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Baklava's a great idea! also very tiny pieces of sweet cakes like basbousa and bourma cut into diamond shaped slices served with tea
(don't put any sugar in it,just put in on the table with a nice bowl of sugar cubes and a nice mug with some packs of sweetener-I steal mine from the cafe next door as they look really sweet *no pun intended*)

Gun powder tea is the best for mint tea, add 4-6 mint leaves to a pretty glass along with a tsp of sugar and top up the glass with the fresh brewed tea and leave to infuse for a few minutes, the Moroccans along with most middle eastern countries like their tea and their coffee to be very very sweet, its worth trying the tea a few times times to find out a level of sweetness that you may like.


I spent a few weeks in Jordan a couple of years back and found their coffee (Arabic style), after getting over the language barrier i found out that it is flavoured/brewed with cardamon. The coffee itself is very strong (maybe a bit stronger than espresso)and lots of sugar is added again., its served in espresso style cups, a note though if you do go to Morocco and have arabic coffee DO NOT drink the last mouthful as you will end up with a rather disgusting mouthful of coffee/cardamon grounds!

I have researched and gathered together a range of recipes and have decided that I must make a trip to Morocco especially after watching Nadia cook for Simon Rimmer this morning. The beef tangiers cooked on the bakers floor was amazing as were the spice markets. I was interested to note that in Moroccan cooking the spices are not fried first but all ingredients go into the pot together which I will do next week. If you are all still tuned in to this thread am I right in thinking that I should use gunpowder tea for the mint tea and unlevened bread? Many thanks all. My gastric juices are now in overdrive. What a fabulous cuisine.

Fruit is traditional to finish off a meal like this. We normally do a big plate of melon, bananas, orange pieces and grapes. Serve a bowl of Greek yoghurt and honey along side and that should please the sweet toothed ones.

How about some little baklava's and you could serve some fresh fruit, or you could serve poached pears in honey syrup with a sprinkle of pistachios.
After just looking through an arabic cook book i have seen a very nice sounding pud which is a Saffron and Cardamon creme caramel served with butter cookies. All the puds in this book seem to be fruit based or pastry's soaked in syrup.
Don't forget the most important ending to your meze, fresh brewed mint tea, yum

Hi Old Thatch, hoping you are well.

To follow mezze, I'm thinking poached peaches or apricots with rosewater scented Greek yoghurt with a little honey to sweeten, sprinkled with chopped chopped pistachios and some lavender biscuits?

Or a bit of a cheat... vanilla ice-cream with chopped turkish delight folded through while slightly softened, then topped with chopped pistachios maybe a little mint? Or you could make some pistachio biscuits to accompany. I like the pretty pink and green together. You could garnish with some rose petals from the garden.

Does that get the taste buds going? All the best