Supper Club Potluck & Halloumi Kebabs
Most of the time Supper Club is a kid-free event, but in some years we've had Supper Club potlucks where the kids are welcome. We had another one last night, which like the previous few have always been at Carol & John's house. As you might imagine, the food quality at Supper Club potlucks are WAY better than normal potlucks. Last night we had home-made chicken wings and pulled pork from Carol & John, a guacamole-off from darlox and ayb2, crumb cake from gieves, rhubarb crisp from indy_was_here, a delicious Egyptian lentil & pasta salad from katspaw156 and 1em, and probably a few other things that I'm forgetting.
As for me, earlier this month I introduced Dr.I to the wonder that is Cyrille Aimee at Nighttown. While there we had halloumi kebabs as an appetizer. They were delicious. It then occurred to me that halloumi was one of the very few cheeses I never bought during my stint at the cheese shop. Clearly I had to rectify this. However, kebabs require a grill, because the whole gimmick with Halloumi is that it doesn't melt on the grill. Ultimately, we had this email chain:
Me to Carol & John: "Hey, can I use your grill to make halloumi kebabs for the potluck? Basically, it's grilled cheese on sticks."
John to Carol & I: "If we did not have a grill I would build you one from the bones of our enemies just so we could have delicious grilled cheese."
Me to Carol & John: "Wait, you have enemies?"
Carol to John & I: "Not anymore!"
At which point Carol established herself as the favorite for "Email of the Year". In any event, grill thus assured I sought out some recipes. I ultimately based my kebabs on this variant from Nigella Lawson.
Halloumi Kebabs
Green Peppers (2)
Cherry Tomatoes (1 pint red, 1/2 pint yellow)
Red Onion
Mushrooms (Caps from 1 pound of Snow White)
Halloumi (two packets, about 1/2 a pound)
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Black Pepper
1. Chunk all the vegetables (except the tomatoes). Cut up the Halloumi into small pieces. Put all vegetables and halloumi into a bowl.
2. Add healthy dollops of olive oil and lemon juice. Add black pepper to taste. Toss.
3. Add to skewers.
4. Grill until halloumi is golden brown.
I made about 20 kebabs, and I didn't even have to buy kebab skewers because gieves and darlox have a kitchen supply closet in their basement. I delegated the actual grilling to John. The recipe didn't specify temperature or time, but I believe we ended up with 5-7 minutes on a relatively low temperature and they tasted just fine.
Next time I will toss the cheese in one bowl and the vegetables in another bowl. This is because the halloumi is relatively fragile and broke into even smaller pieces during the tossing. This made it harder to skewer them, and it also made them more likely to fall off during grilling.
One final note. Carol & John have a large backyard, so I got permission to bring Tulip. With eight little kids under the age of eight there you'd think she got lots of attention, right? Nope. There was a trampoline. A cute friendly dog cannot compare with the power of a trampoline. And yes, I was tempted to put Tulip in the trampoline, but ultimately I decided that putting a sixty pound dog in a small chamber with a lot of kids was a bad idea.
As for me, earlier this month I introduced Dr.I to the wonder that is Cyrille Aimee at Nighttown. While there we had halloumi kebabs as an appetizer. They were delicious. It then occurred to me that halloumi was one of the very few cheeses I never bought during my stint at the cheese shop. Clearly I had to rectify this. However, kebabs require a grill, because the whole gimmick with Halloumi is that it doesn't melt on the grill. Ultimately, we had this email chain:
Me to Carol & John: "Hey, can I use your grill to make halloumi kebabs for the potluck? Basically, it's grilled cheese on sticks."
John to Carol & I: "If we did not have a grill I would build you one from the bones of our enemies just so we could have delicious grilled cheese."
Me to Carol & John: "Wait, you have enemies?"
Carol to John & I: "Not anymore!"
At which point Carol established herself as the favorite for "Email of the Year". In any event, grill thus assured I sought out some recipes. I ultimately based my kebabs on this variant from Nigella Lawson.
Halloumi Kebabs
Green Peppers (2)
Cherry Tomatoes (1 pint red, 1/2 pint yellow)
Red Onion
Mushrooms (Caps from 1 pound of Snow White)
Halloumi (two packets, about 1/2 a pound)
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Black Pepper
1. Chunk all the vegetables (except the tomatoes). Cut up the Halloumi into small pieces. Put all vegetables and halloumi into a bowl.
2. Add healthy dollops of olive oil and lemon juice. Add black pepper to taste. Toss.
3. Add to skewers.
4. Grill until halloumi is golden brown.
I made about 20 kebabs, and I didn't even have to buy kebab skewers because gieves and darlox have a kitchen supply closet in their basement. I delegated the actual grilling to John. The recipe didn't specify temperature or time, but I believe we ended up with 5-7 minutes on a relatively low temperature and they tasted just fine.
Next time I will toss the cheese in one bowl and the vegetables in another bowl. This is because the halloumi is relatively fragile and broke into even smaller pieces during the tossing. This made it harder to skewer them, and it also made them more likely to fall off during grilling.
One final note. Carol & John have a large backyard, so I got permission to bring Tulip. With eight little kids under the age of eight there you'd think she got lots of attention, right? Nope. There was a trampoline. A cute friendly dog cannot compare with the power of a trampoline. And yes, I was tempted to put Tulip in the trampoline, but ultimately I decided that putting a sixty pound dog in a small chamber with a lot of kids was a bad idea.