Project Food Blog: Challenge 2

Hi guys!

Man, what a crazy week/weekend we had! We spent the weekend in San Diego and got home barely in time to create our take on a classic dish from another culture. Finally we are home and the meal is DELICIOUS! The smell alone is making me excited. I love when our apartment is filled with delicious smells.

Originally, I was thinking about making saag paneer. Saag paneer is one of my favorite meals and we had a ton of spinach in the fridge. I loved cooked spinach. Seriously LOVE. It's almost a problem. But when Andy suggested greek food...the wheels in my brain started to turn.

Greek food is delicious, but it's something I've never tried making on my own before. We got to researching and discovered, meze.

Meze is a selection of small dishes. Think small appetizers, dips, fresh veggies and finger foods. It's big in the Mediterranean and Middle East. You may have also seen the word, "mezethes." (pronounced meh-ZEH-thes) The word actually came from Turkey. My sister's boyfriend is Turkish so I texted my sister for some ideas.

I loved the idea of a little appetizer meal. We both talked about how much we loved dining in Europe. People go out together in big groups to break bread, wine, dine and talk. It's not rushed, it's not hurried. People are simply enjoying each other's company. And they share their food. No concerns about germs or double-dipping.

That's what we wanted with this meal. We are tired, we need to relax and we need to watch DEXTER. Meze and Dexter sounded fabulous.

For our first dish, I went with Melitzanosalata. Melitzanosalata is similar to baba ghanoush.



First I got out an eggplant. Eggplant is a wonderful vegetable. I love the color, the texture and the taste once it's roasted.



I cut the eggplant into four equal parts and roasted them until the skins were almost black. The more charred, the more flavor. (Well maybe not too much char. Ha)

After charring the eggplant we peeled off the skin and cut it in to chunks. The chunks were transported into the food processor with 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, lots of black pepper, cumin, corinder, and lemon pepper.

I tasted the dip afterwards and figured it needed a little something-something. I added in some roasted red peppers.



This dip WAS amazing! Amazing! It has this distinct smoky flavor and the bam from the spices. WOW! We could not stop eating it.



Next I made tzatziki sauce. Tzatziki is yogurt mixed with cucumber and herbs. I made it with plain greek yogurt which made it thicker and more delicious.



I used 2% Fage because I knew the dip would taste even better with a little fat and creaminess.



I de-seeded and peeled the cucumbers before adding them to the food processor.



After the flavored melded together in the fridge, we dug in. The cool cucumbers mixed with the creamy, thick yogurt and the fresh dill tasted better than any tzatziki I've ever had. I can't believe we never tried to make this before.

The next dish we made was spanokopita.



I used a pound of spinach in this.



It was the first time I used phyllo dough also. I was a little nervous about making handheld spanokopita so instead I made a spinach pie.



The spinach was cooked with scallions, parsley, black pepper, ricotta cheese, feta cheese and a little dill.



It fluffed up nicely. The flaky phyllo dough was brushed with butter to make it extra delicious.



We also ate some marinated olives with feta to round out the meze.





MMM beautiful. I love olives but they are so salty. I rarely have them but when I do...mmmmmmmm. Andy doesn't like olives at all.



We had plenty of pita bread to use for the dips. This was a delicious meal after a busy weekend. We loved the variety of flavors. The eggplant dip was completely new to us and it's something we'll be making again and again. Whether we go to the next round or not, we had a blast making, eating and sharing this meal with you. I wish you could have tasted it.

Thanks for considering us.

Amanda & Andy