Monday, July 28, 2008

Weird things to grill

Yeah, it's been a while. Things have been a bit busy.

We like to grill. Perhaps regular readers (if any) will notice this tendency! I've grilled just about everything under the sun: anything meat, citrus, winter vegetables, summer squash, stone fruit, whatever. About the only thing I've generally not considered grilling is lettuce. Cabbage, artichokes, box choy...but not lettuce. Then there's things to just not grill because they don't make sense. For example, you really can't grill a liquid!

Tonight, I grilled something new: cheese! Okay, it wasn't just any cheese, since most cheeses would just melt, of course, especially at 300+ degrees. In our last trip to Whole Foods, we found this odd sheep's cheese from Cyprus called Halloumi. The label advertised that it's a cheese you can grill, which seemed very odd. They suggest slicing it into one inch cubes, skewering it, and grilling for about ten minutes until golden brown. To my surprise, that works! The cheese doesn't melt, but instead oozes a bit of brine and browns beautifully. It's absolutely delicious, with the briny flavor of feta, and the smooth texture of mozarella.

Grilling cheese was a new one for me. You can learn a bunch more about this cheese on its Wikipedia page. Interesting stuff!