Fast & Fabulous: Seared Halloumi, Caramelized Peach & Cherry Salad & a Sonoma Coast Chardonnay!

One of the things I love most about what I do is discovering the blogs of other passionate foodies and I’m happy to share a new found favorite! This delicious recipe for Seared Halloumi, Caramelized Peach & Cherry Salad is from Heather of the Flourishing Foodie. In this recipe Heather beautifully incorporates some of my favorite flavors of Summer and, in keeping with our “Fast & Fabulous” series, this dish can easily be prepared in thirty minutes. As always, I have a delicious wine pairing to enjoy with this dish, a delightful Chardonnay from California’s Sonoma Coast.

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Hands down, two of my favorite Summer ingredients are peaches and cherries. There’s nothing like the fragrant aroma of a perfectly ripe peach, not to mention the delightful, cutting board-staining red cherry juice, the inevitable byproduct of pitting. I’m also just a little infatuated with halloumi cheese, a Greek, semi-soft, brined cheese made from a mixture of goat and sheep’s milk. In this salad, the arugula provides a lovely, peppery contrast to the sweetness of the caramelized fruit while the salty tang of the halloumi cheese rounds out the flavors and textures nicely. When it comes to a wine pairing, there’s just something about the way Chardonnay pairs with arugula that I adore, and the 2012 Failla Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is no exception! This wine has just a kiss of oak that synergizes beautifully with the spice of the greens while it’s fruit harmonizes with the flavors of the cheese, peaches and cherries.

seared-halloumi-caramelized-peach-cherry-salad-failla-chard-label Failla Winery is a labor of love for husband and wife team Ehren Jordan and Anne-Marie Failla. While there first vintage debuted in 1998 as Failla-Jordan (they had to drop the “Jordan” over a legal dispute), their first estate release was still years away. Jordan’s passion for winemaking led him to an internship in France’s Rhône Valley and then back to California where he worked with Helen Turley at Marcassin and then Turley Wine Cellars before starting Failla. Today the couple’s fourteen acres of estate vineyards are largely dedicated to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah that capture the essence of California’s coolest wine making regions. This small production winery produce beautifully balanced, food friendly wines that are definitely worth seeking out, however, in the event you’re unable to find this particular wine, ask your local wine shop for a food-friendly, California Chardonnay from a cooler region with a nice balance of fruit and oak.

I hope you enjoy this recipe for Seared Halloumi, Caramelized Peach and Cherry Salad from the Flourishing Foodie as much as we did! Just FYI, I tweaked the original recipe a tad because I made it for four people instead of two. For more installments of our “Fast & Fabulous” recipe series, complete with wine pairings, please click here. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,

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"Fast & Fabulous: Seared Halloumi, Caramelized Peach & Cherry Salad"

Author: Adapted from The Flourishing Foodie

Serves: 4

Serve with a Sonoma Coast Chardonnay like the one from Failla featured in this post!

Ingredients

5 oz container of arugula
Extra virgin olive oil
1 fresh lemon
Kosher Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons butter
1 cups red cherries, halved & pitted
2 peaches - not overly ripe or they may fall apart
8 oz. halloumi, sliced ¼" thick

Instructions

) In a medium frying pan, heat the butter on medium-high heat. Once the butter starts to sizzle, add the cherries and peaches. Sauté until soft.
) While the fruit is cooking, heat a large frying pan on medium. Once hot, add the halloumi slices. Cook on each side until a nice golden brown, 2-3 minutes per side.
) In a bowl, toss the arugula with olive oil, lemon juice and pepper. Place a handful of dressed arugula on each plate and layer the fruit mixture over the greens and top each with a grilled halloumi slice. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

The post Fast & Fabulous: Seared Halloumi, Caramelized Peach & Cherry Salad & a Sonoma Coast Chardonnay! appeared first on The Glamorous Gourmet.