Mezze, tapas, muqabbilat, dim sum, hor’devoures, or simply “apps”.
(The 2010 February Daring Bakers 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.)
What ever language you may say this word in, “mezze”, tapas, muqabbilat, dim sum, hor d oeuvres, apps, we are talking about small portions of food eaten before a meal or in place of a meal. Mezze is a selection of Greek and middle-eastern small dishes served in “mezze” portions (like tapas.) Typically a mezze might include things like hummus, baba ganoush, pita, olives, dolmas, maybe some grilled vegetables or a kabob. A mezze table would have several small dishes served all at once. If you love grazing at parties, you will love this style of eating. All kinds of things to nibble on. Try this for your next party, or any get together with friends. Everything can be made in advance, making the party an easy one to put together. All you need to do is open your wine, beer or whatever beverage and enjoy.
My menu for my messe table:
Pita Bread
Hummus
Bacon Wrapped Dates with Blue Cheese
Eggplant Caponata
Spanakopita
Tagine Spiced Grilled Quail
Israeli Cous Cous (I bought this ready made)
Herbed New Potatoes
Chocolava
I love little dishes of foods. Seeing them always reminds of being a kid and putting food in our little plastic play dishes and hooking up our bottled coke to a little toy coke dispenser. My sister (twin) and I use to play restaurant. That’s so fitting since both of us have always loved cooking. We had our own little order pads that we got from our local Ben Franklin 5 and 10 cent store. Can you imagine getting anything for 5 cents these days. That doesn’t even pay the tax. This is the same store we use to buy our painted (live) little chickens at Easter. Couldn’t do that anymore, could we?
So, back to what this challenge is all about, Mezze. We were required for the challenge to make homemade pita bread and hummus and the other things I threw together. Hopefully our friends enjoyed these as much as we did and they were fun to make. I’ve done naan and focaccia bread before but have never tried pita, so this is a first for me. The pita was fun to make and watch puff up in balloons. I will post this recipe soon.
These were great little new potatoes served with Greek Yogurt, salt and pepper.
I’ve been making this Chocolava recipe since the 70’s and it is so delicious. I will post this recipe in a few days.
So without further ado, here is my Mezze selection. I make the required pita bread and hummus but chose some other recipes I have been making for years for the other bites of food.
Hummus
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 c. canned chickpeas save liquid
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 4 Tbsp. tahini
- 2 lemons juiced
- big pinch of salt
- olive oil
- 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- paprika for garnish
Instructions
- Pulse the garlic in a food processor 3 or 4 times or until minced. Add the drained and rinsed chickpeas, lemon juice, red pepper and thin with some of the liquid that you drained off the chickpeas until you get the desired consistency you want. Process until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Pour into serving dish. Make a little well in the center of hummus and pour in the olive oil, sprinkle with paprika and minced rosemary. Insert a few sprigs of rosemary in side of dish for garnish. Serve with pita, sliced cucumber, pimento stuffed olives or crackers. Yield about 2 cups
Herbed New Potatoes with Greek Yogurt
Ingredients
- 1 lb. new potatoes as small and fresh as you can find
- several pinches of Kosher salt
- 2-3 Tbsp. Olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2-3 green onions thinly sliced
- handful of mixed herbs thyme, dill, parsley, cilantro, rosemary or any herbs
- Green yogurt
Instructions
- Place the potatoes, unpeeled in a saucepan with water to cover and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium then cook for 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and leave the potatoes in water another ten minutes or until they are just tender when pierced with sharp knife.
- Drain well, then return potatoes to the pot. Sprinkl with salt and toss over very low heat a minute or two to let the excess moisture evaporate and the salt get slightly crisp on the potatoe skin. A white haze may form on the potato.
- Turn off heat. Toss the potatoees with the olive oil, garlic, green onions and herbs.
- Taste and adjust seasoning. Eat warm or at room tempeature. Dip potateos into the yogurt. Enjoy.
Recipe Notes
Serve potatoes at room temperature with a bowl of Greek yogurt.
5 Comments
LindaMary
February 14, 2010 at 4:39 amYour mezze looks great, not a big fan of baklava but I love the look of your chocolava!
Anula
February 14, 2010 at 8:17 amNice choice of mezze dishes! Everything looks delicious! And that Chocolava… yummy!
Cheers. Anula
Lauren
February 14, 2010 at 11:13 amFantastic mezze dishes! I love the combinations =D.
PixelHazard
February 15, 2010 at 12:50 amWoah, i so wish I had eaten already. Hungry
Michele
February 16, 2010 at 1:49 pmI am so impressed with your meal–it’s just gorgeous. Your food is amazing and your presentation is just stunning. I really like your blog and I love the goat!