Mezze Feast

...but which country is it all from? Clearly I am not a traditionalist; dinner tonight was a mish-mash of mezze dishes from lots of different countries.

I decided I wanted to try out some new dishes. I found vine leaves in our local corner shop so have been meaning to try out stuffed vine leaves for ages. And as they are traditionally a part of a mezze (meze?) I figured it made more sense if I made it with other mezze dishes.

Obviously the first thing you think of when you think mezze is hummous (hummus...however it's meant to be spelt!) I could have just bought some from a supermarket, but I was intrigued to know how to make it so home-made hummous it was. I know how to make tzatziki and it's very quick and easy so that became dish number three.

Dish number four was tabbouleh - except for some reason I couldn't find bulgar wheat so I used cous-cous instead... I don't think it harmed the dish but it wasn't quite as authentic as it should have been. And the last dish was Turkish Kofte (spicy lamb meatballs).

I served the whole thing up with some warm pitta bread and it was quite yummy, even if I do say so myself! There was no particular event today to warrant making such an elaborate dinner - and two hours of preparation for ten minutes of scoffing our faces meant it probably wasn't really worth the effort. But we enjoyed it and, just in case you fancy making some of it, I thought I'd share it with you.

The domades (vine leaves) were one of Delia's recipes: http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/party-food/accompaniment/dolmades-stuffed-vine-leaves.html

The Kofte came from the BBC website - it's a Rick Stein recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/turkishkoftakebabswi_71862

Both of these were adapted - mainly because I didn't realise the Delia recipe was actually served in a tomato sauce and as I got to that point of the recipe I decided to stop and just put them in the fridge instead. With the Rick Stein recipe I just made the Kofte - not the yoghurt sauce or carrot salad.

And here is the ultra-simple hummous recipe for you:

HUMMOUS


Ingredients:
1 can of chick peas, drained
150ml tahini
3 garlic cloves - roughly chopped / crushed
juice of 1-2 lemons (I used one and a half)
salt and pepper

Method:
Put the chick peas and all the other ingredients in a food processor with a splash or two of water and whizz it up until it makes a smooth paste. I needed to add a little more water than I initially thought so keep checking - if it looks a little dry add a little and try again. I think it's very much a trial and error process.

And voila!!!

Mmm-nom-nom-nom happy chomping!