Hi everyone! today we're going to make hopefully seven different types of
mezzes.
Now we're getting to know each other and you'll see I live for challenges and
because you like hummus last week so much and you asked for mezze some of
the people did I said okay I'm going to choose mezzes those are incredibly
easy and all these recipes are idiot-proof and for the challenge I'm
going to make these seven mezzes in 20 minutes. If I do it in 20 mins. you will
differently do it in 30 maximum so for a 30 minute recipe and meze table and in
Turkey, we eat the mezzes, like some people drink some people don't but the
ones who drink the mezze table is also called 'çilingir sofrası' a
locksmith table. Why is it called this way if you ask because like we sit
together we drink our rakı and it opens the lock of our mouths and
we share and what the world needs right now is sharing. Sharing whatever we have
inside with dignity and freedom now the world is going through really really a
hard time and if something is going to save it, it's going to be equality, it's
going to be love and it's going to be not talking too much but being able to
listen, understand and give the chance for the other one to exist, no matter the
color, no matter the gender, no matter the education, no matter the wealth
So the clock is here.
We are starting right now, first I'm going to
start with eggplants. I'm going to in a way grill them, I'm making marks like
this. Why? Because there's air in the eggplant and this skin is like very
tight but if you don't do this scarring thing because when it gets hot the air
gets bigger and if there is no place for the air to go out, it will burst in some
place like poof and it's kind of dangerous also when you fry eggplant
because it can come to one of your places and in Turkey, we have over 100
different types of eggplant dishes and I want to share this with you over the
years, hopefully. It's one of the most tasty
vegetables in the world. If you don't use it much you should definitely think
about using it. I have turned on the heat a little and it's going to cook in like
6-7 minutes. Now here, I have cleaned the black-eyed peas I took the ones which
were floating on top.
Because like weevils get in and then eat inside, even
though there's no bug or something it might be inside before it turns to like
a little fly which comes from these things.
It might be full of eggs and you shouldn't eat it like if it eats inside
becomes light so it floats so I add a bit of water. I don't add normally it's
not so good to add salt while you're boiling but when it's cooking the salt
gets inside more so I put a little salt not so much and I'm going to with the
pressure cooker, cook it for about 15 minutes.
half an hour probably. Now, the
second one is also done third one is called atom, it's incredibly nice and
in recent years, it's really popular. Normally, it's yogurt with evaporated
water or like the waters taken out so it's thick yogurt and on top is butter
and a bit of chilli but what I'm going to do because usually the yogurt you eat
in the world is very creamy. Instead of yogurt, I'm going to use labneh
because it's more widely sold around the world but if you don't have
it, you can always use yogurt and if you want evaporated, you get the cheese
cloth and the yogurt and let the water drain and become something like this. In
the middle, I make a pit like this and it's almost ready. Now
for the top, I'm going to add a big tablespoon of butter. Now, when it's
melting, its creamy like this. Milky side should go down, so I'm going to wait for
a while. Normally, we have dried peppers like this you put this one it becomes
really nice and red and very hot but I know you won't be able to find it all
the time so what I'm going to do, I'm going to also add chili pepper like this.
I like to seeds a lot, they're not really hot. The hottest part of the pepper is
the strings that are attaching the seeds actually so I add the pepper like this.
Now as you can see, the white part has came up on the top, so I turn off the
heat and add this one. It becomes something like this, so I take it off the
heat a bit like this, turn the plate 45 degrees and let it get some air inside
so it becomes like bubbly and I add it like this.
Atom is done, black eyed peas are cooking and eggplant almost done and we're
only like six seven minutes through these parts, these parts are not cooked yet.
so I'm turning the eggplants accordingly, for example the head is
harder so I put it like this. So the fourth one is melon and white cheese.
White cheese, beyaz peynir, it's Turkish feta like you know there's always this
competition with Greeks and Turks about who owns what and as I said this is like
everyone has a place on the table so I'm not ever gonna get into that discussion.
Oh smells incredible. How to choose melon you have to smell the ass, I take the
seeds off and like for everyone on the table we have one melon. What we do is
just we do this but we don't cut the melon to the plate we put it like this
with the skin together and what it goes great with is this cheese I've eaten
feta and I've eaten of course white cheese everyone likes theirs and I like
Turkish white cheese and all these holes and the smell is great something you
should definitely taste when you come to Turkey. Why you eat it with an alcohol is
one of the things that you eat in the beginning because it's really good for
the stomach, it's together cacik creates a layer around the stomach so
the alcohol doesn't hurt the stomach and it doesn't get you drunk so fast. Another
thing which is great is pickles, we have great pickles, you can pickle
anything and I'm going to make a pickle issue how we make Turkish pickles.
...intestines yeah, great probiotics. These are the ones that I've made, it could be
any pickles whatever you have, would be done. I turn the heat, it could be grape-seed oil,
sunflower oil, any kind of frying oil that you use for your potatoes. Now, we
have two eggplants and I believe they're done, how we understand this part is not
like this is still hard, these parts are really soft, so I'm going to put it like this.
For example this one everywhere is done what I'm going to do, I'm going to put it
here and on top of it, put a plate for it to sweat so that I can take the skins
off easier. Now what I'm going to do, I take this off to my cutting board I make
a incision like this and open it, look at it, inside, with a spoon take this if I
did this in the oven it will take a bit more time but the skins would not be
like getting in the way this much, it would be easier to clean but as you can
see, we have cleaned it this goes to the compost bin. This one, I'm not going to
make it's sweat because I don't have time, I'm going to show you the difference not
so hard. This is lots of people's... Sorry!! This is lots of people's favorites two of
eggplants are ready. If it stays for a long time, the color is going to change.
