Fried Halloumi Sticks with Tomato Dip
Breaded halloumi crisped in a camp skillet, with a tomato sauce cooked down from a can.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 69
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 60 min
- total time
- 80 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Canned tomatoes | 1 can (14 oz) | |
|---|---|---|
| Onion | 1 | left whole, pulled out later or crushed in |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | unpeeled is fine, they soften |
| Extra virgin olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1 tsp | |
| Chili flakes | a pinch | |
| Salt | a pinch, plus more to finish | |
| Sugar | a pinch | |
| Halloumi | 9 oz | vacuum sealed, keeps for weeks unopened |
| Flour | 1/2 cup | |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Eggs | 2 large | or 3 tbsp powdered egg mixed with 6 tbsp water |
| Panko breadcrumbs | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Neutral oil | enough for 1 inch in the pan | |
| Aioli | 1/2 cup | single-serve mayo packets plus crushed garlic work |
Method
- Put the tomatoes, whole onion, garlic, olive oil, oregano, chili flakes, salt, and sugar in a pot. Simmer on the lowest flame your stove will hold.
- Give it about 20 minutes, then break the tomatoes up with a spoon. Fish out the onion or leave it in for a heavier sauce. Crush the garlic against the side once it goes soft.
- Keep it going another 25 minutes. Add a splash of water if it stiffens up, and stir now and then so the bottom does not scorch. Salt and sugar to taste, then set it aside to cool.
- Cut the halloumi into sticks about a finger thick.
- Set out three containers: flour mixed with the paprika, beaten egg, and panko.
- Coat each stick in flour, then egg, then flour and egg again, then panko. Every face has to be covered or the cheese leaks out.
- Heat an inch of oil in a heavy pan to about 340F. Drop in a wooden spoon handle. Steady bubbles around it means go.
- Fry four or five at a time so the oil stays hot. Pull them gold and drain on a paper towel or a folded bandana.
- Eat straight off the towel with the tomato sauce and aioli.
This is a car-camping or basecamp job, not something to carry up a hill. Deep frying wants a real pan, an inch of oil, and a stove you can hold at a low simmer for the sauce and a steady 340F for the fry. Halloumi is the one cheese that earns the trouble: it holds its shape at heat instead of running, so the outside crisps while the inside goes soft.
The double breading is not fussiness. Flour, egg, flour, egg, then panko builds a shell thick enough to contain melting cheese. One thin coat splits and you end up frying a puddle. The sauce takes 45 minutes because canned tomatoes need that long to lose their tinny edge, and the whole onion and unpeeled garlic flavor it without leaving you chopping by headlamp. Halloumi is vacuum sealed and stable until you open it, but once cut it wants the cooler, so plan it for the first night or two.
Packing
Flour and paprika go in one bag, panko in another. Halloumi stays sealed in the cooler until you cut it. Carry the frying oil in a wide-mouth bottle and pour the cooled oil back in after; it does not belong in the dirt.
Variations
- Skip the fry and sear the plain sticks dry in a hot pan. Less crust, one pot, no oil to pack out.
- The tomato sauce doubles as pizza sauce or a base for pasta the next night.
- Powdered egg saves you carrying eggs that break in a pack.
https://meny.no/oppskrifter/snacks/spro-halloumi-fries-med-dipp