Two favourite ingredients in one summer salad
See the recipe for our favourite summer salad on Vogue:
http://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/2012/08/01/hemsley-and-hemsley-papaya-halloumi-salad-recipe
A very satisfying dish packed with different tastes and textures. You can munch through the crunchy seeds and peppery watercress, the sharp onion, the buttery soft papaya and avocado flesh and the salty, chewy halloumi and never get bored. These flavours are all finished off with some extra sweetness from a drizzle of raw honey and the acidity of tomatoes and apple cider vinegar to cut through the rashers of cheese.
After years of thinking that papaya tasted strange it has now become one of our favourite fruits. Reputably called the “fruit of the angels” by Christopher Columbus, papaya is delicious although some say an acquired taste.
We often make this salad for guests as it’s easy, colourful and unusual. Everybody falls in love with papaya straight away, followed by demands for the recipe on scraps of paper or over the phone.
Papayas can be expensive - anything from £3.49 to a tenner for the same sized fruit but you do get a lot of flesh - up to 10lbs! We buy the long, large variety of papaya found in local groceries and never fail to find a good one - it’s ripe when the skin is yellow and almost looks a little bruised. The skin should smell fragrant and yield a little when you press it. We haven’t had as much luck with the smaller, pear-shaped varieties found in the supermarkets.
Papaya’s seeds are also edible, although their peppery flavor is somewhat bitter - a bit like radish. You can keep the seeds to add to salads or put in salad dressings and when we’ve finished scooping the flesh out we stick the skins on our faces for a quick face mask so papaya is a good investment!
Halloumi, the unique cheese which can be cooked without melting, is traditionally made from unpasteurised sheep and goats’ milk. Unfortunately it’s hard to get hold of the unpasteurised stuff now but we always go for the organic 100% sheep or goats’ milk varieties for a better flavour than cows’ milk. We love Halloumi from High Weald Dairy:
http://www.highwealddairy.co.uk/index.php?webpage=product_detail.php&product_id=42448&cID=15293
