I’m doing a big mezze spread Sunday, and I’m having trouble coming up with a pudding.* Help me think? Drooling is explicitly allowed, tissues are right over there. ->
I’ve never made my own baklava, is it difficult? Can it be done in advance?
I’d also be interested in something else. Maybe orange blossom something? Pistachio something?
That pistachio stuff, can you buy it, or do you chop pistachios and do something to it?
A cheat’s option I was thinking of was individual pavlovas, flavoured with orange blossom and then something else to make it middle easterny. Or maybe pistachio something, somehow in/with pavlova. It’s cheating because pavlovas are easy and not Middle Eastern
So… any suggestions? Do you like doing mezze? Anyone actually from the area? What do you like to eat & what do you like to make?
Halva? It seems like it should be really, really easy to make. As far as I can tell it’s basically sesame seeds and honey, smushed into paste and fancied up with pistachios or almonds or whatever you’re into. I’ve sometimes had it with unsweetened whipped cream to cut the sweetness.
Ooh, this is great, I’ve had all of those but didn’t know the names!
I wonder if it’s difficult to get that crumbly/fluffy consistency with the halva? I might try that, I really, really love that stuff. I could try it out tomorrow. It’ll be fairly expensive though, I think, because of the amount of honey…
Umm ali looks simple enough, so does keşkül, though it apparently requires 20 minutes of dedicated stirring! :eek:
eclectic wench, the more the merrier! I’m making hummus, a rich couscous, babaganoush (my fave), dolmas, little lamb meatballs, roasted cauliflower, puff pastry parcels with caramelised onion, feta cheese and pine nuts and lots of olives, breads & veggies to dip and anything else I come up with before Sunday.
The other day I made myself what I like to think of as a middle-eastern conversion of a British cream tea, composed of:
Ma’amoul (a sort of crumbly cake filled with a paste made from dates, pistachios, etc)
Kaymakli yoghurt
Rose petal jam
Quartered fresh figs on the side, served with little cups of very strong coffee.
Baklava is not difficult to make. I gave a meze-themed party a few years ago. Dessert was fruit (especially figs, dates, and apricots), nuts, baklava, and halva.
If you want to go not-quite-authentic, Nigella Lawson has a recipe for “Turkish Delight syllabub” that is lovely.
Mangetout, yum! Such a brilliant idea for an elaborate variation of afternoon tea. You could also do sweet fresh mint tea or Lebanese orange blossom tea. And shisha after!
Sattua, how did the halva go? Does it really just turn to that perfect consistency? The baklava doesn’t seem too bad, from the recipes. I could lay it out in advance, and prep the mixture, then pop in the oven at the last minute, take it out & pour over the mixture and let it cool while we eat. That should work, right?
Oh, I bought the halva! I wasn’t going to mess with that.
I would do the baklava the day before or early that morning. It needs time to absorb the syrup.
My word of advice… mezze is time and labor intensive. Take shortcuts where you can and don’t be ashamed of it! My party lasted four hours. I was cooking that entire four hours plus the four hours before it started.
Ooh the pictures should have NSFW tags in case of excessive drooling! I hear some employers frown on drooling… That all looks soooo good!
Heh, I know! I’ve done mezze a fair few times. Only usually I play fast and loose with the nature of mezze and Middle East-ness, and I’ve never tried any of the sweets before. I’m on a tight sched starting Saturday, so no worries!
If I can do the baklava the day before that would be brilliant. I was worried it might go soggy.
I am really curious about trying the halva, but I’m too chicken to do it for Sunday. I’ll try it out in secret some other time and report back.
Take the onion skins from cooking everything else, pop them in water with eggs, bring the water to a boil, turn off and ignore for a few hours then remove eggs and peel.
Dyes the eggshells yellowbrown, gives a vague delicate oniony flavor to the eggs.
Add some pickled onions too -
Peel and slice onions into wedges, keeping them held together with the root ends of the bulbs, layer into small glass jars, to each cup of true apple cider vinegar add 1 teaspoon of honey and one peppermint tea bag [the all mint kind, no black tea or other herbs please] and let stand in the fridge, shaking once every hour or so gently. Let pickle at least 4 hours, better is overnight or even a couple days. Remove and arrange on a plate. You can reuse the vinegar.
That all looks soooo good!
I’ll try it out in secret some other time and report back.