Stromboli

After watching the Hairy Bikers make one of these on Tuesday I absolutely HAD to give it a go. It's probably one of the worst things I could make given that white flour hates me and Rich is lactose intolerant so shouldn't eat cheese. But hey, it's Friday and we've got all weekend to be ill. And anyway, it was SO worth it.

The original recipe is HERE but I changed it up a bit because I'm lazy.

I copied their dough method and recipe pretty much exactly apart from using garlic infused olive oil instead of the plain stuff.

Neither Rich or I like chunky tomato sauces so I used normal pasata straight out of the jar. It's also because I'm lazy and wanted to watch something awful on the telly. A teaspoon each of Very Lazy chopped garlic and chilli were also added to the pasata.

The fillings we had were prosciutto ham, smoked bacon, sausage, salami and three different kinds of cheese. At the time of writing the posh prosciutto ham is half price in Sainsbury's and the pre-cooked smoked bacon strips are £1.75 and I only used a quarter of a packet. I cooked the sausages last night and pulled them apart into tiny pieces. The cheeses were grated mozzarella, grated mild cheddar and reduced fat buffalo mozzarella although quite frankly, trying to reduce the calories on a recipe like this is a futile mission.

After I stretched the dough and skillfully and artistically placed scattered the fillings I tucked the edges in and rolled it up which was actually easier than I had anticipated.

My rolling could have been neater but it was my first attempt so I'm not going to be too hard on myself. After a second proving and 30 minutes in the oven the meaty beast emerged golden and glorious.

We had ours with a side of baby spinach drizzled with a bit of garlic oil.

There was more than enough to feed myself, Rich and my mum as well as the birds in the garden who have been given the ends of the Stromboli to feast on over the weekend although poor Monty was unsuccessful in his begging attempts.

Overall it was love at first bite but I must have done something wrong. When I watched the Hairy Bikers make theirs, they used only ham, mozzarella and basil - around half what I used in terms of volume but even with the mountains of fillings we all felt that they got a bit lost in all the bread. I used 4 whole sausages, 4 torn slices of ham, several strips of bacon and an entire mozzarella ball not to mention the grated cheese and slices of salami. It looked like so much before I rolled it up and I was worried I'd over done it but I think you could easily double that!

I'd still rate it a solid 8 out of 10 and it's something I will definitely be making again in the future. That's if we both the survive the weekend ahead without dying from our food intolerences. Oops. 

Halloumi and bacon burgers

I love putting halloumi and bacon together. I know it sounds like a salty nightmare but it really is delicious.

Halloumi has to be one of my top ten foods. My favourite way of preparing it is to drizzle it with garlic infused olive oil and either griddle it or, even better, barbeque it. I have introduced so many of my friends to this gorgeous yet bizarre cheese and not one of them has ever said they don't like it. I even sent a packet across the Atlantic to a pal in America who had never heard of it and couldn't find anywhere near her that sold it. You can get it in any supermarket now in both normal and light and Tesco do an amazing chilli version. Asda also do a chilli one but I'm not keen on it. I've not tried the cracked black pepper one but I'm sure it would be superb.

I made these a couple of weeks ago and had loads of requests for the recipe so I figured I'd put it in writing and bring joy to your lives. We also had them for dinner tonight so while the memory is fresh, I'll type up the details.

Unless I'm baking, I don't tend to use specific measurements. For each burger I did two rashers of bacon and two slices of halloumi. A whole packet of mince is enough to make quite a few burgers so it's a good idea to either get some friends round or freeze the burgers you don't use.

Here are the basic ingredients.

I wouldn't usually have Marks and Spencer halloumi and bacon but I was in their Simply Food shop in Westbourne yesterday and figured that since Rich is going on holiday tomorrow, I'd get the good stuff for a change. 

Obviously you need a few more items, buns would be helpful as would salad and some ketchup.

This is how you want the bacon to look. If you can't snap it in half, it's not crispy enough. There should be absolutely no movement in it whatsoever. I get so upset when I order something in a restaurant that specifies "crispy bacon" and when it arrives I'm presented with greasy and floppy rashers with chewy fat. Yuck. I cook the bacon before I do anything else because that gives it plenty of time to crisp up and for the grease to dry off. It also means you can cook the burgers in bacon fat. 

The method

Finely chop about a third of the halloumi and mix it in with the beef mince. Add an egg to act as a binding agent along with with some seasoning but go easy on the salt because the cheese and bacon will take care of that.

Shape into burgers using your hands or with a fancy machine if you happen to have one. I don't and the old fashioned method is good enough for me. Make the burgers as big or as little as you want.

Start to cook the burgers in the left over bacon grease but don't cook them all the way through. Nobody likes a greasy burger so I finish mine off in the oven by putting them on a wire rack above a baking tray. The excess fat will drip off onto the tray. Ideally it would be great to cook these on a bbq but this is Great Britain and it's not quite the weather for it just yet. 

Cooking times will vary depending on how big you made your burgers and how you like your meat. 

While your burgers are in the oven you can prepare the halloumi. Cut two slices per burger and either griddle or fry. If you're planning on cooking a lot of burgers you might need two packets of halloumi so you don't end up with slices that are really thin.

Cut some buns in half and add the salad of your choice. I've put the lettuce and onion on the base of the bun and the bacon and halloumi on the top half.

Add the burgers and you're done!

I've served these on wholemeal buns because white flour doesn't like me very much which is a shame because I'm rather fond of it. I also did some garlic cream potatoes but you could have anything you like - chips, more salad or even couscous. 

This is definitely not a dish for anyone trying to lose weight but it is fabulous for a treat. As for me, I am currently trying to lose weight so it'll be basic rations for me tomorrow!