So yesterday I figured why not dive into Turkish meze since everyone keeps raving about it. Grabbed my dusty apron and hit the grocery store first thing. Snagged stuff like hummus ingredients – chickpeas, tahini, lemon – plus red peppers for muhammara and some fresh parsley.
The Meze Mess Session
Started simple with hummus. Blended chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon juice until my blender screamed. Added too much lemon at first – tasted like battery acid! Fixed it with extra tahini and salt. Then tackled muhammara: roasted peppers, walnuts, breadcrumbs. Forgot pomegranate molasses though – used honey and lemon as backup. Turned out weirdly sweet but edible.
- Hummus disaster: Texture looked like cement. Added ice water slowly while blending – saved it!
- Cacik fail: Squeezed cucumber too hard. Ended up with sad cucumber water swimming in yogurt
- Sigara boregi victory: Burnt first batch. Second batch? Golden and crispy!
Drink Pairing Chaos
Now the fun part – pairing! Dumped supermarket drinks on the counter for testing:
- Rakı with water: Poured it clear first – tasted like gasoline! Added water slowly until it turned milky. Magic! Cut through fatty sigara boregi perfectly
- Red wine trial: Tried Merlot with hummus. Felt like licking a coin
- White wine win: Crisp Sauvignon Blanc made cacik sing
- Beer bonus: Lager saved sweet muhammara from being cloying
Biggest surprise? Rakı ain’t that scary when diluted right. Cleared the spice of ezme salad better than anything. White wine worked with half the mezes while red only suited spicy stuff.
Epic Fail Takeaways
Don’t do what I did – prepare dips ahead! Hummus needs 3+ hours to stop tasting like chalk. And Rakı demands courage + water ratio experiments. Best simple combos I’d actually serve again:
- Rakı with any fried stuff like borek
- White wine with yogurt-based dips
- Beer with nutty/spicy spreads
Honestly? Turkish meze kicked my ass but I get the hype now. Just don’t invite guests until your third attempt!
