Rev up those palates

BIG, crisp flatbread fragrant with warm spices. A trio of fabulous dips -- fresh fava “hummus” garnished with a dollop of Lebanese yogurt and sprinkled with sumac; a rich, ripe-flavored cherry tomato confit; smoky-tasting baba ghanouj topped with spicy harissa. A whole new world of flavor has just opened up. It’s enough to make you forget bread and olive oil.

Rather than something just to hold you over until the first course, fantastic flatbreads -- brightly seasoned and richly textured -- are raising the bar for restaurant bread. Appearing on menus from downtown to the Westside, these flatbreads are showpieces flavored with intriguing spices and herbs, served hot from the oven with a bubbly crust or crispy edges.

Even better , they often come with an array of dips and sides. Why did we settle for white bean puree for so long?

And best of all, these flatbreads and their snazzy sides are great to make at home, where they mix and match marvelously.

Lucques and A.O.C. chef Suzanne Goin is a big fan of flatbread. “I love it as the bread for scooping up purees and messy salads,” she says. At Lucques, Goin recently served up a fabulous harissa-spiced lamb tartare with a stack of grilled cumin flatbreads. She also likes to use the grilled bread with a meze plate. Her small, round flatbreads are just crisp enough on the outside, then give way to tenderness.

Goin makes her flatbreads with a simple leavened dough that she also uses for grilled pizzas. Seasoned liberally with cumin and coriander, fresh mint and parsley, the breads are cooked on the floor of Lucques’ pizza oven -- though you can do this at home easily in a very hot cast-iron pan.

“I like that rustic look and the different textures that result,” Goin says, also noting that the North African flavors seemed to make a flatbread just “the right vehicle to eat on.”

Flatbreads also are turning up at downtown’s recently opened Tiara Cafe, where chef Fred Eric offers a fabulous “bubble bread” with an array of Middle Eastern-inspired dips. His bread is flatter than Goin’s, with huge, crisped air pockets -- the bubbles that give it its name -- that are the product of intense heat on the thinly rolled dough. The crunchy bread is the perfect medium for the dips that accompany it, such as that fava bean hummus , baba ghanouj with harissa, and cherry tomato confit.

At Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City, chef Ben Ford is so taken with flatbreads that he has three of them on his menu. “What I like about flatbreads is the flexibility,” says Ford, noting that he chose them instead of pizza because people have more specific expectations of pizza. “If I’m going to be innovative,” he says, “I don’t want to be in the same sentence as Wolfgang Puck.”

To keep the breads thin, Ford proofs the dough very slowly, then bakes them twice, first for a few minutes plain, then again after topping them. Ford’s flatbreads are thin and crisp, more like a cracker than a pizza -- and nobody’s missing the pepperoni either. They’re topped with duck confit and candied leeks, or four cheeses and fresh tomatoes and oregano -- or his fabulous white shrimp and white bean hummus.

Variations

BUT if you don’t have the time to make a risen dough, use kitchen scissors to cut store-bought lavash triangles, and crisp it in a 350 degree oven. Stack them into an arrangement Frank Gehry would approve of -- and pair them with whatever snazzy dip or sauce you have on hand. You might take a cue from Citron, the restaurant in the Viceroy hotel in Palm Springs. Slice roasted, peeled red and yellow peppers into a thick julienne, marinate them overnight in lemon-infused olive oil, add halved cherry tomatoes, halved kalamata olives and cubes of good feta, then drizzle on a little more lemon oil and minced chives. Serve it with the oven-crisped lavash and some hummus.

Or mix it up, serving other dips. The possibilities are endless.

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Lamb tartare with fried chickpeas, oil-cured olives and cumin flatbread

Total time: 1 hour, plus 1 hour, 25 minutes rising time

Servings: 6

Note: From Suzanne Goin of Lucques. To save time, make the harissa while the flatbreads rise.

Cumin flatbread

1 tablespoon dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup lukewarm water

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

2 teaspoons crushed, toasted coriander seeds

2 teaspoons crushed, toasted cumin seeds

1 tablespoon sliced mint

1 tablespoon sliced parsley

1. In a mixer bowl, combine the yeast, sugar and water and let proof in a warm place, about 10 minutes.

2. In a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the yeast mixture and turn the mixer on to the lowest speed. Gradually add the flour and mix until the dough comes together in a ball. Do not over-mix.

3. Place the dough in a bowl and brush on a little oil. Cover and let the dough rise until double its size. Punch down the dough and let it rise again.

4. Cut the dough into 12 to 14 portions. Shape into small, round flatbreads with your fingers and season with the remaining olive oil, coriander, cumin, mint and parsley. Let the flatbreads rise for 10 minutes and then grill (or cook in a cast-iron skillet) over high heat on both sides until crisp and cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Harissa

6 ancho chiles, seeded,

membranes removed

1/2 cup San Marzano diced canned tomatoes

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 cup toasted cumin seeds

Large pinch cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon sherry vinegar

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 lemon

1. Heat a large saute pan over high heat for 1 minute. Add the chiles and toast until they are blistered and slightly darkened. Place the chiles in a bowl and cover with very hot water. Let them sit, covered, for 15 minutes.

2. Return the pan to the stove and add the tomatoes. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until the juices reduce and the tomato is slightly darkened.

3. Drain the chiles well and place them in a food processor with the tomatoes, garlic, paprika, cumin, cayenne, vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. Puree until well combined. With the motor running, slowly pour in the olive oil and blend until incorporated. Season with a generous squeeze of lemon juice and more salt if desired. Yields 1 1/4 cups.

