Makali: fried vegetables for your Levantine mezze
I've already mentioned a few times that people in the Levant are crazy about fries, right? But it doesn't stop at fried potatoes. In general, people in the Levant love fried vegetables of all kinds. So it's not surprising that you'll always find makali on a well-set mezze. This is a Levantine tradition.
With every good mezze there is also makali
Translated from Arabic, makali simply means "deep-fried". This usually means mixed deep-fried vegetables. And what exactly you want to deep-fry is up to you. Here are a few classic examples:
- Cauliflower
- Aubergine
- Onions
- Courgette
- Potatoes
Feast as you please
Makali is served as part of a mezze. This means that several small items are placed on the table and you just eat your way through the whole programme to your heart's content. Personally, I absolutely love rolling the fried vegetables in a piece of pita bread with some salt, mint and tahini sauce and then enjoying it as a wrap or smaller bite.
On Makali, I recommend:
- Pita bread
- Olives
- Mint
- Flat leaf parsley
- Tahini sauce
- Lemon
- Falafel
- Labneh
I love mezze and I love makali. It's simply wonderful to sit and feast with friends. Here a falafel with aubergine, there pita bread with a little cauliflower dipped in cream cheese, in between a sweet fried onion with a little mint and a pinch of salt. Of course, deep-frying the vegetables doesn't necessarily make them diet food, but it does add delicious roasted aromas and flavour. I just can't get enough of makali. Not least because of this, friends have compared me to the seagulls from Finding Nemo and have affectionately given me the name "Lebanese Gull"... Well - as you can see, there are many possible combinations. What are you waiting for? Try it out!
Recipe for Makali
Ingredients
- 1 L Rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 1 Cauliflower
- 3 Potatoes
- 1 Zucchini
- 1 Eggplant
- Salt
Preparation
- Wash the cauliflower and separate individual florets.
- Peel the potatoes and cut into thin slices.
- Cut off the stalk of the courgettes. Cut the courgettes lengthwise into slices.
- Cut off the stalk of the aubergine and slice the aubergine. Then lightly salt the cut surfaces of the aubergine and leave for about 5 minutes. The aubergine will let out a little water. Then dab off this water with kitchen paper.
- Heat the oil in a pan or deep frying pan to approx. 170 °C and deep-fry the vegetables for approx. 5 minutes, turning each time. Then drain the vegetables on kitchen paper and salt lightly.
- Serve Makali with pita bread, tahini sauce, fresh mint, parsley, olives, etc.
