Cooking the Med

Tahina fatteh with spicy halloumi, garlicky dill tomatoes, crispy flatbread

CEASEFIRE NOW
Let’s start with good news: this week’s recipe is free for all!
The bad news: i don’t need to explain. We are still haunted by inexplicable pictures, videos, a worldwide horror movie going on scrolling under our fingertips, while the people in power show that human rights are not for everyone. And i notice other people around me seem to take life lightly as always. Just close your eyes, but how? Every day i’m going from very heavy feelings to moments of joy, then back to guilt, to desperation, helplessness, anger. CEASEFIRE NOW.
You know…..I even never thought to be talking like this in my substack, but just writing about food only, i just can’t these days. Sorry for this dear readers, maybe you experience the same….

FATTEH AND TAHINA
Further ‘news’: i’m into fatteh and tahina this week. The first one because of our Gazan Brunch this coming sunday: we will make a special fatteh with hummus instead of whole chickpeas, the way they do it in Gaza. And tahina, as i was going high on my own supply last week when we were at an expo in Belgium to introduce our products. Our Palestinian tahina (from a cooperative in Palestine, working with tahina producers from Nablus area, the epicenter of tahina!) is not only on sale in NL but in Belgium too, in nearly all supermarkets. A milestone for our fantastic team! And: never enough silky tahina. I’m food obsessed with it. This happens to me all the time (does it sound familiar): having moods for specific foods. Some like za’atar and tahina, stay forever.
Now the fatteh situation: as the popular dish from the Levante region is a celebration of crispy bread, usually chickpeas, yoghurt, tahina, sometimes meat, almonds or pine nuts, sometimes aubergine, i’m going to give it my twist. Today i want to make a simple variation, with a focus on veg, tomatoes on the vine this time, as i love the sweetness of tomato and the nutty tahina flavour. Some gazan flavours with dill. Still there is dill! As for fatteh i will stir loose the yoghurt with tahina, but i think it will be more like i will stir loose the tahina with some yoghurt, because i like to be heavy on the tahina today. And i was thinking of something salty.

THE SALTY ONE
Hallum! Or halloumi, hellim, how you want to call it. I got addicted to it in Beirut, where there are shops like Jaber Jaber, specialized in white cheeses only (akkawi, nabulsi, braided cheese) like hallum. The hallum or halloum you find there is less dense than the usual more industrial you find in the west. And a little less salty. Although you can fix that when you leave it to soak for half an hour in water. I was loving it baked and raw, a good quality is so nice you can just eat it ‘raw’. Most halloumi here are too salty and rubbery for that.

ugly picture but i love the huge fridge with all those cheeses, whiter than white!

HALLOUMI HISTORY
Cyprus claims halloumi as their cheese and they got the name protected in the EU: Halloumi or Hellim cheese from Cyprus. But of course as with so many foods…hello it’s a shared thing! This type of cheese was popular throughout the Levante in the period from around 1500 and on: the people of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey and Cyprus have all been making it for centuries. Probably the first halloum was made as a bedouin cheese in the (Egyptian) desert, as it’s long keeping in the salty brine. Hallum, halloum, or halumi in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, hellim in Turkey, khalloumi in Cyprian, but halloumi now as definite Cypriote trademark. The Dutch Vreugdenhoeve farm added their own touch to those names and call it haloemie, write as you pronounce it, a good solution as they can’t use the halloumi word. It rose to fame quickly in the west and now it is a staple in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and in Europe too. Squeaky halloumi as some call it, is here to stay. Squeaky in texture. But not rubbery we prefer.

STOCK THE RIGHT ONE
I know, a good halloumi here can be very expensive, but if it’s a good one, it’s definitely worth it. It’s expensive because halloumi is originally made with sheeps milk, or a combination of sheep, goat and cow. The less expensive ones are usually a mix. I tried the one made by the Dutch farm mentioned above, (for sale at Ekoplaza), 100 % sheep milk. It’s way less salty than usual, but when you fry it, the texture is amazing, not rubbery but soft and super caramelised and creamy. Much nicer than the regular ones you find. I added just a bit of salt to the fried cheese to bring back the saltiness. You can also find some Syrian cheesemakers making their ‘fresh’ halloum cheese in mediterranean supermarkets which is really nice. In NL you can even order a good Syrian halloumi online here.

You could leave out the bread if you want, no fatteh style but equally delicious with some soft pita or as a glorious main or side dish.

HERE’S THE RECIPE

TAHINA FATTEH WITH SPICY HALLOUMI, GARLICKY DILL TOMATOES, CRISPY FLATBREAD

Serves 4

200 ml tahina
200 ml Greek or Turkish yoghurt
1 package of good quality halloumi or haloemi or hellim
500 g of small and bigger tomatoes on the vine
6 cloves of garlic
1 bunch of dill
olive oil
oil for frying
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of 7 spice baharat
2-3 Lebanese flatbreads

1 Mix the tahina with the yoghurt until very thick and creamy. Add some salt too.
2 Slice the halloumi not too thin and not too thick.
3 Slice the garlic and chop finely, chop the dill finely too.
4 Heat the oven at 200ºC and roast the tomatoes in 20-25 min. until soft and charred and falling off the vine.
5 Heat some olive oil and fry garlic until golden, add the dill, some salt and fry another 1 min. and turn off the fire.
6 Mix the garlic dill mixture with the soft tomatoes.
7 Heat the frying oil (you don’t have to use a a big amount, just a layer of 4 cm will do. 8 With kitchen scissors cut the bread into small squares. Fry in batches lightly golden. 9 Fry the halloumi in batches until golden. Mix with the cinnamon and 7 spice.
10 Make a generous mirror of the tahina mixture, scoop some tomatoes on top, add some of the delicious juices, divide the halloumi over it, and generously sprinkle with the crispy bread and more juices and some olive oil. Dive straight in! Maybe with some extra flatbread or even buttery rice on the side!