Mezes: Middle Eastern Tapas
Middle Eastern Appetizers and a Recipe for Hummus
Mezes are small dishes of tasty Middle Eastern foods, traditionally served before a meal or in cafes over drinks. Try them with cocktails or on a hot day as a light meal
Mezes are more than just hors d’oeuvres, or a quick prelude to a big dinner. In Middle Eastern countries, mezzes are almost a style of eating in and of themselves. Imagine a sunny afternoon, spent in an outdoor café with a pleasant view, sharing small dishes of tasty tidbits of foods with good friends and great conversation. Add a bit of ouzo, arak, wine, beer or even tea or coffee and you have entered the “Meze Zone.”
The experience translates well to the home and any country of the globe. The ingredients? An assortment of food, served in bit-sized pieces or drinks. If it sounds like the perfect cocktail party or lazy afternoon picnic, it is! Here is a small assortment of the types of dishes that might be served:
- Hummus, Baba Ganoush, and Mouhamara dips, served with pita triangles.
- Olives of all sorts – from wrinkly, bitter black ones, cured in oil to the gigantic green beauties from Spain, dotted with an almond or a garlic clove.
- Small cherry tomatoes
- Cucumber slices
- Sarmas, hot or cold
- Yogurt Cheese
- Mortadel
- Pickles
- Beoreg
- Topig
- Small pieces of kebabs
Almost any food meant for a larger plate may be turned into a proper meze. Served in small dishes, and staggered stages, with a pleasant drink, they can even be a meal, especially on a hot summer day. Serving meze as buffet for a cocktail party is also an interesting way to spice up the event and make it more unique.
While there are no hard and fast rules – except to pay attention to presentation and to make each small offering look inviting – generally, begin the meze experience with the cold finger foods…tiny cherry or grape tomatoes; slices of cucumber, marinated in a bit of yogurt or olive oil and lemon; black and green olives; an artichoke, steamed, seasoned and ready to be picked apart; hummus and pita triangles…whatever might be on hand. As the mezze meal proceeds, begin adding the heavier dishes, like pieces of shish kebab, shrimp and other seafoods; mortadel (a kind of beef round, stuffed with boiled egg, pine nuts or pistachio), small square of sou beoreg etc. Finally, bring out tiny, bite-size pieces of pastries, like paklava or kadaif and Turkish coffee to complete the experience.
While many recipes for these meze may be found by following the links provided, to get you started, here is a recipe for hummus. Serve as a trio, with baba ganoush and mouhamara on the meze table.
Hummus:
Ingredients
- 16 ounces of canned chick peas
- 2-3 large garlic cloves
- 1/3 cup tahini
- 1/3 cup of lemon juice - more or less to taste
- ¼ - 1/3 cup of cold water
- To garnish:
- About 3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- About 2 – 3 teaspoons of chaimen
- Some chopped, fresh parsley
Preparation:
- Place the garlic and tahini in a food processor and blend until the garlic well incorporated.
- Drain the chick peas and add to the mixture
- Add the lemon juice and about ½ of the cold water and blend until the mixture is very smooth, adding the rest of the water slowly until you have a creamy – but not too liquidy consistency.
- Taste, and adjust for tartness – some people prefer their hummus more tart, some less.
- Spread the mixture on a pie plate or other shallow serving platter.
- Taking the Chaimen in pinches, create a “criss-cross” pattern with it on top of the hummus.
- Gently add the olive oil, evenly over the top.
- Garnish with the parsley.
Serve as a dip, with Pita bread cut into small triangles.
