Dinner Party: A Middle Eastern Feast

I finally held a dinner party on Saturday night that I've been planning for ages, and it was so worth the wait! Having never cooked this type of food before I was a little worried that it might be a colossal disaster, but thankfully everything came together perfectly.

I highly recommend giving some of these recipes a try if you are planning a dinner, they were all simple yet totally delicious, easy to prepare and the kind of food you can put on the table and let everybody help themsleves, which in my opinion is the best kind!

My menu went like this:

Red Pepper Hummus & Eggplant Dip with crispy pita bread
Spiced lamb pilaf

Grilled chicken wings with lemon and garlic

Braised chickpeas with baby spinach and feta

Fattoush Salad

Minted yoghurt

You'll have to forgive me for not taking photos of all the dishes.... I was too busy eating!

Red Pepper Hummus

1 400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup roasted red peppers (from a jar is just fine)
2 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
1 clove garlic, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt & ground black pepper

Place the chickpeas, olive oil and garlic into a blender and pulse a couple of times. Add the peppers, tahini and lemon juice, and season well with salt and pepper, then blitz until smooth.
Makes about 2 cups.

Note: You can make this a day in advance and just keep it in the fridge until ready to serve.

Eggplant Dip
1 large, or 2 small-ish eggplants (approx 500g)
1 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
1 tsp ground cumin
Juice of 1 lemon
Sea salt & ground black pepper
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, place the whole eggplants on a tray and bake for 50 minutes, or until slightly collapsed and soft when poked with a skewer. Cut in half and leave to cool for 15 minutes.
Scoop the cooled eggplant flesh into the blender, along with the tahini, lemon juice, cumin, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
Makes about 2 cups.

I served my dips with some cripsy pita bread, which i dressed with olive oil, sea salt and a sprinkle of sumac prior to baking in a 180 degree oven for 5 minutes.


Spiced Lamb Pilaf

500g lamb mince
1 large onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 cup basmati rice
2 - 3 cups water
2 tbsp ground spice mix (see note)
2 tbsp tumeric powder
3/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 cup fresh coriander, chopped
Sea salt & ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Heat oil in a heavy based frypan or saucepan and fry the onion and garlic until translucent, then add the spices and toast until fragrant. Next add the lamb mince and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon until all the lamb is cooked through and separated.

Add the uncooked rice and 2 cups of water, stir through well and cover with a lid. Simmer for 15 minutes then check the consistency of your rice, and if necessary add extra water.
Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until golden and stir through the cooked rice. Lastly, (preferably just before serving) add the fresh coriander and mix through.
Note: I made my spice mix by dry toasting 1 tbsp cumin seeds, 1 tbsp coriander seeds and 10 black peppercorns and then grinding them to a powder in a mortar and pestle.


Sticky Chicken Wings with Garlic, Lemon & Parsley

15 Chicken wings (this was enough for 6 people)
3 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
Olive oil
Sea salt & ground black pepper

Place the chicken wings in a large bowl and drizzle liberally with olive oil. Sprinkle in the garlic and parsley, season well with salt and pepper then pour over the lemon juice. Use your hands to rub the mix all over the chicken, then cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Heat a large fry-pan over medium heat and fry off the wings until they begin to turn golden, then transfer to a roasting tray and bake in a 180 degree oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

Braised Chickpeas with Baby Spinach & Feta

3x 400g tins chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 large handfuls baby spinach
Juice of 2 lemons
3/4 cup verjuice or white wine
50g bulgarian feta
Sea salt & ground black pepper

This is a dish best made 5 minutes prior to serving. It really doesn't take long at all!

Place the chickpeas in a saucepan over medium heat and immediately add the lemon juice, verjuice and season with salt and pepper. Allow to come up to near boiling, then add the baby spinach and cover with a lid until the spinach is wilted. Mix it well, then transfer to a serving dish and crumble through the feta cheese.

Fattoush Salad
1 large bunch parsley, roughly chopped
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 lebanese cucumbers, chopped into chunks
1 green capsicum, diced
3 spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
1 large pita bread, toasted
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil
1 tsp Sumac
Combine the parsley, cucumber, capsicum, tomatoes, spring onions and mint in a large bowl. Dress with lemon juice and olive oil, then break up pieces of the toasted pita bread and gently mix through. Sprinkle with sumac and serve.