Meze: Small Plates to Savor and Share from the Mediterranean Table [Hardcover]

Diane Kochilas (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 3, 2003

Now you can enjoy the food and fun of a meze feast. Meze, the small plates of just about everything from seafood, meat, and vegetables to handheld pies, colorful salads, nuts, olives, and cheeses, is the food of hospitality and conviviality, food meant to be shared with friends and family and savored with wines and spirits.

Here, in Meze, Diane Kochilas, the award-winning author of The Glorious Foods of Greece, chef, restaurateur, and cooking teacher, takes you on a spirited journey across Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean, exploring these simple and simply irresistible dishes. The recipes are robust, dear, and easy to follow. These uncomplicated dishes are charged with flavor and based on fresh, accessible ingredients. The results are spectacular.

Meze makes every meal a party, and no one knows how to throw a party better than the Greeks. Youll find tangy, skewered meats and juicy meatballs, delicious seafood dishes from simple steamed mussels to creamy ouzo-flavored shrimp. You'll find a healthful selection of aromatic bean dishes, and a recipe for the best fried potatoes in the world, Greek fries, which are hand cut and cooked in olive oil.

The convivial and festive nature of the meze table is reflected in Diane's warm, inviting style. The innate attractiveness of the food -- the colors, textures, and shapes -- are captured in brilliant photographs that evoke the sunny, warm Mediterranean dime. Whether you make just a few dishes for informal entertaining, or create an entire meal of meze, Diane Kochilas makes it possible to bring the spirit of fun and sharingthe essence of meze throughout Greece and the Mediterranean -- to your own table at home.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

To confuse meze with antipasto or tapas is to miss the point. These small plates of Greek deliciousness come to us from a Mediterranean world of mid-afternoon snacking, drinking, and talking. The pace is leisurely, the content simple, the effect extraordinary. Early on in Meze Diane Kochilas, award-winning author of The Glorious Foods of Greece, sets the prototypic meze stage: two village codgers holding down either side of a small table; two glasses and a carafe of raki between them; a plate with some bread, olives, air-dried anchovies, cucumber sticks, and cheese. They do not sit at the table so much as beside the table, the better to take in the world.

And thus it is with meze. It's not about sitting down to eat as much as being present to exchange ideas, enjoy a glass of wine or spirits, and snack on taste treats that enliven the palate and pull all the threads of the whole into one. Kochilas divides Meze into "Dips, Spreads, and Relishes"; "Savory Salads"; "Small Egg Dishes"; "Phyllo Pies"; "Finger Foods and Fried Treats"; "Vegetable and Bean Mezethes"; "A Sea's Bounty"; "From Meatballs to Kebabs"; and, the "Meze Pantry." She provides sources for ingredients. And she includes enlightening notes on Greek wine and spirits, perfect for serving with these small dishes. She is truly a master of it all and a delight to read. When was the last time you mixed garlicky yogurt with dried apricots, or baked figs with oregano? Put your hand in Kochilas's oven mitt. She'll take you to a new, delicious, life-invigorating territory. --Schuyler Ingle

From Publishers Weekly

Mezethes (plural of meze, which means middle) are little Mediterranean dishes designed to complement a beverage, tease the tastebuds and encourage diners to linger around a table for good conversation, says Kochilas (The Glorious Foods of Greece), and "variety, playfulness, and surprise" are key to their preparation. Her nicely illustrated cookbook offers 80 meze recipes to pair with ouzo or Greek wines, and shows American home cooks how a varied gathering of Greek, Turkish and Lebanese flavors-olives, anchovies, cured beef, cheese, good bread-can make for a perfect brunch or buffet spread (though, Kochilas is careful to note, a "meze spread is not meant to be a meal, but a nosh"). Her chapters cover culinary themes such as Dips, Spreads and Relishes, Small Egg Dishes, Finger Foods and Fried Treats, and A Sea's Bounty of Mezethes; dishes range from Fluffy Fish-Roe Dip with Ground Almonds (a variant of the classic taramosalata), to Three-Cheese Phyllo Triangles with Onions and Yogurt, to Marinated Panfried Shrimp in the Shell, to Grilled Greek Meat Patties with Chopped Tomatoes, Spicy Yogurt, and Lemon. (Don't let the long names fool you-these dishes are never difficult to prepare.) These piquant, lively foods are "a savory flirtation," and an array of them on a table is a delightful thing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (June 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688175112
• ISBN-13: 978-0688175115
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #792,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Greek

