’tis the season for alfresco meals

In Australia, that is, and good weather mostly means BBQs in this land down under. For us, it’s all about fresh plates to share.

The temperatures in Sydney are up and down all the time, but it’s usually up at this time of the year.

When that happens, we tend to move closer to alfresco meals, especially if there is no wind.

Unfortunately, certain suburbs of Sydney suffer from malicious winds, and you need to watch out for those because they can make your outdoor experience an unpleasant one. If you don’t live in Sydney and are watching us from a distance, you’re safe.

Coming from an incredibly hospitable culture, I love having people around. If the weather is nice, we sit outside and have some good food and wine, while I wait to be eaten alive by mosquitoes. They LOVE my exotic blood, by the looks of things.

I do all the cooking, and if the guests prefer, they bring dessert or dessert wine.

I don’t want to brag, but we have friends who previously enjoyed a dinner here or a brunch there at our place, and now they’re inviting themselves and even asking me to cook certain dishes from my repertoire!

I have a long list of guests’ favourites. They’re my entertainment staples that everyone loves. From spicy Asian dishes to Turkish specialities, there is always a crowd-pleasing menu prepared for them.

And don’t they know it!

Anyway, on one of those pleasant-enough days, we had the opportunity to host a friend who’s as vegetarian as we are, at our place, and I decided to keep the menu as Mediterranean as possible.

These are the dishes I made:

Nectarine Salsa and Guacamole

The original recipe uses peaches. However, whenever I go and buy ingredients for this salsa, I choose what’s fresh. As it happens, nectarines are always fresher than peaches. Every. Time.

Stuffed Fresh Figs and Asparagus Cups and Ricotta, Cucumber and Dill on Crackers

I cannot remember how I made the asparagus cups because I certainly improvised on the day and didn’t take any notes. However, I remember cooking asparagus in vegetable stock until it was a mush — a total murder, I know — and adding chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

As for the stuffed figs, I mixed blue cheese with cottage cheese. Some people find blue quite strong. Combining a strong cheese with a milder cheese certainly takes the edge off. I learnt that from a French chef in Melbourne.

Guacamole with Tortilla Chips

Here are some suggestions for your next alfresco meal:

Dips & Dipables
I find that dipping platters are very sociable dishes, bringing all diners at the table together.

Alfresco Meals: Spicy Bean Dip

There is a huge variety of dips you can make. Usually, three dips are enough. Serve your dips with bread, crackers, chips or crudites.

Alfresco Meals: Dukkah

Dukkah is a beautiful spice mixture from Egypt. You can buy it from your spice shop or local supermarket — or make it yourself. All you need is a bowl of olive oil and some dippers. No double dipping, though.

Another dippable is herb-infused olive oil. I grow my own rosemary and use it in good quality olive oil as seen below:

Alfresco Meals: Flavoured Dipping Oil

Canapes
Canapes are so easy to make and filling. Have a look at this one I made for my next-door neighbour a million and a half years ago:

Alfresco Meals: Canape

Here’s how you make these:

Slice a baguette, spread each slice with pesto, and top with sun-dried tomatoes and shaved Parmesan. Easy!

Cooling Salads
When it’s hot, it is not a good idea to have everything cooked or roasted. So, I tend to go for cooling salads to add a little bit of freshness to the table.

What makes salads ‘cooling’?

If you use watermelon, it’s already cooling. Make a watermelon salad, and Bob’s your uncle. For everything else, use yogurt.

Alfresco Meals: Watermelon Salad with feta and Olives.

This is a simple watermelon salad with feta cubes, pumpkin seeds (pepitas), Kalamata olives, and lemon or lime juice. You could add olive oil if you want.

Alfresco Meals: This is my purslane salad with yoghurt. It’s so simple, refreshing and cooling, even with Aleppo pepper on top.

Stuffed Things
I come from Turkiye, so there isn’t much that we don’t ‘stuff’. You pick and choose.

Here’s my stuffed cherry tomatoes. The stuffing requires a bit of soaking time, and the rest is just herby salad with pomegranate molasses.

Alfresco Meals: Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes

Tip for stuffed cherry tomatoes:
Cut the bottoms of cherry tomatoes flat so they will stand stable on a serving plate.
Use a small spoon to remove the juice and seeds, and turn the tomatoes upside down on a cookie rack for extra draining.

Pastry
Böreks, wraps, pin-ups, roll-ups, galettes, and even sliced gözleme are all good candidates for alfresco meals.

Alfresco Meals: My Turkish böreks.

Marinated Olives
Use pitted olives and soak them in warm water to remove excess brine-salt. Make sure that they are well-drained before you marinade them.

Here’s my marinated olives (seen below) with lemon zest, olive oil and lemon juice:

Alfresco Meals: Marinated Olives

Bruschetta
For a classic bruschetta, brush the bread with garlic, mix chopped tomatoes and fresh basil, place them on top of the bread and drizzle with olive oil. That’s it!

Here’s another one:

Alfresco Meals: Bruschetta with Cream Cheese and Homemade Tapenade

This one is a bruschetta with cream cheese and homemade tapenade. Mine does not have anchovies in it, as ours is a vegetarian household.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my suggestions. If there is anything else you can think of, let me know, Peoples!