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Saturday, September 6, 2014

Grilled Feta with Pickled Peppers, Tomatoes, and Garlic

A few weeks ago, when I posted about the bacon wrapped feta, a good friend of mine now working in Germany reminded me how Germans will grill certain types of cheese with a high melt point.  The first time I tried this as an appetizer at a German restaurant, I fell in love.  The only problem was that I couldn't find out the type of cheese it was due to being lost in translation.  My German friends were calling it schafkäse.  Loose translation is sheep cheese.  After some digging, I have learned that it can either be Halloumi or Feta.  Whatever it is, this dish is good eating.  When we have fresh peppers and tomatoes over the summer, I always try and make this for dinner a few times.  So, here is our method.

First, I pickled some hot and sweet peppers with garlic cloves and olives.  My pickling liquid was just a basic pickle brine:

1 1/2 cups of white wine vinegar.  I used the white wine variety as I did not want the vinegar to be overpowering in the dish.
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp of sugar.  I used Turbinado
1 tsp of kosher salt

While the above was coming to a boil, I cut some sweet and hot peppers, then packed into 1/2 pint jars with:

2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp oregano

Once the brine was boiling, I poured into the jars and sealed and let pickle for 24 hours.


The next day, after I lit my grill, I drained my peppers and placed in a bowl with some sliced onion, quartered tomatoes, and some pitted kalamata olives.  I also sliced some 1x3 inch slabs of feta cheese and placed those in a bowl.  Both bowls received light drizzle of olive oil.  I also made sure the feta blocks were lightly coated on all sides with the oil.


Once the grill was ready, I put the pepper mixture in my trusty cast iron skillet and placed the skillet on my grill to start a very quick sauté.  


Next, the crazy part.  I placed the feta blocks over semi-direct heat for grilling.


Eventually, I placed the cheese on direct heat because I was not seeing the crispiness that I wanted.


One I was starting to see a nice brown color on my cheese, I made some room in my skillet to place the cheese for serving.


I served the Feta and veggies with slices of crusty baguette.


This makes a great summertime dinner or appetizer while grilling.  It is also a nice use for all of those peppers and tomatoes you might have from your garden.  Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

2 comments:

  1. Perfect timing with this post because I have some peppers to pickle. I am going to use your brine recipe. I know Ms. Goofy would love the grilled cheese. Goodluck if you are competing this weekend. We only have a couple of contests left for this season.

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    1. I always try to be informational Chilebrown. Glad to be of assistance. Have fun today. We have two more competitions left for the year. I am sorry to see the season coming to a close.

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