Maple roasted red grapes & haloumi

Serves 2 as a light meal or 4 as a starter

Maple Roasted Red Grapes & Haloumi Photo: Julie Biuso My Shared Kitchen

Ingredients

• 300g red grapes, snipped into small clusters
• 2 Tbsp raspberry vinegar (if you don’t have it, use a quality white wine vinegar)
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp freshly crushed coriander seeds
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Sour dough bread, sliced and grilled (or toasted)
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 250g (about 8 oz) traditional haloumi, thickly sliced
• salad leaves
• mint leaves
• lemon wedges

Method

1 Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F). Put the grapes in a small ovenproof dish (I use a cast iron dish; if you don’t have one, use a metal dish rather than a china one as it will speed up reduction of the juices). Pour round vinegar and drizzle grapes with maple syrup. Scatter with crushed coriander seeds and add a grind of pepper. Roast the grapes for 20-25 minutes until just starting to burst; the liquid should be syrupy.

2 Toast or char-grill bread and arrange on plates. Heat a medium frying pan (skillet) over medium heat. When pan is hot, add butter, and once it is sizzling, add as many pieces of haloumi as will fit (don’t crowd the pan). Sizzle until golden on both sides and transfer to toast when done.

3 Arrange a few salad leaves and mint on each plate. It’s not necessary to dress these because there is enough juice, salt and acid with the other ingredients. Spoon grapes and juices over haloumi, grind over a little pepper, add lemon wedges to the plates and serve.