Mediterranean Feast
18 Jul
WE’RE ALIVE! I hope you weren’t worried (or starving). Summer=Vacation. Wanted to say a BIG thank you to all the Facebook and website comments about our recipes. I’m at a crossroads about commenting on every single comment to say ‘thank you’, I just feel like that seems a little silly, but believe me, we cherish EVERY single comment–good or bad!
So onto the recipe…
This is actually 3 recipes, hence the title “Feast”. Here’s the breakdown: Mediterranean spiced meat kebabs, tafooleh salad and roasted garlic baba ganoush dip. You can make all 3 or just one and you’ll be eating like a king. We’ve made this so many times, in fact, we’ve made this for a dinner party (+ a few other accoutrements), our grandparents, my parents, kids –and had huge success. I don’t know why I’m just getting around to posting it.
Mediterranean Feast
Ingredients
Meat Kabobs
- 1.5 lb. ground meat (we’ve used lamb, beef and buffalo with great success)
- 1 T ground cumin
- 1 T ground corriander
- 1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 t garlic powder
- S & P
Tafooleh Salad
We posted this recipe way back in the day…well, it was one of our first posts anyway.
We grow tomatoes and this salad is a great way to use them up, if ya got ‘em.
Roasted Garlic Baba Ganoush Dip
- 2 medium eggplants
- 7 cloves garlic, skin kept on!!
- 1/2 c olive oil
- 2 T sesame oil*
- 1 lemon, juiced
- S &P
Method
For the Kebabs
Turn the grill onto HOT and keep it there! Completely submerge 5-6 wooden skewers (if you have metal skewers, skip this step) in water for about 30 minutes. You’re trying to wet the wood so it doesn’t burn on the grill. In a medium sized bowl, combine all the ingredients for the kebabs and mix together with your God given forks, yo hands!
Form the meat around the water soaked skewer, like you’re be making a lollipop, or perhaps a meat-sicle. Haha! Place the meat-pops on the grill and cook for about 5 minutes, turn and cook another 5 minutes on the other side.
For the Roasted Garlic Baba Ganoush Dip
Get your oven to 350ºF. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Cut the stems off the top the eggplants and split them in 1/2. Place them on the baking sheet and give them a light drizzle of olive oil. Grab a small sheet of foil and place the garlic cloves in the middle (DO NOT remove the skin of the garlic!), drizzle with olive oil and close up tight, like a little bundle of love. You’re making roasted garlic baby–some of the tastiest stuff on Earth! Place in the oven and roast until the eggplant can easily be pierced with a knife, about 45 minutes to an hour.
Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, remove the skins. The garlic should be nicely golden, brown. In a food processor, add all the ingredients and blend until smooth.
*Typical baba ganoush uses Tahini, which is sesame seed paste. It’s expensive and a mono-tasker kind of ingredients–I only really make one recipe with it. It’s just not worth it, so I use sesame oil instead, something I use a lot in Asian recipes.
Yay! Glad you’re back, Jimmy and I were starving!
I made this last month for myself and absolutely loved it! I am making the feast again this week for a dinner party – I wonder, what are the other accouterments you speak of?
typically we’ll serve feta, various olives and/or peppers drizzled in olive oil, lemon and herbs.
Thanks so much! I was all over the feta and olives, but hadn’t thought of peppers – sounds delish. I made some tzatziki after talking to a friend from Greece, but had totally blanked on dippers!