MEZE MADE EASY.
THIS DIP IS MADE FROM LEFTOVER SNAPPER AND STALE BREAD with a couple of other basic ingredients that most of us have in our kitchen.
I LOVE TO FEED PEOPLE but have been frustrated lately because my whole place has been turned upside down with the inside and outside looking like a construction zone. FINALLY, my new raised veggie bed is finished: everything cleaned up outside, the evenings glorious and Easter time the perfect excuse to invite a few friends over. Then I got to thinking – WHAT DO I ALREADY HAVE IN THE FRIDGE, GARDEN AND PANTRY? This MEZE PLATTER WAS THE RESULT. The painting inside will have to wait – I got a bit bored after the fourteenth door!
- FISH DIP – see recipe below.
- BABY BEETROOT – cooked and served with salt and pepper, olive oil and dried mint with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I could have made my beetroot dip with them too, but they were delicious like this. Some pomegranate molasses would have been good on them too. ( I think I have been watching too much Yotam Ottolenghi – although, how much is too much?)
- HUMMUS – my best ever recipe
- LOCAL OLIVES. A TOP TIP from me. In a platter like this, always serve whole, firm olives with the pip in them. The taste and texture is far superior to the pitted mushy kind you use for pizzas – trust me. In this case they were from local producers GRUMPY GRANDMA’S from the Mullumbimby farmers market
- LABNEH. Soft cheese balls coated in sesame and oregano made from a surfeit of yoghurt. Really easy to make. You just strain the yoghurt through some cheesecloth overnight. If I can do it, you can!
TARAMASALATA or FISH DIP is one of my favourite things to eat in Greece as a pre dinner snack. The fishy part is usually made from fish roe and the filler from breadcrumbs or mashed potato. I had leftover cooked snapper from a fish my son had caught, so I thought I would experiment and give it go – it turned out to be delicious. Too good to waste?
RECIPE
- 1 cup cooked white fish, without bones or skin.
- 1 cup breadcrumbs from good day old white bread – not a sliced loaf
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup capers
- Few sprigs of dill or fennel
- Salt and pepper
METHOD
- Cut the crusts off the bread and blitz in the food processor to make breadcrumbs
- Add everything else and process until fine and fluffy
- Serve drizzled with some olive oil, thin slices of lemon and some fennel sprigs
THE LAST PLACE I ATE TARAMASALATA IN GREECE. at Agatha’s Taverna in Corfu. She used mashed potato instead of breadcrumbs. Poly nostimo
MORE MEZZE DISHES FROM MY KITCHEN
Spanish grilled capsicum salad
