BOOZY BATTERED HALLOUMI

My obsession with beer battering random food items continues with this recipe inspired by one of my favorite restaurant dishes. I've spoken before about my love of Bistro 1847's beer battered halloumi and it was about time that I took the bull by the horns and tried to recreate this fabulous meal at home. It might not of been the same but this is certainly up there in close second place. Great for veggies, it's simply a couple of slabs of halloumi soaked in buttermilk and then fired in a beer batter. Simple yes. but sometimes the simple things in life are the best!

The quality of your little battered pieces of heaven does depend no the quality of your halloumi. Buy the best you can find and afford and then if you can, soak them in buttermilk as advised in my recipe. This gives the halloumi a more richer and less salty taste that really makes you forget that your basically just eating a big piece of battered cheese. By all means, miss out the soaking stage but that saltiness that will remain may upset that balance of the overall flavor. 

The batter I've used is identical to that in my beer battered onion rings just minus the breadcrumbs. You want the halloumi to be the star of the show and not to be masked by any herbiness that might sneak in there. Again, use a good quality beer ("The Wild Beer Co" folks - check them out, you won't regret it!) that you would be happy to drink on it's own and get a bottle of soda water in for maximum crispiness. No soda water? Then as with my onion rings you can replace it with water, milk or any leftover beer you haven't downed already. 

Not that I would advise being tipsy when making your halloumi! We are dealing with hot oil again so I'll give my safety warning again of being very careful and making sure you have a damp tea towel to hand just in case. Hopefully you will of invested in a cooking thermometer to help you know when your oil is at 180 degrees Celsius but if not then drop a smidge of the batter in the oil and if it fizzes and goes crispy then you are ready to go. Have a slotted metal spatula to hand as well to help fish out the halloumi once it's done. 

Now I know your already far too excited by the thought of these so lets get to the recipe. It makes an ample amount of batter for the halloumi so any leftovers you have then chop up some onion rings and make some of my beer battered onion rings as a side to your meal:

Beer Battered Halloumi

250g Slab Of Halloumi 

285ml Buttermilk

65g Plain Flour

8 Tbsp Cornflour

100ml Beer

100ml Soda Water

1. Cut your slab of halloumi into 4 equal sized pieces and then place in a bowl before pouring over the buttermilk. Leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.
2. Mix together the plain flour and 4 tbsp of the cornflour in a separate bowl and mix together and mix together the beer and soda water in a jug. 
3. Slowly pour in the beer and soda water mix into the flour in batches, whisking after each addition until a batter is formed which is runny but can coat the back of a spoon for five seconds. You may not need all the liquid for this. Leave thebatter to rest for at least 30 minutes.
4. Whilst everything rests pour some vegetable oil into a pan so it's about 1-2 inches thick and then heat to 180 degrees Celsius and place 4 tbsp of cornflour on a plate.
5. Once the halloumi and batter has rested give the batter a quick whisk to refresh and then lift out a piece of halloumi out of the buttermilk and let the excess drip off. 
6. Dip the halloumi in the cornflour plate until fully coated and then dip into the batter until well coated. Place on a piece of baking paper and repeat the process with the other three pieces of halloumi.
7. Finally place the batter coated halloumi pieces into the oil and fry until the batter is crisp and golden, flipping the pieces over every two minutes or so that each one of even cooked.
8. Once golden and crisp, remove each piece and place on some kitchen roll to drain the excess oil.

As with the onion rings make sure that you serve the halloumi as quick as possible so that they are as crispy as possible. The longer you leave them to sit the more crispness  your going to lose and all your hard work will be for nothing. Serve them straight away tho and you'll be crunching through that yummy beer batter into that beautiful soft halloumi centre. It's so delicious and if a chippy started selling them for veggies; well they would clean up and I'd pick it over a battered fish any day.

 It's my "last supper" dish. I hope it will become yours too!