Dinner of Bits and Bobs – Seared Halloumi Cheese with Fig Jam

Sometimes you’ve just arrived home, it’s late, and you don’t feel like cooking. Sometimes you didn’t prepare ahead, you’re hungry, and a proper dinner would simply take too long. Sometimes not everyone will eat the same entrée, and making a traditional meal would be too frustrating. Sometimes you’re eating alone and a full dinner is too much. Sometimes you’ve been dining out or getting takeout too frequently and need a different option. Sometimes you’re exhausted and just don’t want to deal.

That’s when you have a dinner of bits and bobs. It’s a supper of odds and ends, miscellaneous components from your refrigerator and pantry that may have nothing to do with each other but together make up a satisfying, perhaps even well-rounded meal.

The key to a dinner of this sort is to be flexible, open to whatever you have on hand. Look in the refrigerator and investigate what’s hiding in jars and containers. Leftovers are fair game, as is anything in the crisper or cheese drawer. See what’s buried in the freezer to be warmed or toasted. Open the pantry and look for items you’ve yet to get around to eating. Take a stroll in the garden if you have one to see if anything is ripe and available, even if it doesn’t make an entire dish on its own.

Here is a list of possibilities, although your supper will certainly vary, depending upon your discoveries.

• wayward crackers, pita, or perhaps bread from the freezer toasted to revive it
• cut raw vegetables, with a bonus if you’ve got a homemade (or really any) salad dressing to dip
• leftovers of any kind
• remnant olives, roasted red peppers, or pickles remaining in the jar
• whatever scraps are floating in the cheese drawer
• a hard-boiled egg, or even deviled if you have the energy
• anything topped with a fried egg
• whatever else you’re finding covered with a slice or two of bacon
• tinned fish, if that’s your thing
• something salty with jams, jellies, or preserves
• seeds and nuts, raisins or dried fruit
• hummus, caponata, or any other dip you’ve got lying around
• chips and salsa, especially if it’s homemade, and simple nachos if you want to take things a step further
• a piece of fruit, cut to share
• whatever is in the garden, cooked or not
• a boiled potato, with vinaigrette or other dressing
• a plain, simple meatball or two if you’ve got them frozen, heated in the microwave, extra points if you can cover it with red sauce and cheese
• some frozen dumplings, boiled (or fried) and covered with chili crisp

Sort of like ordering a bunch of sides at a restaurant, a meal of incongruent components can work and be completely fulfilling. Despite its disparate nature, a dinner of bits and bobs often ends up being greater than the sum of its parts.

Seared Halloumi Cheese with Fig Jam

Far from a stinky cheese, halloumi is salty, mild, and firm, and with minimal effort, it makes an excellent component of a dinner of bits and bobs.

I’ve had warm halloumi in Berlin stuffed into pita in place of donner kebab. A Cypriot woman (the cheese originates from Cyprus) once told me they eat it fried with breakfast in place of bacon. And I can’t imagine it would be bad as a substitute in a BLT – an HLT, if you will – with ripe summer tomatoes and a hefty swipe of mayo.

But my favorite way to eat halloumi is seared in a hot skillet until crisp, simply served with a little fig jam, the salty cheese and sweet preserves complementing each other perfectly. Because it takes so well to heating and it holds its shape when lightly grilled or seared, it forms a deliciously crispy browned crust and a slightly chewy texture. And it squeaks with every bite.

While enjoying seared halloumi and fig jam as part of a dinner of bits and bobs does take a little bit of work, it’s negligible and can be prepared in about as much time as it takes to gather the other components of your dinner of misfits.

serves 2 – 4, 10 minutes

1 block halloumi cheese

1 Tbsp. olive oil

fig jam

1. Remove cheese from its package and blot dry with a paper towel. (Moisture inhibits searing.) Slice the cheese lengthwise into ¼ to ½-inch wedges.
2. Heat oil over medium-high in a heavy bottom skillet large enough to lay all wedges of cheese flat.
3. When the oil heats up lay each wedge flat and let it sear until the bottom is lightly browned, two to three minutes. (If additional moisture is released, it may take longer.) Flip and allow the other side to sear until lightly browned.
4. Remove to a plate and serve hot with fig jam.

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