I was planning to try and make halloumi which is the traditional cheese of Cyprus but my only problem was where to get some sheep and goat milk in Athens. When Val asked me to co-operate and make halloumi I took the opportunity to try what I already wanted to make for a long time so I started look for milk and rennet.
Halloumi is indigenous to Cyprus and is one of a few kinds of cheese made in Cyprus.
Halloumi has been made in Cyprus for hundreds, not to say thousands of years and the recipe was given from mother to daughter as traditionally this was a woman’s job to do. The man of the family usually looked after the flock and the milk they brought home was the woman’s job to turn into halloumi. Anari (which is a soft white cheese, in Greece it is called anthotyro or myzithra) is made during the process of making halloumi. Other type of Cypriot cheese is kaskavalli, a yellow cheese, similar to graviera and is characterized by its holes and the horiatiko tyri (village cheese) which is the one we use to make the Easter flaounes. I have posted about flaounes, but these are the ones we make all year around, which is the easy version. The ones we make for Easter has a different phyllo and the procedure is somewhat different. I shall do my best and before Easter I shall post this recipe. Finally, they also made yoghurt.
My eldest sister, Zoe, used to make halloumia not as a profession but for her family. Zoe was in the culinary industry and had a taverna, together with her husband, called “Zakaki Corner”, at Zakaki, a suburb of Limassol but at the time it was still a village. When my brother-in-law died my sister was only 52. Now, one of her sons has two restaurants on the seaside of Ladies’ Mile, five minutes from the New Port of Limassol and she still manages the two restaurants.
When my sister was visiting me, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about many things. She talked to me about our grandparents, whom I did not meet as they all died before I was born and she also told me a lot of things which I did not know, about my family and especially my mother. For instance, when my sister was a teenager my mother bought cloth to make a coat and my sister wouldn’t let her sew it for herself as she thought that it would be better for her to have it. My mother came from a village named Kyvides. Her village was totally destroyed, by a major earthquake, maybe thirty years ago, I do not remember exactly when and the village was rebuilt again in another safer location, not far away. When my sister visited that village she tried to find out if we had any relatives there. She remembered the name of a distant relative and managed to locate him. When she said whose daughter she was that man remembered my mother by a nickname they gave her when she was young. Anyway this man referred to my mother as “the blind kid”. Of course my mother was not blind, neither did we know that she had any problem with her sight but she did have a little scar over her eyelid, at least my sister remembered that. Evidently, when she was looking after the sheep, she fell and a thorn pierced her eye. The damage was not much but when she went to school the kids would call her blind. My grandfather died when she was 11 and my grandmother with her other daughters moved to Limassol, where her older daughter was married and lived there.
Back to halloumi now. Among other things we talked with my sister was food. I asked her a lot of questions about many things I wanted to find out. One of the things she told me was the recipe of making halloumi. I can remember when she used to make them. We would eat some hot just as they were prepared. There is no way I can describe that taste. It had a very appealing flavour that’s unlike any other cheese: mellow, but not the least boring, mildly sheepy, notably tangy, never too strong. Halloumi is so versatile and can be enjoyed almost in any of the ways you’d eat all other cheeses: sliced up as is for a simple snack, in a pita as a sandwich, grilled, fried, barbecued, boiled in soups, cubed onto salads like you would with feta, melted on casseroles or grated on pasta dishes, even as a dessert with watermelon or together with marinated dried fruit.
I have a lot of notes of things we discussed as well as stories she told me about our family and shall be writing about them in the near future.
I am submitting this post over at Marla at Bella Baita View who is hosting this month’s Apples and Thyme event, created by Jeni of Passionate Palate and Inge of Vanielje Kitchen. If you would like to read stories where other bloggers remember people who have influenced their lives in the kitchen please visit their blogs and there are a lot of stories to read and lovely recipes to enjoy.
How to make Cypriot Halloumi Cheese
I N G R E D I E N T S
Preparation time: from beginning to end about 3 hours and a lot of mess in the kitchen.
Makes about 4 – 5 halloumia, about 1.5 kilos
- 10 litres fresh milk, either goats or ewe (I used about 4 kilos goats’ milk and made 1 big halloumi)
- 2 grams rennet or special cheese rennet
- 6 teaspoons of salt
- Fresh or dried mint
You will need a very big Pan and some muslin or cheesecloth
DIRECTIONS
Dissolve rennet in ¼ cup of water.
Reserve ½ cup of milk and put the rest on heat. When it is lukewarm add rennet, which dissolve in 1/2 cup of water. Stir a few times and remove from heat.
Cover pan with a clean towel until the milk has curdled. This will take about 45 minutes. When the curd forms, shape them with your palms and press them so that they drain from the whey. Collect whey and place it back in the pan. Place the shaped curd in a baking tin with water and rinse them to keep them clean and white.
