Wild Adventures Halloumi Cheese, Tomato and Sweet Basil Stew
May 15th, 2008 | By Bill | Category: Wild CookingHey you have to try this folks - it’s my wild adventures quick, gourmet tasting Goats Milk Halloumi Stew. It’s great after a long day’s hike amongst the Big 5. Everybody goes crazy for it - so will you.
It’s filling, healthy and extremely tasty. It’s a ‘comfort meal’ to be served around the camp fire on a chilli African night. It can be cooked on an outdoor barbecue or a ‘braai’ as we call it in South Africa, or on a (not too hot) low open fire under a watchful eye.
This is a delicate meal and needs lots of loving care and attention in the making. I would advise that you get some practice on your kitchen stove first, before becoming too adventurous with hot coals – fires are tricky.
Okay, time to salivate:
- 2 x 400 gram tins of chopped tomato (5 large fresh tomatoes are great if you prefer - blanched or straight)
- 5 Tablespoons of sunflower oil
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 Tablespoon freshly chopped garlic
- 1 Tablespoon freshly chopped ginger
- Course ground black pepper to tast
- 6 Black Olives cut into quarters
- Salt (not too much because we also add soya sauce)
- 4 Tablespoons of tomotoe concentrate
- Half a cup of red wine
- Soya sauce to taste
- Fresh sweet basil leaves
- 1 Table spoon sugar
- 6 White Portuguese Rolls
How to Do it:
- Place the sunflower and olive oil into a deep non stick pot
- Heat the oil slowly (place a piece of tomoto in the oil - when it starts sizzling you’re ready)
- Keep a very low heat.
- Add the black pepper, wine, soya sauce, black olives, still stirring gently all the time (the ingredients must not stick to the pot)
- Keep stirring from time to time until the sauce thickens
- In the meantime, cut the Halloumi Cheese into large cubes, place in a bowl under a running tap for approximately 5 minutes to wash the sea salt off.
- Dry the Halloumi cubes on a paper towel and add the ingredients in a pot.
- Aff the tomotoe concentrate and stir in slowly
- Cover pot and simmer on low heat until Halloumi starts to melt,becoming tacky and chewy.
- Add basil leaves and serve in soup bowls
- Dunk the rolls into the Halloumi stew and preferably eat like an African Wild Adventurer.
- A good bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc will enhance this simple but exotic meal.
I can’t take this any longer, my taste buds are running wild here – if you’re not going to make this stew right this minute, I am!
Bill is movie maker, writer, jazz musician, adventurer, wildlife fundi and cat lover. Bill has a great sense of humour and loves people.
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