Haloumi Cheesecake

Now, bear with me here. It might sound odd, overly rich, scary – the Mr Burns of recipes. But there's honestly very little to this, as the food processor does all the work, and the intriguing butteriness of the haloumi is both mellowed and yet writ large when paired with sharp cream cheese and lemon juice. What I'm trying to say is, it's simple and wonderful. More like the Homer Simpson of recipes, in fact.

(Serves 6)

Ingredients

• 125g plain crackers
• 50g walnuts
• A pinch of cumin
• 100g melted butter
• 200g halloumi
• 200g cream cheese
• 1 egg
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed if salt-packed

Method

Preheat oven to 160 C.

Tip the crackers and nuts into a food processor and pulverise them. Really make sure they're tiny crumbs, as opposed to small pieces – this will help it stick together. Add the butter, pulse briefly to mix, then transfer into the base of a 20cm springform caketin lined with baking paper. Press down with the back of a spoon to form an even base, and then refrigerate it while you prepare the filling.

Clean the food processor bowl. Heat a frying pan without any oil, and when it’s good and hot, lay the whole block of halloumi in it. Sear on both sides till a crisp, golden crust forms and the middles start to bulge and melt slightly. Allow this to cool a little, then throw it in the food processor with the cream cheese and the juice of the lemon, and process to thoroughly incorporate the two. Tip in the egg and process again to combine. Carefully, evenly spread this onto the cracker crumb base. Bake for 25 minutes, till golden and a little puffy on top.

Allow to cool for around thirty minutes before removing it to a serving plate (don’t even try taking it off the springform cake base though unless you’re very brave) and scatter with the capers.