Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Crawfish Cous-Cous with Halloumi

crawfish-couscous

The warm weather is really making me crave fresh food right now - nice cooling things but still hearty enough to satisfy. I love making salads with cous-cous, bulgur wheat or quinoa, as you longtime readers probably already know. Here's one that I made a few days ago, with crawfish tails and halloumi cheese.

Halloumi is a wonderful little cheese from Cyprus that can be fried without melting - it's delicious and has a delightful texture. (I think Nigella Lawson described it as edible styrofoam - she's spot on, but in a good way.) Crawfish is much beloved in Sweden, and you can buy tails in brine in any food store. However, if you're somewhere where they're harder to come by, I'd substitute shrimp.

I used edamame in this recipe, which was just delicious - but feel free to substitute broad beans or even green peas.

Crawfish Cous-Cous with Halloumi
Serves 3

200 ml cous-cous (about 0,8 cups)
250 ml water (1 cup)
olive oil
200 g crawfish tails or shrimp (cooked)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
250 g halloumi cheese
neutral oil for frying
a handful of fresh or frozen edamame (soy) beans, podded
1/2 cucumber, diced
pickled red onion (mix thinly sliced red onion with a pinch of sugar, some salt and white wine vinegar, or follow this recipe) and a tablespoon of vinegar from the onions

Put the cous-cous in a bowl. Bring the water to a boil, add a small splash of olive oil and pour this onto the cous-cous. Cover with plastic foil and leave it for five minutes as you prepare everything else.

Cube the halloumi, and fry in the neutral oil on medium-high heat. As it colors, add the crawfish tails and the minced garlic, and fry for a minute or two.

Combine everything on a large plate or in a pretty bowl, and eat at room temperature, or cold. Leftovers make a great lunch.

Recipe in Swedish:
Cous-cous med kräftstjärtar och halloumi

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

We also eat crawfish here in Texas (we get a lot of them from neighboring Louisiana). Looks like a great way to spice up some couscous. I'll have to look for that cheese - edible styrofoaom sounds intsriguing!!

Miss Venice said...

Wow! This is what I am having for dinner. Really. I love it and cook it often. Slight variations here and there. I love it with bacon strips.

Making me hungry and I just had lunch! Excellent blog!

Lady J said...

Thank looks absolutely delicious..

winedeb said...

You and Holler have mentioned Halloumi so many times that I just had to search it out. I found it and fried some up the other day. I think on my first round I fried too long and zapped all the juice out of it. I think I was waiting for it to melt a little but it did not. Anyhow, I did like the texture and the taste. Now that I know it, I will use it in many recipes.

Lil' mermaid said...

this maybe random but how do you feel about sodas say Pepsi or Coca-Cola?

Ronna said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ronna said...

I goofed on the last comment! What I was trying to say was that I really like Halloumi cheese and that I first tried it a few weeks back. Salty but good. Thanks for the recipe!

Anne said...

SueCooksWild - Do try to find it! :) It's really fun to eat and tasty, too :)

Miss Venice - bacon never hurts! :)

Winedeb, glad you tried it! It doesn't need much time, but high heat is good. It should turn slightly golden. It works really well on the barbecue, too!

Lil' Mermaid - umm, I'm not so sure I feel much of anything about them :) I generally drink Diet Coke or Pepsi Max. And lots of it, sometimes. :)

Ronna - yep, it *is* pretty salty. Good with blander food though! Or, for an ultimate salty treat, wrapped in bacon.. yum.

K and S said...

what a great blog you have!

Dwacon said...

Good stuff. Great blog!

darkwraithafter9 said...

looks delicious

Online marketing consultant said...

I am also a food lover that loves to cook.I also have my own food creations that I have always arrived at through imagination and the composition of the content.For example if i wanted proteins i could either use meat or beans depending on what taste i want.My friends think I deserve being in high profile restaurant rather than hold on the computers.I quite remember 3yrs ago i got a Scottish girlfriend when they visited me and had the smell of what i was cooking.lol On departure she took my number and it just happened from there.
I will give this recipe a try and if it happens to give me a taste i like,then I am coming up with something new.Thanks for sharing

Aimée said...

Hello from Canada! This looks great! Wonderful blog, BTW!

Sara said...

All of this look sooo good!! i am going to have to try it some time,where do you get all your recipes from?

thepassionatecook said...

interesting - fish with couscous just as i am preparing to make a salmon and asparagus couscous for henley this year... two minds thinking alike?

Slpyd0g said...

Umm is their any way i can google search and find other blogs