have ever tried. Give it a go and see what you think. If you have a better one, I'd love to hear about it. They can easily be made on site but they also freeze very well so you could make them before you go, freeze them and then let them defrost slowly in your fridge/coolbox ready for Day 2 or 3 of your latest adventure! I'm not sure the photograph really does it justice - I was in a hurry to eat it so I didn't spend as much time as I could have fiddling around with it first!

BURGER RECIPE - Makes 8

Ingredients

2lbs of quality minced beef
1 egg yolk, beaten
40g dry breadcrumbs - shop bought or take a small ziplock bag of homemade ones with you
3tbsp milk
3 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 onion, grated or finely chopped
1 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning *

Method

Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix together well. Divide roughly into 8 and shape into burgers. If possible, put them somewhere cool for half an hour to an hour to firm up.

Cook over a BBQ or in a frying pan for 4-5 minutes each side. Check that they are cooked through by cutting into one.

Serve in a bun loaded with your favourite burger toppings. I always add a slice of cheese to the burger and leave it for a minute on the BBQ or under the grill to melt. We like our burgers with shredded lettuce, red onion, gherkins and a good dollop of mayo and ketchup.

* Old Bay Seasoning is a blend of herbs and spices that is made by US company McCormick & Company and produced in Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay area. It has been made there since 1939. It was originally created as a seasoning for crab but it can be used for much more than just seafood. The mix includes mustard, paprika, celery salt, bay leaf, black pepper, red pepper flakes, mace, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom and ginger. I buy it online and I always have some in the cupboard. I first came across it in a Nigella Lawson cookbook where she used it with squid.

Easiest Fruit Cake Ever.......

This fabulous little recipe comes from Sue Lawrence in her book 'Eating In'.

If I know in advance that we are going camping I always try to make a cake to take so we have something nice to have with a cup of tea when we arrive (or something nice to eat in the campervan in a traffic jam on the M5!) Fruit cakes are ideal for this because they keep so well. This is a really easy recipe, made with condensed milk to help keep it moist. The recipe has no butter in it so it is nice to cut it into slices and serve with a smear of butter on top.

EASIEST FRUIT CAKE RECIPE - Serves 8-10

Ingredients

700g/1lb 9oz mixed dried fruit
Juice & zest of a lemon
150g/5 1/2oz self-raising flour
1 large egg
1 x 400g can of condensed milk
1 tspn mixed spice

Method

Preheat the oven to 150c/300f/Gas 2 and line a 23cm/9inch loose-based cake tin with baking parchment.

Place the fruit in a pan with 125ml/4 fl oz cold water, the lemon juice and zest.

Bring slowly to the boil over a low heat, stirring all the time.

Leave to bubble for a minute then remove from the heat.

Cover and leave to cool until barely tepid.

Once it has cooled, add the flour, spice, egg and milk and stir well. Tip into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.

Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, covering loosely with foil after an hour to prevent the fruit from burning. It is ready when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove to a wire rack and let it cool completely in the tin before turning it out.

I transport mine to the campsite in a cake tin but you can just wrap it in foil of clingfilm.

Serve with a cup of tea!

Cocktails as the sun goes down......

Usually when we go camping it is a bit of a rough and ready affair. We like fairly basic sites, we love campfires and toasting marshmallows, we swim in rivers and we wear some truly appalling, mis-matched outfits. But we are happy!

Occasionally, however, it is rather nice to treat yourself to a bit of luxury on your adventure. A few years ago I bought myself a wonderful camping book, The Campervan Cookbook by Martin Dorey. I bought the book long before we had a campervan because it is filled with wonderful, practical recipes and stuff about camping and being outdoors. In his book, Mr Dorey has a small section on camping cocktails. This was something of an epiphany for me because I had never thought about making a cocktail on a campsite. Our tipple of choice had, until then, always been a bottle of wine or a beer.

Over time I have put together a small, portable cocktail kit. I spent a bit of time searching out recipes, trying them out and narrowing them down to a small number of very nice cocktails that only require a few ingredients. However much you like cocktails you do have to be realistic about what you can take with you on a trip. All of the recipes are 'chuck it all together and give it a good shake' recipes. If you have ice, be very smug and add it if you like. If you don't have access to ice, try to make sure the ingredients are chilled when you make your cocktail - after the first one you will forget all about the absence of ice anyway!

