Zasar Legumes: Mauritian-style pickled Vegetables

This recipe is from Shellina Permalloo,  winner of Masterchef a few years ago. I really like her and we both liked this recipe even though I'm not normally a fan of "cole slaw."


Ingredients

• White cabbage, sliced
• Green beans
• Carrots, sliced
• Red onion, sliced
• Chili pepper, sliced (she leaves the seeds in, I don't)
• Turmeric
• Mustard seeds
• Fenugreek seeds
• Garlic
• Fresh ginger (or powder if you don't have it)
• White vinegar
• Oil

Method

• Blanch cabbage, green beans, carrots in equal quantities for 2-3 minutes;
• Warm oil; make garlic and ginger paste in a pestle and add to oil;
• Add chilis and spices to warm through;
• Add onions, 
• Remove from heat and add other veg
• Sprinkle a bit of white vinegar and salt
• Leave overnight (or an hour, if that's all you've got)

It is surprisingly nice! Slamat makan!

Halloumi Skewers with Lemon Salsa

For some reason, my darling Karen keeps giving me preserves: preserved onions, preserved lemons, things I never really eat. But I found this recipe using preserved lemons and thought I'd try it.

This is what the recipe says:

"This is the perfect vegetarian snack to serve with drinks and cocktails. The halloumi is wonderful with the concentrated taste of the preserved lemons. Get ahead by making the salsa in the morning."

Ingredients

• halloumi 2 x 250g blocks, drained
• olive oil 4 tbsp
• wooden skewers 32
• extra-virgin olive oil 3 tbsp
• black olives 15, pitted and finely choppedflat-leaf parsley a small bunch, finely chopped
• small capers 1 tsp, rinsed
• small preserved lemons 2, rind chopped or zest of 2 lemons
• red wine vinegar 2 tsp
• red onion 1 small, finely diced

Method

• Put all the salsa ingredients into a small bowl, season and mix well. Cut each block of  halloumi into 8 equal slices. Cut each slice in half so you end up with 32 pieces. 
• Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan. Brown the halloumi on both sides, drain on paper towel then push in a skewer so it looks like a lollipop. You will need to do these in batches, adding a bit more oil as you go. Serve warm or at room temperature with the salsa. 

  
  

  o.k. so that's the "official" recipe. I just made saganaki with the halloumi as that's what I wanted; cut each block in the width, then each square into triangles as a starter. I imagine a person could eat a whole square as a main. However, halloumi doesn't go all gooey like Edam does, so i got both sides really crispy in the frying pan and then covered it for a while so it would melt a bit, which seemed to help. I want to try this next time with Edam like the lady in Corfu said to do and see which I prefer.

  But the salsa is surprisingly fresh and all my guests (and I) really liked it.