Putting together a Festive Hamper

So I love to make my own original hampers for the festive season.

This year, I have chosen a Mediterranean theme. Using Ottolenghi and Tamimi's cookbook titled Jerusalem as a centerpiece, I chose Middle Eastern, Mediterranean & North African ingredients to the mix. After all, this is probably more "christmasy" then snowflakes and santa claus.

I know, you'll say why bother? Well, we've ordered store bought hampers in the past and we feel we're not getting good value items. To fit the budget, many stores give small packaging of nuts, etc. I wanted to give something more substantial than a hamper with some wine, and substandard bag of nuts. 

Here are some tips to putting together an original hamper: 

1/ Try and find a theme. Mine was Middle Eastern Christmas. (What can be more christmas than Jerusalem)?

2/ Try and co-ordinate the colors. I was thrilled to find this gorgeous gold green olive bottle (Kalamata PDO) from world market, which complemented the Moroccan Mint tea packaging. I added the tri-colored couscous, which also worked with the gold and green look. Just add a gold ribbon to the basket. 

3/ Add interesting ingredients: The spice packs from World Market were great little items to throw into the basket. I chose sumac (my fave spice), za'atar and aleppo pepper (all of these spices are used in the Jerusalem cookbook). I also found the Moroccan preserved lemons (better still, make your own home-made version for a personal touch) 

4/ I abstained from using cellophane plastic to wrap the hamper. It's not necessary. There's too much plastic in our oceans already!

5/ As a rule of thumb, fill with 2 or 3 big ticket items and then add smaller items as fillers. Some good big ticket items to put in your hamper: wine, chocolate, olive oil, recipe books, wine gadget,

6/ Some good fillers: small wine apparatus, coasters, spice, honey,

7/ Best to make a theme so your hamper looks "put together" Here are some other ideas for themes: 

- Californian wine hamper (Californian wine, Mcevvoy ranch has a good range of tapenades, olive oil and even salt scrubs, Californian cheese from Cowgirl Creamery) 
- Breakfast hamper (big ticket items like a coffee press, add granolas, jam, honey and coffee powder)
- Italian hamper (gourmet pastas, Italian cheese, ravioli makers, interesting pasta measurers) 
- French dessert hamper (French remekins, champagne, get goodies from Frenchery.com)

So give it a try, make your own original hamper. message me on facebook if you have any questions!