Missing the summer sun? Either because you haven’t been away, or if you have and are now pining.

Well, this dish is full of Mediterranean sunshine and, as ever, really easy to rustle up. You’ll need a griddle pan (frying just isn’t the same) and, be warned, there will be lots of smoke so shut the kitchen door and open all the windows. The trick with griddling is get the griddle really really hot - leave it for at least 7 minutes on the heat before you put anything in there, and brush the veg with oil rather than oiling the pan - although this second one isn’t a law that can’t be broken if the going gets frantic…

Ingredients
1 medium aubergine
1 big red pepper (or two small red/yellow/orange in combination)
10 (approx) cherry toms
1 packet haloumi
1 tablespoon harissa
150-200g couscous
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
1 lemon

Serves 2-3

1 Put the griddle pan on to heat
2 Chop up aubergine, pepper(s) into 5cm chunks and mix with cherry toms, harissa, a glug of olive oil and the same of vinegar, salt and peper and set aside
3 Put the kettle on and soak the couscous as per instructions
4 Start griddling the veg in batches, no need to oil them as the marinade does that job for you.  I put in enough to cover bottom of griddle pan and leave for a good few minutes until the underside is stripily scorched. When one batch is ready keep it warm in a bowl covered by a plate (this is a dish best eaten luke hot not piping)
5 Whilst the veg is cooking slice the haloumi into thick slices and then griddle last, once veg is all done
6 Whilst the haloumi is griddling go back to the couscous and add a good glug of olive oil, the juice of the lemon and S&P, mix well
7 Turn the haloumi, when it is ready add veg on top of couscous and then the haloumi and serve with a good table wine, in the evening sun, if there is any. If you want a side dish a little dressed green rocket/watercress salad is all you’ll need. Also great for lunch as leftovers, if there is any left.

N.B. This is also a great vegetarian bbq option, just cut the veg and haloumi to suit your bbq grill.

Tags: barbeque

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 9:10 pm by urban foodie and is filed under Kid Friendly, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.