More About the Author

Diane Kochilas was born in New York City and has divided her time between NY, Athens, and her family's ancestral island, Ikaria, where she and her husband, Vasilis Stenos, run the Glorious Greek Kitchen cooking school. She has written 18 books on Greek cuisine. Her latest book, The Country Cooking of Greece (Chronicle), was hailed by the Virtual Gourmet (John Mariani) as her masterpiece and the best cookbook of 2012. Another tome, the Glorious Foods of Greece (William Morrow), won the prestigious IACP Jane Grigson Award for Excellence in Research.
Diane is consulting chef for two of New York's most highly regarded Greek restaurants, Pylos and Boukiés, as well as for Axia in New Jersey and Avli outside Chicago. She works with Harvard University as well as other top university dining services to help create healthy Greek menu options for the undergraduate student body. Currently, she is hosting her own television show, in Greek, called "What Are We Going to Have for Dinner Tonight, Mom?" which airs in Cyprus and Greece. For 20 years she was the food columnist and "most feared" restaurant critic in Athens Greece, where she worked for the country's largest daily newspaper, Ta Nea.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple Pleasures November 18, 2003

By B. Marold HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Cooking from this book was a great joy after having spent several days with books dealing with French haute cuisine. I heartily recommend this book to just about anyone as a source of tasty, easy, traditional dishes. The only reservations would be to people who may not have the time or inclination to search out some of the speciality ingredients.

Almost all recipes in this book use fewer than 12 ingredients and the technique rarely takes more than four (4) steps, taking no more than a half page of text. This is not exactly quick cooking, although there are a fair number of quick recipes herein. Some recipes do require long marinades, but very few require long cooking. Most heat is from either a quick saute or a grill.

The issues with ingredients, especially for those who like to stay authentic, is probably solved if you live in a large city and there is a Greek or middle eastern grocery available. It is also probably not a big issue if you live near a `megamart' which carries a generous supply of Greek and Turkish staples. Needless to say, even if you live in the sticks, there are internet sources for everything. The most important speciality ingredients are:

Greek feta - There is barrel cured and tin cured. Some recipes recommend one type. Some the other.
Other Greek Cheeses - Popular Italian cheeses like ricotta will substitute for most requirements.
Greek Oregano - Dried
Greek / Eastern Mediterranian yogurt - Fortunately, there is an easy way to make plain yogurt work.
Dried Mint - Yes, dried. Fresh mint is also commonly used.
Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil - `What is grown together goes together'. But Italian or Spanish will work.
Phyllo - Supermarket Phyllo is fine.
Octopus - The national seafood of Greece.
Pastourma - Cured Beef

Once you locate a source, I believe most ingredients such as the Greek olive oil will actually be less expensive than Italian substitutes. Almost all other ingredients such as eggplant, pita, and ouzo are very common everywhere in the country.

Meze, short for mezethes, denotes small dishes served typically at small eateries like `mezethopoleion'; ouzeri, similar to the Italian wine shop; and the tsipouradiko, serving Greek eau-de-vie. The object of these establishments and their meze fare is to offers its patrons a place to eat, drink, and have conversation in the hours between large meals. The author points out that although there is a strong similarity in portion size and preparation similarity to Spanish tapas, the dishes were specifically developed to be eaten only as an accompanyment to drink in the middle of the day, not as a `before the meal' bite to get you started on the main meal of the day. It is much more comparable to bar nuts, pretzels, and pickled eggs on American bars.

All portions are small and most are designed to be eaten with the fingers, bread, or skewer. Chapters in the book cover:

Dips, Spreads, and Relishes; Savory Salads; Small Egg Dishes; Phyllo Pies; Fried Finger Foods; Vegetables and Beans; Seafood; and Meatballs and Kebabs

The author is a recognized authority on Greek food and has a written a widely praised book on general Greek cuisine. The color pictures are decorative, but few. While I found all instructions very simple, the author did occasionally seem a bit opaque. I still don't totally understand her instructions for peeling a roasted eggplant. As Martha Stewart said in one of her book introductions, this book made me want to immediately try many of the dishes. This is a sure symptom that there is good food to be had here.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What Rain? September 1, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Busy with bowls of savory Bread Salad with Watermelon, Feta, and Red Onion and Little Meatballs Stuffed with Olives, thunderstorms couldn't stop us from enjoying the last weekend of Summer. I found numerous recipes in Meze's index calling for different combinations of the just-picked vegetables from my mom's lovingly tended garden. Baby Eggplants with Herbs & Bulgur was the visual star of our Meze-covered table: luxurious eggplants with savory herb-flecked stuffing baked over a rich tomato "sauce" was amazingly simple to make. Author Kochilas demystifies favorite ingredients like thick, creamy Greek-style Tangy Yogurt [with Sauteed Carrots and Mint] by sprinkling Notes on technique throughout her book. It was a spectacular summer feast. And I can't wait til Fall to try the Pumpkin-Cheese Triangles.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Recipes September 23, 2007

By Silicon Valley Geek

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book has some nice twists on traditional Greek dishes. Some of the dishes are easy and some are time consuming, but they all came out great.

I was a little disappointed that they don't have the Greek names of the items - this is clearly a book that is geared for an English-only audience.

Our favorite is the Skewered Ground Lamb Kebabs, which contain cayenne and mint.