Lamb tartare and assembly

12 ounces trimmed lamb sirloin, finely chopped by hand

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons diced shallots

1/4 teaspoon, heaping, ground toasted cumin

2 tablespoons harissa, divided

2 tablespoons chopped parsley, plus 3 tablespoons sliced parsley

2 teaspoons chopped mint, plus 1 tablespoon sliced mint

4 tablespoons extra virgin

olive oil, divided

1 cup cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup pitted oil-cured olives, sliced

1/2 lemon

Cumin flatbread

Kosher salt

1. Place the lamb in a bowl and season with one-fourth teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Add the shallots, cumin and 1 tablespoon harissa. Stir well to combine. Taste for balance and seasoning. Stir in the chopped parsley and mint. Chill until ready to serve.

2. Pour 2 tablespoons olive oil into a medium pan and heat 2 minutes, until very hot. Add the chickpeas and fry them 4 to 5 minutes, shaking the pan often, until they are crisp. Drain on paper towels and season with a few pinches of salt and some pepper.

3. Divide the lamb into 6 portions. Using the back of a spoon, press each portion into a 2 1/4 -inch ring mold set on a large plate.

4. Toss the olives and chickpeas in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of black pepper. Gently toss in the sliced parsley and mint and scatter the mixture over one side of the tartare and onto each plate. Dollop about 1/2 teaspoon harissa on the other side. Serve with the cumin flatbread.

Each serving: 637 calories; 22 grams protein; 70 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams fiber; 31 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 32 mg. cholesterol; 796 mg. sodium.

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Bubble bread

Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, plus 45 minutes rising time

Servings: 16

Note: Adapted from Tiara Cafe. The restaurant uses Caputo brand 00 pizza flour. Caputo or other brands of 00 pizza flour can be purchased at Surfas in Culver City and many Italian markets.

1 ( 1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus 1/4 cup for brushing the dough and flatbreads

5 cups pizza flour, plus extra for flouring the board

1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus

2 teaspoons for sprinkling on the flatbreads

1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves

1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder

1. In the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment, mix three-fourths cup warm water, yeast and sugar, and let the mixture activate for 10 minutes.

2. Add 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 cup flour and 1 tablespoon salt and mix slowly on low speed. Gradually add remaining flour and mix on low-medium speed for about 10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and smooth.

3. Turn the dough out into a greased bowl, brush with some olive oil and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes. Punch down, divide into 16 portions and roll into rounds. Place them on parchment paper on the counter, brush with a little olive oil and keep covered with plastic wrap.

4. Put a large thin-bottomed baking sheet or pizza stone in the middle of the oven and heat to 500 degrees. On a floured surface (still using the pizza flour) roll out a round of dough with a rolling pin, very thinly to about 8 inches by 15 inches. Transfer the dough to another baking sheet and gently transfer the dough again to the hot baking sheet or stone in the oven. Brush very lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with cilantro, curry powder and the remaining salt.

5. Bake the flatbreads until golden and bubbly, about 3 to 4 minutes if using a pizza stone and 4 to 5 minutes if using a baking sheet. Remove and cool on a cookie rack. Repeat to make 16 flatbreads.

Each serving: 195 calories; 5 grams protein; 32 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 5 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 352 mg. sodium.

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Fava bean hummus

Total time: 20 to 25 minutes, plus chilling time

Servings: 12

Note: From Tiara Cafe

1 1/2 pounds fava beans

2 tablespoons tahini

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 medium clove garlic, smashed to a paste

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1/8 teaspoon sumac

1. Remove the fava beans from their pods, then shuck the beans and blanch them in salted, boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes. Shock the beans in an ice bath to cool, then peel.

2. In a food processor, blend the favas with the tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic until smooth.

3. Spoon into a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate; allow a few hours for the garlic to permeate the hummus. Let the hummus warm up to room temperature before serving.

4. Spoon into ramekins and top with Greek yogurt and a pinch of sumac.

Each serving of 2 tablespoons: 127 calories; 5 grams protein; 11 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 9 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 1 mg. cholesterol; 260 mg. sodium.

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Cherry tomato confit

Total time: 20 minutes, plus cooling time

Serves: 16

Note: From Tiara Cafe

1 pint cherry tomatoes

2 garlic cloves, crushed

6 thyme sprigs

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 1/2 cups olive oil

Place the tomatoes, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper in a 9-inch skillet and pour the olive oil over the top. Bring to a gentle simmer on low heat. Simmer for 15 minutes until the tomatoes start to soften and the skin splits. Remove from the heat and cool in the oil. Serve the tomatoes with the oil.

Each serving of 2 tablespoons: 184 calories; 0 protein; 1 gram carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 20 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 72 mg. sodium.

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Japanese eggplant baba ghanouj

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Servings: 16

Note: From Tiara Cafe. Store-bought or homemade harissa can be used (see recipe at left).

5 (about 2 pounds)

Japanese eggplants

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons toasted

sesame oil

1 tablespoon harissa

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Split the eggplants in half lengthwise and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

2. Bake about 45 minutes to 1 hour until very soft. Cool, then scrape the flesh and discard the skin. With a knife (a food processor breaks it down too much), finely chop the eggplant to a fine texture.

3. Stir in the salt, pepper and sesame oil. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Spoon into ramekins and top with harissa.

Each serving of 2 tablespoons: 16 calories; 1 gram protein; 3 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 1 gram fat; 0 saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 161 mg. sodium.