Haloumi & Mushroom

An enticing recipe from Rowley Leigh; taking particular note of the mushroom pickle that could go with anything. His recipe suggests breading some mozzarella and frying it up, I've opted for a simpler fried haloumi, perhaps with some Ricard?

250 mushrooms, more interesting sorts

maldon sea salt

1 stick of cinnamon

1 bay leaf

6 cloves

150 ml vinegar

350 ml EVOO

2 heads of little gem lettuce

2 tomatoes

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp sherry vinegar

3 tbls EVOO

1. sprinkle mushrooms with salt and leave in a colander for an hour; put the cinnamon, bay leaf, cloves, vinegar and EVOO in a pan, bring to a simmer and leave to infuse for 30 minutes; rinse off the mushrooms, drain and add to the ingredients in the pan; bring to a boil then remove from the heat and leave to cool.
2. put tomatoes, salt, pepper, vinegar and EVOO in a blender with some sugar; blend until smooth and put through a sieve.
3. slice up the gem lettuce and dress, distribute the mushrooms on top of this, adding a piece of haloumi,