August 28, 2015

SMOKED SALMON AND HALLOUMI STUFFED COURGETTES

 

stuffed courgettes

stuffed courgettes6

stuffed courgettes2

We have loads of home grown produce around at the moment.  From a small number of tomato plants we have grown many kilos of tomatoes and they keep on coming.  We didn’t grow these squash and courgettes ourselves, they were gifts from different friends, all of whom seem to have a glut of them this year.  Lucky for us!

stuffed courgettes7

We haven’t done so well with our apples.  Our best apple tree had to be removed to make way for the new fosse septique, leaving us with just one that we have “rescued”.  It was squashed in amongst lots of other weed trees and bushes that were overcrowding it when we bought the house so we cleared them all out to give it room to thrive.  By early July it had loads of apples on it but then we had a spell of really hot weather and the tree suffered badly, most of the apples falling off before they were ripe, becoming food for the critters.  The few in the picture above are our full crop for the year as there are no more on the tree.

stuffed courgettes3

We may be short of apples but we have plenty of donated courgettes - although I thought these looked more like small marrows.  They made me remember the stuffed marrow dish my mum used to make.  Each summer my dad would proudly produce a couple of giant marrows and she would fill thick slices of them with a stuffing of minced beef and onion cooked in Oxo gravy, smother them with cheese sauce and bake them in the oven.  Delicious!

stuffed courgettes4

However, on checking the contents of our fridge I discovered a glut of other bits and bobs that were also in need of using up.  My brother and his daughter came to stay with us in early August and we predictably overbought on food, not allowing for the number of days we were likely to eat out – not to mention the food shopping they did themselves to add to the haul.

My brother and his daughter both enjoy cooking and after they had gone home I found a few interesting things in the fridge that they had bought but never got round to cooking.  Including two packs of halloumi.

I don’t think I have ever eaten halloumi, certainly I have never bought any or cooked with it.  But, along with my glut of tomatoes, a pack of smoked salmon trimmings, some grated Emmental and the large courgettes, an idea of what to do with them all started to form.  I was thinking of a blog post from our friends who gave us the courgettes and the link to a recipe for something called “zucchini boats”.  You can read it here.

stuffed courgettes5

So it turns out that I made something totally new and delicious that I didn’t have to shop for, never really planned, and I will definitely be making again!

Ingredients

2½ large courgettes

1 pack (183g) halloumi, diced

6 medium tomatoes, diced

half a pack (125g) smoked salmon trimmings

a few handfuls of grated Emmental cheese

Method

Put on a large pan of water to boil.  Wipe clean two of the courgettes, slice in half lengthways and remove the seeds.  (I scooped them out with a melon baller.)

Put the oven on to heat up to 200°C / 180° fan.

Drop the courgette halves carefully into the boiling water and cook for 4-5 minutes.  Remove and drain.

Dice the remaining half of a large courgette (or a smaller one) and put into a large bowl.  Add the diced tomatoes and halloumi.  Season with salt and pepper, mix together well and stir through the smoked salmon trimmings.  I also added a pinch of the little pack of herbs and spices that came with the cheese.

Arrange the courgette halves in a suitable ovenproof dish.  Pile the stuffing ingredients into them and sprinkle over the Emmental.  Bake for 30-40 minutes until the topping is nicely browned and bubbling.

Serve with a green salad.  Serves two.  Gluten free.

9 comments:

  1. I came here from there... as you suggested.
    I the fridge we have some smoked trout bits [from the Descartes smokery]...
    but no haloumi... haloumi is "likened" unto mosqito-ella...
    but I don't think haloumi is a melty cheese... I know you can fry it...
    but mozzie rella is very melty....
    besides, we haven't either in't'fridge...
    I shall have to see what we have.

    Those cakes were awful...
    .....
    ....
    ...
    ..
    .
    ........................................ good!

    Can you use some round courgettes...
    and / or some apples....??
    T

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tim, one if the recipes I consulted suggested feta as an alternative to halloumi but I think a melting cheese would be good too. A nice goats cheese would work I think.
      The pieces of halloumi were still intact after cooking but a sticky mess of melted goats cheese would have been delicious too.

      Delete
    2. And yes please to some apples and another round courgette!

      Delete
  2. Yum, yum, yum - I'm pinning this to my recipes to try board. Cheers from carole's Chatter

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've just served a variation of this for dinner. I used tiny whole cherry tomatoes instead of chopped tomatoes and a blue cheese sauce instead halloumi. It worked very well. Even Simon ate it and said it was OK (I expect he didn't want to get too carried away in case it encouraged me to do stuffed zucchini again...) If I make it again I would use canned tuna in my version, rather than waste smoked salmon with the blue cheese.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Susan, it's a versatile recipe I think, glad you enjoyed it. The blue cheese variation sounds very tasty.
      It's a good way of using courgettes and for me it was a healthier alternative to yet another quiche, which is my usual way of using up bits and bobs. Much better for us than all that flour, butter, cream and eggs. I felt quite virtuous making it!

      Delete
  4. I usually get plenty of courgettes but the weather's been a bit odd this year so the crop's smaller. But I still insist on making some stuffed courgettes/marrows. I have to say that I've never used smoked salmon and that sounds like a particularly fine notion. Thinking about it, I seem to only buy halloumi in the winter - I really don't know why.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Phil, I used the smoked salmon because it was there and needed using up. It was otherwise destined for a quiche, pasta or with scrambled eggs on toast.
      The original idea used cooked minced turkey in a spicy sauce, which sounds delicious.

      Delete
  5. These sound very tasty and a great way of using up courgettes. I do miss our French garden, as we don't have room now to grow veg.

    ReplyDelete