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.
This month's challenge from The Daring Kitchen was perhaps favorite so far. And I've said that before, so I am very hopeful and excited that these challenges will just be more exciting and more fun as I continue. We were asked to create mezze - a meal of small plates based on mediterranean cuisine, a sort of tapas to reference a small plate meal that many of us are familiar with in New York City.
The menu was up the cook this month, although I was required to make pita bread and hummus, both from scratch. These were both exciting to me, but most of all was the opportunity to use a cookbook that I received months ago and pored over enthusiastically. That book is Joanne Weir's From Tapas to Meze - it is a journey around the Mediterranean detailing each country or region's small plate meals. I love eating this way and eagerly planned the menu all month.
Since the challenge also coincided with Valentine's Day (and Chinese New Year, but that recipe is to come later this week), I prepared a small mezze for my husband to honor his preference for little fanfare and no gifts for this holiday.
The Mezze Menu
- Pita Bread
- Hummus
- Falafel
- Cucumber and Yogurt Salad
- Tomato, Preserved Lemon and Red Onion Salad
It took me hours to prepare this feast which, in the end, was beautiful because it was simple and healthful and a labor of love. I started with the sponge for the pita bread, mixing yeast and warm water and flour to get the chemistry started. I have previously complained about my impatience and lack of typical success in baking. Bread, however, has been kinder to me and I went forth excited and optimistically anxious.
As my sponge rested, I started the hummus using the recipe provided for us in the challenge (pita and hummus recipes below). Since the flavor of the hummus was again up to the cook, I decided to go with a spicy roasted garlic hummus - a homemade version of the one that I always picked up in the store. I had roasted a head of garlic earlier in the day and proceeded to add about 8 cloves of the roasted garlic to my chick peas.
Our hummus recipe encouraged us to experiment with nut butters as a replacement for tahini if we wished. I'm not opposed to tahini and had even bought a monstrous container of it (since with the snowstorm and a busy week, FreshDirect's 16 ounce jar was the lazy cook's choice - I do know that Sahadi's is a stone's throw away and I'm slightly ashamed). This little note about experimentation, however, got my wheelings turning. I've been turned onto sunflower seed butter and had just enough left in my jar to use in the hummus.
To the mix of chick peas, roasted garlic and sunflower seed butter, I also added a couple of dashes of paprika and one quick hit of cayenne for some added heat. The rest of the recipe was left intact. The verdict: The flavors were nice and measured, ones that I knew would work well with the chick peas. The sunflower seed butter, however, added a density and strong flavor that overwhelmed my other ingredients at times. I'm not sure how others faired with other substitutions, but I think tahini may be really the best choice if you want hummus. If you want a chick pea-sunflower seed spread, it was very interesting, indeed.
I also made the two salads and falafel during this time, but in the interest of keeping things a bit shorter and sweeter than they could be, expect recipes to follow in my week of mezze posts.
With the hummus chilling, I moved on to my pita sponge. I added salt and olive oil, and then more flour. My 
dough required a considerable amount of additional flour to get the right consistency. Then came the fun part, some fervent kneading and another rest of about an hour and a half.
Once the dough had gorgeously doubled in size (I really need to make yeast breads more often - it's so fun to watch the science actually work!), I punched it down and separated the dough into two halves, and then eight portions again for each half. Each portion was flattened into a disc and rolled out into a pita-ish shape. I found that these shapes were very elastic which, to me, was a sign of a good dough, but also meant that the 8-9 inch discs did shrink as they rested under a towel into interesting shapes.
I turned my oven into a pita-making machine - removing all the racks except the bottom one which held my beloved pizza stone. At 450F, the oven evoked a mediterranean climate for me which gave me high hopes 
for the pita bread experiment. In they went, four at a time. I found that it took a lot longer than the 2-3 minutes for the pitas to brown and blow up, but they actually did blow up (some did at least). And even the ones that didn't blow up tasted great as promised and still had the signature pockets inside. More magical science at work!
It was a lovely feast with lots of leftover bread which has been serving us well as side dishes for all manner of meals. I don't know when I'll have the time to have an all day pita-making experience again, but I will. The taste of fresh pita out of the oven is not to be missed!
Pita Bread – Recipe adapted from Flatbreads & Flavors by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Prep time: 20 minutes to make, 90 minutes to rise and about 45 minutes to cook
2 teaspoons regular dry yeast (.43 ounces/12.1 grams)
2.5 cups lukewarm water (21 ounces/591 grams)
5-6 cups all-purpose flour (or more, as needed) (may use a combination of 50% whole wheat and 50% all-purpose, or a combination of alternative flours for gluten free pita) (17.5 -21 ounces/497-596 grams)
1 tablespoon table salt (.50 ounces/15 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (.95 ounces/29 ml)
Directions:
1. In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, and then stir 100 times, about 1 minute, in the same direction to activate the gluten. Let this sponge rest for at least 10 minutes, or as long as 2 hours.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Rinse out the bowl, dry, and lightly oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until at least doubled in size, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
3. Place a pizza stone, or two small baking sheets, on the bottom rack of your oven, leaving a 1-inch gap all around between the stone or sheets and the oven walls to allow heat to circulate. Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).
4. Gently punch down the dough. Divide the dough in half, and then set half aside, covered, while you work with the rest. Divide the other half into 8 equal pieces and flatten each piece with lightly floured hands. Roll out each piece to a circle 8 to 9 inches in diameter and less than 1/4 inch thick. Keep the rolled-out breads covered until ready to bake, but do not stack.
5. Place 2 breads, or more if your oven is large enough, on the stone or baking sheets, and bake for 2 to 3 minutes, or until each bread has gone into a full balloon. If for some reason your bread doesn't puff up, don't worry it should still taste delicious. Wrap the baked breads together in a large kitchen towel to keep them warm and soft while you bake the remaining rolled-out breads. Then repeat with the rest of the dough.
Hummus – Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.
1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
additional flavorings (optional) I would use about 1/3 cup or a few ounces to start, and add more to taste
Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.
Monday, March 8, 2010 at 5:22PM 
One cold rainy afternoon, I sat by the window contemplating snack time. The weather was terrible and there would be no leaving for a quick bite or missing ingredients. I had also been emptying the freezer and reviewing the contents, so I knew that I had four frozen bananas (Starting to turn brown? Pop them in a freezer bag and into the freezer. The skin turns dark, but the bananas stay fresh!) that I wanted to use up.
