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Veg & Halloumi Skewers w/ Mexican Marinade

Remember when I went to Glastonbury and I said it was the best festival ever. I may have to retract my statement. I went to Green Man Festival last weekend and my opinion has changed. It was magical. The best festival I have been to hands down. It was so super chilled out. I can only describe it in short sentences. In fact my words will not do it justice at all! It had the same sort of happy atmosphere as Glastonbury but on a much smaller scale. No having to rush from one tent to another because they were all so close. No big crowds to push your way through. And the weather! We were so darn lucky. It was forecast to rain everyday but all we got was a few little drizzles. It was glorious! I am currently listening to Tom Ravenscroft radio show live from Green Man on 6music and a woman on it just said “It’s a dream”. I couldn’t’ve said it better myself!

(Top-Bottom: The Mountain Stage, Green Man, Me in Green Man)

The food at the festival was, on the whole, pretty good! I made a couple of bad choices but then also made some reaaally good ones! The bad choices involved a halloumi wrap which was cold and had the most measly amount of halloumi in and some over priced macaroni cheese. The reaaally good choices were from Hippie Chippy (can’t find them on the internet anywhere!) and some b fast from Tea and Toast. From Hippie Chippy we got the most amazing chips covered in mushy peas and cheese. There was so much in the little box, all for only £3.50. So all around, they were a great choice! Tea and Toast is a festival regular and I have seen it about at Bestival and Glastonbury. I don’t often get food for breakfast at festivals, usually go for one meal a day in the late afternoon. But anyway, as a treat on Sunday I got breakfast from Tea and Toast and my goodness it hit the spot. I tried out the Veggie Bacon Roll with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella and Eggy Bread with cheese and marmite! I would just like to point out I didn’t eat these both myself but twosed them with my pal (who also made the great choices in b-fast treats and went and got them whilst I rolled around in my sleeping bag trying to muster up the courage to get dressed. What a babe.)

I could probably talk at you about Green Man until the cows, or sheep (’cause there are lots of sheep in Wales), come home but I don’t want you to click away on to Facebook, so I will stop! Right so these skewers. My timing is kind of bad seeing as the weather has decided to turn a bit. However, have no fear, they aren’t exclusively for bbqin’, in fact I didn’t even cook them on a bbq myself. Bbqin’ for Indians, usually doesn’t involve actual normal bbq junk like burgers and stuff. Instead it’s an excuse to do a tonne of frying outside. I maybe over generalising here but that is definitely the case for the Bharti household. In fact we don’t even own the bbq, and burgers are just shoved in the oven. To be honest, bean burgers do not need to be bbq’d. They don’t benefit from it at all. In fact, if anything, they just end up falling apart or getting stuck.

Vegetable skewers are a standard veggie option for bbq’s and I have had my fair share of boring chargrilled vegetables.  A bitta marinade doesn’t hurt guys! Let me tie the whole lack of bbq and skewer thing together for you… Last weekend we had some family and friends over for a bbq and seeing as we don’t have a bbq I decided to griddle the skewers. Same thing really. That also brings me back to the point I was making earlier about the bad weather, you can make these skewers from the warm, dry comfort of your kitchen as well!  There’s this recipe of fajita’s that I use quite often, in which you marinate the veg in this great Mexicany marinade (I had to look up which way round to use marinade and marinate, I was correct in thinking naDe is the noun and naTe is the verb). Adding halloumi to the skewers makes them a little bit more exciting as it is, but this Mexican marinade really jazzes things up!

 

Recipe

I recommend leaving the the veg and halloumi to marinate over night, then assembling the skewers the morning you are going to be cooking them. The original marinade recipe can be found in New Vegetarian by Celia Brooks Brown. As per usual I tweaked it a bit!

Serves: 18 skewers
Prep time: 45mins + over night marination
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Skill level: You can skew it!

Equipment
chopping board
knife
pestle & mortar 
citrus fruit juicer
medium mixing bowl x 2
whisk 
mixing jug
large mixing bowl 
18 bamboo skewers (plus a few extra incase there are any breakages) 
griddle pan (if not bbq-ing)

Ingredients
1 + ½ red pepper 
+ ½ yellow pepper
+ ½ green pepper  
2 courgettes (small)
3 red onions (small or 1 large)
750g halloumi 

Marinade
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp coarse sea salt 
4 limes (zest of juice of 4)
handful fresh coriander
½ tsp dried oregano 
½ tsp dried chili flakes 
1 tsp cumin 
1 tsp sugar 
1 tbsp white wine vinegar 
125ml olive oil  

Method

  1. Cut peppers in half. Cut each half into thirds horizontally then in half vertically so you should get 6 chunks from each half.
  2. Cut the courgette into roughly 1.5cm rounds.
  3. Cut the red onion into pieces roughly the same size as the pepper. 
  4. Cut halloumi into large chunks. You want to get 12 chunks out of each block of halloumi. Set aside veg and halloumi.
  5. To make the marinade put garlic and salt in mortar and crush with pestle until paste forms.
  6. In a medium mixing bowl add the garlic & salt paste along with the lime juice & zest, coriander, oregano, chilli flakes, cumin and sugar. Whisk together well.
  7. Combine vinegar and oil in mixing jug. Slowly, in a steady stream add the mix from the jug into the rest of the marinade mixture, whisking continuously.
  8. Put the halloumi chunks into a (different) medium mixing bowl and cover with about of the marinade. Mix well so all the halloumi is coated. Cover and refrigerate.
  9. Put the peppers, courgette and onion in a large mixing bowl and pour in the remaining marinade. Mix well, ensuring all the veg is coated. Cover and refrigerate with marinated halloumi ideally overnight or for at least 4 hours
  10. Once veg and halloumi have had a chance to marinate, assemble the skewers: courgette, red pepper halloumi, green pepper, red onion, halloumi and yellow pepper. (customise this if you fancy, go crazy with the colour scheme)
  11. If bbq-ing: when nice and hot, place skewers on bbq, turning occasionally until veg and halloumi are slightly charred
  12. If using a griddle pan: Heat griddle pan over high heat before adding skewers (how ever many will fit).
  13. Turn skewers every few minutes so all sides of veg and halloumi are griddled nicely. (You may need to use a spatula to squash down any chunks that don’t touch the pan).
  14. Serve whilst hot.
Serving suggestions:
– On their own
– In pitta bread
– In a tortilla wrap 

 

So my favourite acts from Green Man were The War on Drugs, Beirut, Mac Demarco, Real Estate and Neutral Milk Hotel. I think I have shared some War on Drugs with you before, so this week I have some Real Estate for ya!

KB x

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