The celebrity chef has shared his recipe for cooking the popular Cypriot cheese
Halloumi has shot up in popularity in recent years. However, celebrity chef Rick Stein has revealed “the way” to cook the Cypriot cheese.
Sharing his recipe for halloumi saganaki on the BBC Food website, he said: “This is the way to cook halloumi. It is very popular done on a barbecue as a vegetarian burger, but served like this, dusted in semolina, fried in olive oil and drizzled with warm honey, black sesame seeds and oregano, it is one of the best mezzes I know. If you can get kefalotiri cheese, try that; it is very special too.”
As a mezze (tapas), this recipe serves four to eight people. It takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and less than 10 to cook.
To begin, heat two to three tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick frying pan.
Cut a 225g block of halloumi or kefalotiri cheese horizontally through the middle. Dip the halloumi slices in beaten egg then roll in semolina.
Fry on a medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side until golden-brown.
In a separate small pan, warm two tablespoons of clear honey.
Serve the halloumi cut into squares, drizzled with warm honey and sprinkled with sesame seeds, oregano and freshly ground black pepper.
Stein graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English and spent a few years running a disco before buying a nightclub in Padstow.
He later opened a restaurant that specialised in fish (supplied by the fishermen who had once frequented his club). He has now run the Seafood Restaurant for more than 25 years.
The Steins have since added other local restaurants, shops and a takeaway to their Padstow venture.
Stein has received many awards for his work as a chef, teacher, presenter and author. He cooked twice for Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, as well as for the former French president Jacques Chirac and for Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip.
In January 2003, he was awarded an OBE for services to West Country tourism.
For more dishes you can make at home, see our ‘recipes’ page.
