Marvellous mezze recipes for September It's September, but I'm pretty sure there are still a few picnic days left. My new flat is tiny and we often decamp to the park next door to eat, so pretty much every meal has become a kind of picnic of late. For me, the ideal light lunch or picnic must include meze, full of strong Middle Eastern flavours. Tabbouleh is a favourite of mine and a standard on the meze table. Below is a pretty classic version, but do feel free to experiment; I always do, adding raw chopped green beans or cauliflower to pep it up. It's a perfect picnic salad too as it benefits from being made in advance, unlike a standard green salad that can come out of its container looking a little worse for wear. Moroccan egg and potato sandwiches might sound a little eccentric, but they are delicious. One of my favourite street foods, they also hold up well over time so they'll still be in tip-top condition if you make them a few hours in advance. I always include an aubergine dip, occasionally adding crushed walnuts, chilli or herbs; this one, baba ghanoush, is the simplest and the best. It's important to cook the aubergine until it's really black; there's almost nothing worse than undercooked aubergine - it doesn't even approach the heights of wonderful, soft, luxurious baba ghanoush if the aubergine is lumpy. I tend to pick up a bit of that Middle Eastern bread that looks like focaccia in my local Middle Eastern shop and take a sample of this glorious paste whenever I can. A picnic becomes a feast if you've made a cake, and my simple cake has an exotic twist to it that makes it a perfect end to this Middle Eastern experience.