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Halloumi-Trahana Soup
The Halloumi-Trahana Soup…
This time we will try a fully traditional Cypriot dish, trahana soup. Trahana is another traditional dairy product of Cyprus. We will put a page at a later stage describing trahana in detail.
For now, briefly, trahana is made from fermented goat milk and crashed wheat. The milk is fermented for 4-6 days, until the sourness reaches a desirable level, and then it is cooked with crashed wheat. Then it is rolled (as shown below in the pictures) and left to dry under the summer Mediterranean sun. It can be consumed just like that, or to make the trahana soup. Also the fermented milk can be consumed just like that, chilled though, with some mint. It is very refreshing in the hot summer days.
Now back to the main topic, the trahana-halloumi soup, and the most important of all, the ingredients. We will need…
- One aged Lysiotiko Halloumi
- Trahana, the amount depends on how many servings you want to do and how dense you want your soup. Experiment on the quantity.
- Chicken, preferably legs or thighs, here we will be using breast though. Legs or thighs have more fat and will release more juices when you boil them.
- One cube of chicken bouillon
- Lemon
- Salt and pepper
Preparation:
The first thing that you have to do when doing a Halloumi-Trahana soup is to plan in advance. The soup itself is not time consuming but the trahana needs to be soaked in water to soften, and this requires time, 4-5 hours. Once you have soaked the trahana then the whole process is relative quick. So to prepare the soup soak the trahana, put it in a bowl and cover it with water and let it soak. The trahana will absorb the water, get swollen and turn into a pale white-beige color, and become very soft. In the meantime boil the chicken. Once it is done pull it out from the pot, and let it cool down. Add the trahana and the chicken bouillon cube in the pot where the chicken was cooking. Cook it on medium heat for about half an hour. Once it is cooked, the trahana and water will have meshed into one mixture. Cut the chicken and the aged Halloumi in small cubes and add them to the pot. Add some more water to dilute the mixture and let it boil for another 5 minutes. Take it off the stove let it cool down a bit. Add lemon and pepper to taste and serve warm to hot… And it will definitely warm you up on a cold winter night. And with this dish you will have experienced an authentic dish from the traditional table of Cyprus/
Here are a few pictures of the Halloumi-Trahana… so warm…
Finally the poll…
Poll: What do you think?
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