My kit comprises:-

• a selection of spirits decanted into small, clean bottles
• a jam jar 'shaker'
• a small medicine measuring cup
• some homemade laminated recipe cards held together with a cable tie
• a tin to put it all in

When we go away, I make sure I also take a lemon and lime and some mixers. Remember, you don't have to take every ingredient for every recipe. We often decide on a couple before we go and just take the stuff we need for them.


Our favourite cocktail recipes are:-


Tequila Sunrise

 



 

With one of these in your hands you'll feel as if you are on a Mexican beach - even if you are on a campsite in North Yorkshire! Miss out the Tequila and the kids can join in too.

 

Ingredients

 

• 3 parts Tequila
• 6 parts Orange Juice
• 1 part Grenadine (add last, don't stir, let it sink to the bottom)*

* Grenadine is basically a pomegranate flavoured sugar syrup. You can buy it in most decent supermarkets or off-licences but it is full of rubbish such as corn syrup and additives/preservatives. It is so easy (and cheap) to make your own at home that it seems crazy not to if you plan to drink a lot of these cocktails (and why wouldn't you?). Just mix equal quantities of sugar and pure pomegranate juice together in a clean air-tight jar and shake for a few days until the sugar has all dissolved. That's it!

 

 

 



Cosmopolitan

 

This cocktail has been around since the 1980's but it didn't really find fame until it featured in 'Sex and the City'

Ingredients

• 1.5 parts Vodka
• 1 part Cointreau
• 1 part Cranberry juice
• Dash lime juice

Just shake together in your jam jar and enjoy!


Woo Woo

This one is very popular, I haven't found anyone who didn't like it yet!

Ingredients

• 1 part Vodka
• 1 part Peach Schnapps
• 4 parts Cranberry Juice

If you are feeling particularly decadent you can add a slice of peach and claim the drink as one of your five-a-day! Drink five of them and pat yourself on the back for meeting Government guidelines! Again, miss out the vodka for the kids!


Bellini

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to spend a short time in Venice. I loved the city very much and it was there that I had my first ever Bellini, swiftly followed by my second, third and fourth.....! I don't think this recipe is totally authentic because the ones I drank had a layer of peach puree in the bottom. For me, on a campsite, that is a step too far!

Ingredients

• 1 part Peach Schnapps
• 1 part sparkling white wine or Prosecco

Mix together - you can jazz it up with a splash of your homemade Grenadine for a stronger colour if you like.

Sea Breeze

 

 This is a lovely long cocktail that makes a very refreshing drink.

 

Ingredients

 

• 1 part Vodka
• 3 parts Cranberry Juice
• 1 part Grapefruit Juice

If you swap the Grapefruit for Pineapple Juice you will have yourself a Hawaiian Sea Breeze instead.

 

 

Mojito

 

This drink originally hails from Cuba. Apparently it was a favourite of Ernest Hemingway. You will fond more complicated recipes but this one is a little more straightforward for us campers.

Ingredients

• 1 part rum
• 3 parts Soda Water
• Squeeze fresh Lime Juice

Mix, recline, sip & enjoy!

Shirley Temple Mocktail

If you find yourself camping with children, pregnant women or teetotallers it is handy to have a mocktail recipe up your sleeve so they don't feel left out of the party. This one should do the trick without you having to take extra ingredients with you.

Ingredients

• 1-2 parts Grenadine
• Can of 7-Up or Ginger Ale (whichever you prefer) 

Sip and be terribly smug that you won't have a headache in the morning!


The table below is my 'at a glance' cocktail planner for quick packing! Fingers crossed for some sun this Summer!

	Tequila Sunrise	Cosmopolitan	Woo Woo	Bellini	Sea Breeze	Mojito
Tequila	Y
Vodka		Y	Y		Y
Cointreau		Y
Peach Schnapps			Y	Y
Rum						Y
Prosecco/Sparkling White Wine				Y
Grenadine	Y			Y
Soda Water						Y
Orange Juice	Y
Cranberry Juice		Y	Y		Y
Grapefruit Juice					Y