Anyone who knows me knows my addiction to cheese. You can take away beer or wine or tofu, but the slimy, gooey deliciousness that is cheese is a hard one for me to give up (I actually have a few times). 

After a nice dinner at zazu Restaurant in Russian River Valley, I came home to instantly plop my butt down in the living room to watch the Cooking Network.  This new network is what the Food Network should be...

I was able to get home in time for Food(ography), an amazing show on the culture of food, hosted by Mo Rocca (one of my favorite guys from the Daily Show back in the day).  The subject matter: yup.... You guessed it. Cheese. Grilled Cheese sandwiches, American cheese, cheese paired with craft beer and wines, etc. All making my mouth water like it was the hour before Thanksgiving. 

One cheese that was brought up when talking about Grilled Cheese was I had never heard of: halloumi. 

Halloumi or haloumi (Greek χαλούμι, Turkish hellimArabic حلوم ḥallūm) is a traditional Cypriot cheese[1][2][3] that is also popular in the rest of the Middle East[4] and Greece,[5] and is now made the world over. It is made from a mixture of goat's and sheep milk, although some halloumi can be bought that also contains cow's milk.[6] It has a high melting point, and so can easily be fried or grilled. Halloumi is set withrennet, and is unusual in that no acid or acid-producing bacterium is used in its preparation.[7]

A cheese that can be grilled? I NEED this in or around my mouth!  

So... of course, being the geek I am, I googled this new cheese.  This is my favorite blog post/recipe I found: 

What to do with Halloumi Cheese

What to do with Halloumi Cheese from 101 Cookbooks (http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001489.html#)

Cheese on the BBQ might sound strange, but that's what we are going to explore today - as well as some other ways you might use Halloumi cheese. Halloumi is a cheese indigenous to Cyprus. I think it is traditionally a mix of goat and sheep milk (anyone out there a specialist in Greek Cypriot cheeses?), but the halloumi I normally come across here in San Francisco is made just with sheep's milk. One of the things that makes this cheese so unique is that it can stand up to a tremendous amount of heat. At temperatures where other cheeses are reduced to a melted ooey-gooeyness, halloumi maintains its structure and develops a beautiful golden crust.

There are infinite recipe possibilities using halloumi, let's brainstorm:

  • I have a Meyer lemon tree out next to my grill, if it was in better condition I would have pulled off a few leaves and grilled the cheese on top of those. This would infuse the cheese with a hint of citrus.
  • I did a caramelized version of halloumi "croutons" that will top one of the soups in my (new) book.
  • Cut it into cubes, thread onto a skewer and make halloumi part of your kabobs.
  • Grilled Halloumi with Sauteed Green Beans