Sunday, February 14, 2010

Daring Cooks Challenge for February -- Mezze



(Preserved lemons, olives stuffed with feta, cucumbers, zooloobia, vanilla halvah, black runner beans in olive oil and lemon, marinated cauliflower topped with bread crumbs, carrots and zucchini topped with zaatar, pita, sesame flatbread, ajvar, olive oil, ackawi cheese, dukkah, walnuts, pistachios, raita with pomegranate syrup, sweet lemons, hummus)










As-Salamu Alaykum!

This month's Daring Cooks challenge is hosted by me, and how cool is that.

The challenge is to prepare a Mezze Table including, but not limited to, homemade Pita bread and Hummus. If you’re not familiar with mezze, it’s more of a style of eating than a specific recipe or recipes. Mezze is a bunch of small dishes served all at once—sort of like the Middle Eastern version of Spanish Tapas. It can be served as appetizers before a meal, or as the meal itself.

I love the idea of mezze because, at least for me, it’s fun to eat that way--taking a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It’s also a fantastic way to share a meal with family and friends. I tried to pick a challenge that would accommodate everyone—vegans, meat eaters, gluten free cooks; and I think that having a selection of recipes to choose from will give you a chance to let your creativity shine.

The recipe requirements were making pita bread from scratch, and also hummus. If you can‘t eat wheat you can make the pita with an alternative flour. The trick to mezze is having a bunch of dishes that are easy to pick up and to eat with bread, and that all feature Middle Eastern flavors.

A simple mezze meal could be something like pita bread, hummus, olives, roasted almonds, and some feta cheese. If you want to be more elaborate you can add salads, other dips, cooked beans, roasted meat or fish, a variety of flatbreads, and on and on. The presentation is important as you want your mezze table to be just as appealing to the eye as it is to the stomach. I know that eating this way isn’t second nature to most people, but it can be a fun way to share a meal with those close to you.

This is the link to the recipes. The two desserts--zooloobia and halvah, I bought at the store.

I really want to thank Ivonne and Lisa for giving me the opportunity to host the challenge, and big kudos to all the very daring cooks that participated in the challenge. You'll be bowled over by their creativity and their gorgeous food. Please visit The Daring Kitchen to see all the amazing versions of mezze, and take the opportunity to discover the wonderful bloggers (and non-bloggers) that cooked along with me this month.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

46 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for hosting! This was a great challenge to do for everyone because there was tons of freedom to play with all of the side dishes and I think everyone agrees that the pita recipe you provided was awesome. Sometime when I am not also cooking for my gluten free husband I will have to try it exactly how it is written without modifications.

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  2. Thanks for hosting this months challenge! It was certainly fun and although I have had Pita many times, it was the first time I had heard of Mezze - so thanks for introducing me to that! Thanks to you I can now claim to being able to make my own Pita! Great Challenge and thanks once again. Happy Valentines day too!

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  3. Thanks so much for hosting this wonderfull challenge! It was so delicious and I was surprised how easy baking pitabread was. I had a wonderfull time preparing and eating it!
    Thanks so much michelle.

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  4. Thanks so much for this month's challenge. I absolutely had fun.

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  5. Wow, Michele.You came up with a very interesting challenge. What a beautiful, delicious looking table of food! I love your tablecloth. Hope you and ave have a fantastic Valentine's Day. Peace and Love, Stephanie

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  6. Thanks for hosting a really fun and delicious challenge. I really enjoyed it and will surely make homemade pitas and hummus again!

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  7. Thanks for hosting this month's DC challenge it was such an eye-opening experience for me. I just love the bell peppers/walnut/pomergrante dip a wonderful discovery. And your extra recipes are so delicious I especially like the pea patties great work. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

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  8. Thanks for a great challenge! The whole family loved it, I wish I had made more recipes to go with it, but alas I think it may have been to much if I did :)

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  9. thank you for this amazing challenge. we had fun and delicious food.
    your version looks divine.

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  10. Thanks for this challenge Michele it was really fun! I had never made pita before and loved it, although I did think the hummus was a bit too lemony, but I changed it slightly to be a little less sour... Thanks for hosting this!

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  11. Thanks for a fun challenge. Pita bread was on my list of things to try and your friendly "nudge" was just what I needed.

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  12. Thank you so much for such an awesome challenge. I learned so much and will definitely be keeping some of these recipes to make over and over!
    Happy Valentine's Day!

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  13. Thanks, Michele!!!

    I really loved this challenge!!! Mmmm, I'm inspired for lots more cooking!!! :)

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  14. Congrats on hosting! You did such a phenomenal job =D.

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  15. Thanks for this challenge! Really enjoyed it!

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  16. Thanks so much for a fun and delicious challenge, Michelle! Your mezze so inspired me..it looks wonderful!

