Haloumi Pea Fritters and cheese reminiscences

Are you a cheese fiend? Love a bit of Gruyere, Cheddar, Brie or mild Blue?

Join the club, me too!

It wasn't always like this because cheese wasn't prevalent in our household  when I was growing up. Except for those sticks of processed soft cheese or the foil-wrapped wedges of (processed) soft cheese.
Then, when I was a teenager, our sophisticated (to me) neighbours invited us over for a dinner party and they served this cheese that had layers of walnuts embedded in it. Oh, the style and elegance of a little wheel of walnut cheese on a platter. They had other cheeses as well, but I only remember the walnut one. It was the start of my love of cheese, and I would bug my mother to buy walnut cheese at every opportunity, until I got sick of it. Do they still make walnut-layered cheese? I must keep an eye out for it, for old time's sake.

Here is a recipe using another favourite cheese, the squeaky, salty, versatile haloumi.

Haloumi and Pea Fritters
Serves 4

Ingredients
½ cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 egg
¼ cup buttermilk
¼ cup chopped dill
1 tblsp finely grated lemon rind
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
1 cup (120g) grated haloumi
Salt and pepper
1 tblsp olive oil
2 Lebanese cucumbers, thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler
Smoked chicken or smoked trout, to serve
Tzatziki and lemon wedges, to serve

Method
1. Place the flour, baking powder, egg, buttermilk, dill, lemon rind, peas, haloumi, and salt and pepper to taste, in a bowl and stir well until combined.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook 2 tablespoonfuls of the batter at a time, in batches, for 2-3 minutes each side or until golden and cooked through.
3. Place the fritters on a plate and top with the cucumber and smoked chicken/trout. Serve with tzatziki and lemon to squeeze over.

Recipe adapted from donna hay magazine.

Ingredients, including buttermilk, baking powder, egg, haloumi, frozen peas, lemon and cucumber.

Smoked chicken was my choice to accompany these fritters, but you could also use smoked trout or hot-smoked salmon.

The fritters are quite delicate, so be careful when putting them in the frypan. Push any wayward bits back into the fritter while they are cooking and they should stick.

Serve the golden brown fritters with a cooling tzatziki and strips of cucumber.

Didn't Monty Python have a cheese chart? Must look it up to see if walnut cheese is on it.