In the villages they used to put them in straw or reed baskets where they were left to drain but if we do not have any we can put them in cheesecloths (or muslin) and let them drain for about half an hour after which they will be firmer.
Meanwhile add the ½ cup of milk and 3 cups of water and bring whey to the boil stirring constantly. Reduce heat and keep simmering. Any curds which form on the top will become anari (myzithra or anthotyro). Collect the curds which again should be placed to drain the whey. Any whey must be returned to pan. After draining you may either eat it fresh as it is with sugar and cinnamon or to make phyllo pastry desserts or you can add salt all over it and put it again in muslin and hang it and leave it to dry for a week or more to form a hard cheese similar to parmesan, suitable for grating on top of pasta etc.
Once anari (anthotyro) is collected, remove soft curds from cheesecloth or muslin and place into the whey and bring to the boil. Simmer gently until the cheese floats to the top. Once they float simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove cheese, with a slotted ladle and sprinkle with salt on both sides. Place some mint in the middle and fold in half. Place in a big glass jar when they are still hot. Let them cool down completely and fill in the jar with the remaining whey (in which a teaspoon of salt is added per 1 cup of whey). The whey must cover them in order to be preserved. Once taken out of the whey it may be kept in the refrigerator for several days. In case whey is not enough, wrap each one in foil and store in deep freezer.
Finally, cow milk can also be used but the ‘traditional’ type is with goat and ewe milk.
I made only 1 big halloumi and a small amount of anari. Although I used only goat’s milk, they tasted just like real halloumi. There wasn’t much I could do with this halloumi but I wanted something special, so I prepared a traditional Cypriot breakfast.
Halloumi and Lountza.
Lountza is Cypriot cured smoked meat and I shall be posting about it soon.
My mother used to prepare our breakfast with spry shortening. In Cyprus we do not use olive oil for cooking as the Cypriot olive oil is not so refined as the Greek one. We usually used peanut oil for cooking, olive oil for salads and Spry was used for cakes, frying, roasting etc. Back in December I was looking to see if I could find some spry but I did not. The only thing I found and is similar to spry is a shortening with 5% butter in it called ARISTON.
So to prepare our breakfast I put a spoonful of ARISTON shortening and when it was hot, I fried eggs, to which I sprinkled some salt on top and later some freshly ground black pepper. Then I fried lountza and finally halloumi and served it with tomato and bread (unfortunately I did not make pita breads). I think this is a breakfast my family will be enjoying more often as they loved it. They butter gave a totally different taste to our breakfast.
See some relevant recipes I have posted made with Anari and Halloumi:
Halloumi with Marinated dried fruit and nuts
Cypriot Tyropita (A Savory cake with halloumi)
Ravioles or raviolia (pasta stuffed with halloumi)
Flaounes (traditional cheese filled pastry, for Easter)
Halloumi in Pita Bread
Macaronia tou fournou (Pastitsio)
Anarotourta (biscuit based dessert with anari)
Bourekia with anari (anari with cinnamon and sugar wrapped in phyllo and fried)
Tags: Cypriot, Cypriot pantry, Traditional
April 6th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
This was a beautiful post Ivy. Thank you so much for collaberating with me and adding a new dimension to my post about cheesemaking.You right beautifully and I enjoy reading your posts a great deal!! I am still on the lookout for rennet. I will ask some of the patients that come to our office from the Kootenay mountains. They are into living off the land and producing their own products. On-line I saw a vegetarian version of rennet. I wonder what that is all about?
April 6th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Hey sis, just e-mail me your address and I’ll send your some. About rennet this calls for a new post I think. Rennet is made from a baby sheep’s belly. However, from what my husband told me he also remembers from his mother that they used to make rennet from artichokes (but he is not 100% sure). Filakia
April 7th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Ivy, I’m floored! This is fantastic…making your own Halloumi. This I have to try!
April 7th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Very nice Ivy! That breakfast sounds amazing and filling. I too love halloumi. Its so versatile.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:43 am
I just came over from Val’s post about this.
This is fabulous and so interesting. I am soooo glad you both shared. I am not sure I would brave the making of cheese, but it looks wonderful! The breakfast sounds delicious….
Have a great day!
April 7th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Wow - what an amazing post!
I just found you from Val’s post - good work, I’m so impressed!!
April 7th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
@ Peter M: Peter, it was a fantastic experience but rather expensive.
& Peter G: If you’ve tried halloumi the next thing you should try is lountza.
@ saralynn: Thanks for visiting and hope to see you around again.
