The Meze

Finish off the week with a meze platter!

I think most meze platters are incomplete without kibbeh on the plate, but I'll do a kibbeh recipe later sometime. Meanwhile...

Homemade hummus with grilled eggplant, feta, stuffed olives, pita chips and carrot batons.

THE HUMMUS

If you're one to eat lots of this, the $4 dip with not even 25% of this quantity can get expensive. This takes 5-10 minutes to make so go make some!

Throw into the blender a standard can of boiled chickpeas (around 400g?) with a big spoonful of tahini and a whole lime. Grind while slowly drizzling in olive oil and maybe a little water (to avoid using too much olive oil). Add salt, garlic and paprika to taste. Stop when you're happy with the texture.

THE EGGPLANT

Slice eggplant, coat in salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, oregano and paprika and pan-fry in barely any oil (or grill) on both sides till a little blackened. Chop up some tomatoes, onions and coriander and mix with lime to serve on top of the eggplant slices.

THE REST

Cut bite-sized pieces of feta and slices of salami or any cured meat. Blanch long slices of carrots for a couple of minutes to soften them just a little. Cut up pita, brush with olive oil and pop in the oven for 10 minutes (I used leftover tortilla chips at home).

You get stuffed olives in the market, but for a DIY, make a garlic chilli mixture and stuff into a plastic bag. Cut a hole in a corner and use to squeeze mixture into each pitted olive. Marinate these olives in olive oil and chilli flakes.

Serve prettily and get to chompin'!