I'm going to add one garlic to this mixture and a bit of olive oil
after I chopped. What you can do is collect all these together, like this and
then chop like this you don't need a chef's knives to do this or if you have
just one knife, you can always always do this now..
Knife is much better so I put salt and a bit of olive oil, this is also done okay..
Finally we need a bit of lemon, I'm not going to use the whole lemon, so I'm
going to make an incision and do this this way the lemon stays longer,
fresher. Too much lemon doesn't work on this, so keep in mind this is also done.
So almost 15 minutes, I'm going to check the oil I put a wooden spoon and if it
bubbles around which it does right now, it means it is ready, I have peppers like
this, I've cleaned this and then put it into the colander, the outside should not
be wet, if it's wet it's going to pat pat pat effect because of the water so you
have to clean it like this.
Yes, actually I want a big one but I couldn't find it this week but if it's a
big pepper, what we did with the eggplant be sure to make a score. Two maximum three
minutes and they are all done. You can by the way, fry it with the olive oil, I put
sea salt on it and it's also ready. And finally the eggplants I take the
skins of the eggplants, like this then cut them into likely chunks like this
and I put it in the oil while they are cooking I have to save black eyed peas
and 20 minutes is done. I lost the challenge. Black-eyed peas turn to
black very fast so what we are going to do we are going to save the water but
rinse it at the same time this is too much for the mezze table but I put a
lot of olive oil quite a lot of salt and actually I need more lemon so I can use
my lemon like this, we have something called the olive oil dishes and in
Turkey, what we do with fry onions and we add the vegetables etc but another way
is just boiling and putting olive oil and this is a version of it is so so
simple and very tasty and you don't need anything else, you need good olive oil
you don't even need garlic in this. Finally, I take it tomato and I take
two garlic's and roughly chop them very rough put 3 tablespoons of olive oil.
Olive oil is the only oil which is vegetable juice and very healthy, it's
good for your health and intestines as well, when oil is processed we don't even
still know the downsides so well. Now I'm going to grate the tomato and to grate
the tomato, I take the top part off the skins also go to the compost. Now I
started to smell the garlic but the color hasn't changed still at this time
I'm going to add the tomato, I miss the smell and even
the sound. This is like a summer dish so we haven't done it for a year almost.
When it's simmers like for two minutes then it's ready, the eggplants are still
cooking if I haven't done the eggplant recipe, we would be fine.
It's okay.
The eggplants are done. Now, the color has to be like brownish, still soft
so I take the extra oil out and then I put it in on a kitchen towel for it to
soak the extra oil of the eggplants if I crowd it, it won't be able to leave its
oil and it is going to be oily and heavy and it's not going to be pleasant. At this point,
I'm going to add the salt for the eggplants and toast it a bit like this
and the almost oil level haven't changed and that's something we want.
First, it's soaks and then it leaves it to the oil again. Nowadays, I'm really
really working on saving, so frying oil this is the one that I've used like
three times, I can also use it two or three times more what I do if there's
something inside, I just leave it to go to the bottom and then I put it on a jar
and then use it wherever I want again and I put the oil on a dark place and
not so long. So that, it won't get bad easily. Now, I'm going to add this tomato
sauce which is by itself heaven, it's just garlic, tomatoes this is pink sauce,
it's not very red and just for the color, not for the taste, I'm going to
add a bit of parsley on top. All done, 7 mezzes in about 28 or 30 minutes. Now, we
set our table for eating and there I'm going to tell you how we should eat it
and how I should drink it.
Now, I would like to introduce you to this girl, she's called Mezze.
Actually her name comes from this great sofra, sofra is more than table, we have
like a word for the table in Turkish but sofra is something above that and mezze
these little little things also is the name of this girl, we found resting a
above an automobile wheel and now she's here with her great name, she is like
this little taste which makes our world incredibly well. Aman Aman Aman.. If we
have haydari, today, I didn't make it we start with haydari for the stomach to
go good but then first I think it's the cheese and the kavun, yes..
Rakı has anise oil which dissolves in alcohol but when the alcohol level is less than 38%
when you add this means when you add water it dilutes and the dissolvent
finishes and you get this cloudy color from this a anise oil and an incredible
smell. Rakı drinking is another culture but it's not for this episode I'm going
to talk more about it somehow, now we get a sip of rakı and eat little little
from the middle and making sure the other one also eats well and then we're
all set and happy.
This simplicity makes this incredible or you can have the perfect bite or a bit
of pepper maybe with a bit of atom like this.
If you make this and says like I don't like it hot because I cannot eat hot so
you can always make it with not spicy pepper, it's going to give it color
and it's taste, it's going to be amazing. Our difference is like different people
eat differently, put it on their plate like small pieces and eat or like take
from the middle bite by bites, all good.
For now, this is it, I know it's a bit messy today.
One day is never the same to another one's, really hot as well but I hope you
like it, I hope you do this with your loved ones and share your feelings with
the loved ones and if you do please inform me make it little notice Refika
I did this. If you guy want to do this, please write
it down, I read all the comments that you write. Take great care.. bye bye!!