@ kitie: Thank you kitie and hope to see you around as well.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Wow Ivy! YOu are such a hard worker!!! What a post!!! Too bad I don’t like cheese
I should teach my palate to like it because I’m loosing all these wonderful recipes and ancient tips. 
April 7th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Wow, this is amazing. I can’t imagine making halloumi at home.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
@ Nuria: My son doesn’t each cheese either, only when it is cooked but I sort of insisted that he tried halloumi and until now it’s the only cheese he eats.
@ fearless kitchen: neither could I a week ago and yet I did and I feel I have made a great achievement.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Great job, Ivy! You are awesome. As for vegetable rennet, Riana at Garlic Breath recently made some with nettles (which should just be coming into season where Val lives, so maybe she can try that - I’ll go over and give her the link). Anyway, here’s Riana’s post: http://garlic-breath.blogspot......works.html
April 7th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Thanks Laurie, shall go over and check their post.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:36 am
I loved reading about the halloumi making! Thanks Ivy!
April 8th, 2008 at 3:59 am
You touched my heart with your post Ivy (might I say again)…beutiful read through & so like a movie. Wish I got rennet here; would love to make halloumi. I’ve heard it’s the best cheese for grilling & very addicitive. Have bookmarked yr post in any case…just in case rennet pops up from somewhere one day.Ciao
April 8th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Thank you Deeba. As you will see in the comments, Laurie has sent me a link which they make vegetarian rennet out of nettles. I liked the idea and shall be making more research and attempt to make some other products by myself.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Hey Lulu! Nice meeting you!!!! I’m exploring more things to make at home, so hope to see you again.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
This is absolutely amazing Ivy! Wow! Making your own halloumi! I love this! I will have to try this at some point as I cannot get halloumi here. At least now I know I don’t have to go without! I can just make my own!
April 8th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Jenn, what are doing here? Why are you still on the computer? You have a wedding plan gal..
April 8th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Oh Ivy what a lovely post and making your own halloumi that is amazing girl!!
Rosie x
April 9th, 2008 at 9:56 am
val cooks better than most greeks do? i think that’s a little below the belt, ivy, especially since ‘greeks’ could mean a ‘cretan’, a ‘cypriot’, a ‘pelopenesian’, and our cusine differs all over the country, even though we share common ground…
in any case, what ‘kind’ of ‘greek’ cooks so badly that a non-Greek could do better? i’d be a bit wary of over-generalising in this way
April 9th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Maria, I know a lot of Greeks (and of course that includes the Cypriots) who can’t even do a simple recipe.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Thank you Ivy for letting me know that you had submitted this wonderful post about this cheese that I have read so much about but never had. I unfortunately didn’t receive it, but perhaps you would like to resubmit it to me at marla@bellabaita.com. Hopefully , this time it will make it. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on this wonderful post or for anyone else to either. Thank you again Ivy.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Okay Marla, shall do so.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Hi Ivy, I really enjoy reading your family stories and what a fabulous recipe. Thanks for sharing sweetie.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
My goodness - I never even contemplated that you could make your own halloumi. Fantastic job Ivy!
April 11th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Pixie thanks.
Cakelaw, Neither did I. Thanks.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Ivy_ this is a great post! I am a card carrying member of the Valli fan club myself…
I get rennet in liquid form for my cheesemaking from a catalogue online. Not that many people make cheese anymore so it is impossible to find locally, for me anyway. Also, in the US they are ultra-pasteurizing milk and if someone tried to use that milk it won;t set up right. It has to be raw milk or regular pasteurized. If it has a (U) on it it is the nasty ultra pasteurized stuff…
April 29th, 2008 at 3:55 am
Ivy, your posts are always so moving. I love that you are so good about collecting family and traditional recipes and passing them along. You are an inspiration. How wonderful that you and your sister could share information like that. Also glad for this recipe. When I buy halloumi it always seems way too salty for me. If I make it myself, I could control that! Wonderful!
January 31st, 2009 at 12:01 am
Very interesting, Ivy, and quite a bit of work. Now I’ll definitely try to make halloumi, most probably with cow milk, though.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:15 am
Hi Simona. It’s quite a bit of work but since you made ricotta it will be easy for you. Good luck if you will make it.
October 4th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Wonderful!
I keep a few sheep and have been looking for traditional cheeses to make with their milk next season. Plus this will make a wonderful gift for my friend (she lives in the states, but her grandparents and cousins are still in Cyprus). Thank you again! Now, can you tell me what the type of cheese is I heard about made by shepherds from Crete that curs in a sheep-skin bag? It seemed to be a quick-cheese as well…
October 4th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Sorry I cannot help you as there are a lot of Cretan cheeses, some of which I am not familiar with the method they are made.
Maybe you can find the information you are looking for here.
http://www.greek-islands.us/crete/crete-cheese/