Prep Time 10 minutes - Total Time 30 minutes - Serves 2
I’ve given this Cypriot cheese an Asian twist. And although it sounds weird, it works so well.
Covering the halloumi in a flour and Chinese five-spice mix gives you a mega crispy coating, like what you would get with Southern fried chicken. It’s finger-licking good.
Ingredients
400 g of halloumi, cut into bite-size pieces.
300 ml of buttermilk.
1 tbsp of hot sauce.
100 g plain flour.
50 g cornflour.
1 tbsp of Chinese five-spice.
1 tsp of white pepper.
Sauce Ingredients
1 tbsp of cornflour.
2 garlic cloves, grated.
1 thumb piece of ginger, grated.
1 red chilli, grated.
50 ml rice wine vinegar.
2 large oranges, juice and zest.
3 tbsps of runny honey.
1 tbsp of light soy sauce.
1 tsp of toasted sesame oil.
Method
Place the halloumi into a large bowl or Tupperware along with the buttermilk, hot sauce and season with salt and pepper. Mix well, cover and leave to marinate for 30 minutes or as long as possible.
In a large bowl add the plain flour, cornflour, five-spice, pepper and a pinch of salt. Once the halloumi has marinated add to the flour along with 3 tbsps of the buttermilk. Mix well making sure you coat all the halloumi pieces.
Take a large high sided frying pan and pour in around 2 cm of the oil. Heat to 170℃ or you could use a deep fat fryer, set at the same temperature. If you don’t have a thermometer to check the temperature of your oil, just take a little piece of the coated halloumi and place it in the oil. If it starts to sizzle and turns a golden colour within a minute the oil is ready. Fry around 4-5 minutes till super crispy. When ready drain on some kitchen paper.
For the sauce simply mix all the ingredients with a pinch of salt. Place into a saucepan and simmer for a couple of minutes or till thick and sticky. Now take the halloumi and toss in the sauce.
I like to serve this with some rice and finish off with a sprinkle of sesame seeds, fresh chillies and spring onions.
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