Mediterranean Mezze Platter from the Tomb Raider Cookbook

After the Coconut Prawn Curry, I made the Tomb Raider Cookbook's Mediterranean Mezze Platter. It's actually a recipe for three dips to be included as part of a platter of vegetables, pita bread, olives and anything else you fancy. The dips are Tzatziki, Hummus, and Tyrokafteri. I am very familiar with the former two, having made and bought them from a store all my life, while Tyrokafteri was new to me. For the uninitiated, it's a spicy feta dip or spread. As for mezze platters, they're the Mediterranean equivalent of Spanish tapas or American appetizer platters. You get a little bit of everything.

Lara Croft has visited the Mediterranean numerous times. In Tomb Raider: Underworld, she dives into the ocean and comes upon abandoned Norse ruins now inhabited by sharks, and a blind kraken ("Underpus" as the fans call it), which she has to kill by solving a puzzle. After retrieving one of Thor's Gauntlets, mercenaries take it from her and she has to chase them down, destroying a large maritime ship in the process. Lara also visits the Med in an episode of Re/Visioned: Tomb Raider (in which she explores the fictional underwater city of Thaumopolis), and in the Top Cow comic series (where she meets up with a contact who tells her of a mask with the gaze of death).

Like most of the dishes in this cookbook, it's inspired by Lara's travels rather than directly based on something eaten in the franchise. Although, at least one real life Lara Croft, Alicia Vikander, consumed artichoke hummus among other healthy dishes to bulk up for her role as the aspiring archaeologist in the 2018 Tomb Raider movie.

I decided to make an evening out of the Mezze Platter with two friends (and readers of Ate Bit Culinarian *wink*), after which we'd enjoy a cake themed around The Queen's Gambit (to be discussed in a future post) and watch Shazam! Fury of the Gods. I made all three dips the day ahead of time for maximum flavor and low stress. None were complicated in the slightest.

First, the Tzatziki. In my household, we usually buy this rather than make it ourselves, but when you do make it from scratch, you can make it so much stronger or sharper than certain brands. I once made it without draining the cucumber (not knowing I had to) and it was effectively soup. This recipe takes it a step further by having you peel and seed the cucumber, then shred and ring it out. A lot of the water is in the seeds.

Next came the Hummus. I've grown up eating this, and we like it made a certain way. We also despise Sabra, so if we're going to buy hummus there are a few local brands we like, along with Fontaine Santé, which you can get at Costco. The majority of the time, we make it ourselves, and there are rarely any leftovers. I deviated from following the recipe in the book for this. It calls for 1/3 cup of tahini and adding ground cumin. My family has never liked as much tahini, and as such I cut it down to two spoonfuls.

As for cumin, that's a non-starter in our household. I once made a batch of hummus for my dad and snuck some cumin in to see if he'd notice. He noticed. Without missing a beat, he asked, with obvious disappointment in his voice, "You put cumin in this, didn't you?" On a trip to Boston, we ate hummus as an appetizer, and all we could taste was cumin. The only time I like to have cumin in any hummus is if it's made without chickpeas, like with beets or edamame. I think it works there, but only there. Moving on...

The last dip was Tyrokafteri, which I was unfamiliar with, but I absolutely want to make again. I used a mixture of crumbly and soft feta for a contrast of textures, some firm pieces while the rest mixed in with the yogurt that binds this dip. I didn't have a red chili pepper as the recipe asks for, but I had paste, so I used a teaspoon of that and some chili flakes, then allowed it to set to determine how hot it would really be. It wasn't very hot, but enough to get you a little warm.

Alongside the dips, I made a batch of zucchini feta fritters, a staple side dish in our household, the day before serving. On the day I had my dinner party, I topped the Tzatziki with dill and cracked black pepper, the Hummus with olive oil, paprika and some pine nuts dry fried right out of the freezer, and the Tyrokafteri with olive oil and parsley. I served the dips with the fritters, pita crackers, large Greek pita triangles, a yellow pepper, celery rib, a partial head of raw broccoli (one of my guests likes that) and baby carrots. Lastly, I cooked some mini shrimp that I'd marinated in olive oil, garlic and paprika, in a 350 oven for 7 minutes.

On the whole, this platter was delicious! It really hit the spot and gave me a taste of the Mediterranean Sea. I will absolutely be making these dips again and using them for anything, and hopefully one day I can visit the real Mediterranean to eat authentic versions of each dip.

If you want to make this recipe for Mediterranean Mezze Platter yourself, you can find it in Tomb Raider: The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide. The recipe I used for the zucchini fritters came from Cooking LSL.