Turkish Mezze

My 'New Thing' for this week was to attend a cookery class at a local school. The theme was Turkish Mezze and, having visited Turkey last Summer, I was keen to recreate some of the delicious food we tried there. There were 5 of us in the class, along with the teacher, Oz, and her assistant.

First, Oz did a demonstration of the mezze we would be making: Hummus, Hummus with coriander and chillies, Sigara Borek (shallow fried filo rolls filled with feta and parsley), Pancar Ezme (a beetroot and yoghurt dip with garlic, zahtaar and spring onions), Cacik (a Turkish Tzatziki) and Piyaz ( a butter/cannelini bean dish with pomegranate, onion, tomato, sumac and chillies). Then it was our turn!

Some of our ingredients:

Turkish Delight, in case we got peckish!

Beautiful Turkish dishes:

Beads to ward off the evil eye whilst we were cooking!

Piyaz

Coriander Hummus

Cacik (pronounced 'jajuk')

Pancar Ezme

Sigara Borek

Back  home I made a quick batch of pitta bread to go with it:

It was delicious and I'll definitely be making these dishes again.

Other things this week include:

Dusting off  my bike, 'Bernard'. I think the wicker basket may need a bit of crochet loveliness!

Starting on the ripple blanket for L's birthday:

A quick trip to Oxford to deliver the 'Manley Blanket' for J. There was a 'Geek is Good' exhibition on at the Science Museum - note the glasses on the statues!

Colourful punts, seen from Magdalen Bridge:

Fantastic sock wool made by the West Yorkshire Spinners. They are inspired by British birds. From the top: Pheasant, Owl, Blue Tit and Bullfinch.

We have a pheasant, Fergus (!), who is living in our garden at the moment. The yarn really does produce Fergus in sock form! (See above).

So, naturally, I  had to buy a ball. Now I just need to add 'knit a pair of socks' to my list!

Finally, a trip with L to one of our favourite lunch places in Oxford:

Fried tofu with chilli and peanut sauce:

Thai Red Vegetable curry, Green Papaya Salad and Egg Fried Rice - Delicious.

I hope that Half Term is going well, despite the rain. Toodle Pip for now. x