February 2010 Daring Cooks' Challenge: MEZZE

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford, and Naomi Dugid.

Mezze, huh? A Mediterranean shmorgas board--awesome! The only two requirements for this challenge included making the pita bread and the hummus. After which, other Mediterranean-style dishes could be included to build a full mezze. I decided to create a Greek-style mezze adding gyro steak meat, tzatziki sauce, olives, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and spinach to the mix. I also included the Mediterranean rice dish, Dolmades. The end result was decent, but next time I will beef up the flavor (or not have a cold...). However, my dinner guests raved, and I received more than one marriage proposal. Too bad I am not in love with any of them, apparently mezze is the way to a man's heart.

Furthermore, Mezze looks impressive but is quite simple to make. Nice, right? Using a food processor (Thanks E), the hummus was a smooth, perfect texture. A nice change from my prior attempts without a food processor. The pitas were fantastic--much, much too salty, but the dough formed so nicely. It puffed up in the oven and tasted like pita bread... success! Timing was tricky, but only because I was a pita newbie trying to multi-task--setting the table, dicing tomatoes, and making pitas, et cetera all at once.

In the end, I believe this is one Daring Cooks challenge I will repeat. Besides, who doesn't love hummus!? Or Greek food? OPA!

If you are interested, here are links to the recipes:

Hummus and Pita Bread (also includes some other Mediterranean dishes)

Tzatziki Sauce

Dolmades