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  17. Thanks so much for this post. It was amazing! I really enjoyed the pita bread in particular. Dinner brought back many wonderful memories of our trip to Greece and Turkey last fall.

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  18. What a fantastic challenge! I've made hummus and pita before - and absolutely love them. Your selection is outrageous!

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  19. Thank you for hosting! Mezze was a great idea for a challenge. :)

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  20. I have just found your blog.... I LOVE it!

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  21. What a spread you prepared (love the tablecloth) and thank you for making this challenge so awesome. Its food I already love and eat but I would never thought about making it myself.

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  22. Thanks so much Michelle for this wonderful challenge..... it is an eye opener experience!

    Btw, I was just curious how to keep the pita bread soft? I baked mine at 260C much longer than 3 minutes, maybe around 5-7 in order to get the golden color. And it turned out crispy at the beginning, but after one day it is just hard.. How do you resolve this? How is the right result?

    Sawadee from Bangkok,
    Kris

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  23. thank you for this wonderful challenge!

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  24. This was a great challenge. Much to my shock, my meat eating husband loved everything, and didn't miss the meat at all!

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  25. Your mezze spread looks great - thanks for hosting this fun and tasty challenge. The pita bread recipe is definintely a keeper - and I don't think we'll be buying hummus from now on either!

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  26. Michele, thank you so much for this challenge! I really loved it, and I appreciated the freedom you gave us, as well as all the extra recipes! It was a seriously good dinner!

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  27. Cheers for hosting - what a brilliant challenge! Nom nom nom :)

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  28. I ♥d this challenge - the variety, the flavours and my non-ballooning pitas too were delish! Thanks for hosting and a great choice

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  29. We were so excited when you announced the challenge, and we have been eating pita and hummus all month (quite literally, as it's cheap, nutritious and divine!). I learned a TON this month, and I'll probably spend a good chunk of the year reading and trying DC recipes! Thank you for a wonderful experience. :)

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  30. All of your dishes look wonderful, and I love the tablecloth! I can never get enough pita and hummus - next time I make it, I need to make a few more dishes too and make a dinner out of it.

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  31. Kudos to you! I love all the challenges we have had but this by far was my fave. Not only did i learn a lot of middle eastern dishes, i got to learn some of their customs and traditions while researching for new mezze recipes.
    The pita was great, i'm bake challenged, i don't know but anything w/ yeast just intimidates me, thought i'd mess up this recipe but followed it to a tee and i was tickled pink looking at the pitas ballooned=;) This recipe is a keeper. Oh, my husband asked me if i'm mezzed out yet...but as i'm looking through the rest of the blogs...i'm listing more mezze recipes to try! ha!ha!ha!

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  32. Thank you again for hosting such a great challenge. thought it was fun to be able to choose our own plates. I loved what you made for your table. The pita bread looks so soft and chewy. See you next month!

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  33. Thanks for the great challenge!! It was so much fun and I learned sooooo much!
    BEST challenge EVER!

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  34. Once again, thanks so much for hosting this challenge, michele! I love the fact that we had multiple dishes to do, Mezze was definitely a great challenge!

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  35. Thank you so much for the great challenge,I'd been thinking about cooking a mezze for so long and you finally got me to do it!! The pita bread turned out so well, I'll no longer be buying it! I froze a few individual batches of it :-)

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  36. This was a wonderful challenge for my first one - so much flexibility and so much fun.

    And I'm so impressed by your pitas, they look amazing. :)

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  37. Thank you Michele for hosting a wonderful first challenge for me. It was so much fun!

    And thank you for your wonderful comment on my blog *hugs*

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  38. wow Michele, thanks for hosting the challenge. I've always loved middle-eastern food, so this was super fun :) btw do you have any tips for keeping the pita fresh, it seems to harden quite fast?

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  39. What a fabulous challenge, Michele. I could so dig into that feast - I love Middle Eastern food. Your spread is so enticing!

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  40. This is exactly the kind of inclusive and creative challenge I look forward to every month. Your recipes for pita, hummus, and the falafel, turned out perfectly and exactly like what I have been looking for. Thank you again for such a wonderful challenge.

    PS I will be enjoying my jar of lemons for many meals to come.

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  41. This was a great challenge - good job! Loved to do something a bit outside of the norm for our household!

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  42. Hi Michele! Thanks for the comments and for hosting such a wonderful challenge! From start to finish I had a blast with it, and it was a lot of fun to try something new.

    We will be eating a lot more Mezze meals at our house in the future. Thanks again :)

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  43. Thanks for the great challenge, really enjoyed it.

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  44. Thank you for all the fabulous comments! Hosting the Daring Kitchen was so much fun!

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  45. Thank you for hosting the Daring Cooks' Mezze Challenge. I enjoyed trying the new recipes and making my own hummus. Fun stuff!

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