TURKISH MEZE RECIPES

Turkish Cuisine is full of amazing tastes and defiantly not only about Kebab! Most of the people who visit Turkey get shock with this rich cuisine. The fun part is, the taste of the foods and the ingredients  are so different in Turkey when you travel to South, North, West and East. 

While south uses many different chili peppers, meat and salca (Turkish Tomato paste), north has more simple foods such as grilled local seafood and cornbread. 

When it comes to Meze, it is also so rich and vary!

We decided to write about Two different meze recipes.

First one is `Ezme` which is from the South Eastern part of Turkey with lots of chili and made to be served before meat.

And `Haydari`, it belongs to Western part of Turkey a fresh taste and can be served before seafood or meat.

EZME

• 3 Large Tomatoes
• 4 fresh chillies
• 1 large red pepper, seeds removed
• 1 medium cucumber
• 1 large onion
• 2 bunch parsley
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp salça (tomato puree)
• 1/2 tsp dried mint
• Salt
• 
  
• Place a pan of water on the hob and bring to the boil.
• Plunge your tomatoes into the water for just under 1 minute and then remove them.
• You can now remove the skin from the tomatoes
• Scoop out the seeds of tomatoes with a teaspoon and discard the seeds.
• Chop your tomatoes finely and add them to a large bowl.
• Chop the pepper, onion, chillies and cucumber finely.
• Chop the parsley finely before adding that to your other ingredients.
• Add the mint, oil, vinegar, salca and salt.
• Give everything a good mix and do a taste test.
• Ezme is supposed to be spicy so feel free to add more chili if necessary, if it seems too loose, add more salça.
• Place in the fridge for at least half an hour before serving.

                                                   HAYDARI

• 2 tablespoons feta cheese,
• 2 Cups Turkish Yogurt
• 2 clove garlic,
• 1 handful minced dill,
• 1 handful minced fresh mint leaves,
• Salt
• Olive Oil
• Mash the cheese using a fork and stir into the yoghurt,
• Add the grated / crushed garlic, dill, mint and salt and stir really well,
• Put into a serving platter and pour some olive oil over.

If you are willing to serve your mezes in a Turkish way you can check out our Handmade Turkish Ceramic Meze/Breakfast Serving Sets!