Breakfast, lunch and dinner

A sandwich? A pizza? What is that, you ask? 

Answer: It's a stuffed focaccia and yes, it tastes as good as it looks!! No, it tastes better. It does taste a bit like pizza ... only better! A little like a sandwich ... only better. It tastes gooood!

 I'd like to blow my own trumpet but the recipe isn't mine. I got it off a gorgeous site called The Italian Dish.   Elaine, the author/creator of The Italian Dish stuffed her facaccia with sausage and onion and boy, did it look sexy. I had to make it. Had to. 

This, Elaine says, is perfect for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hey that's like all Malaysian food. We eat nasi lemak, thosai, noodles and roti canai (etc) for breakfast, lunch and dinner too.   

I decided to test the theory out. I served this focaccia to R for breakfast and dinenr (ok, I was lazy and not at all testing any theory out). He loved it and didn't mind the repeats! So, yeah, thanks Elaine. 

Breakfast for me is a nice big cup of iced tea, Malaysian style (thick tea with lotsa sweet milk). All my friends and everyone I work with (even people I don't really talk to) knows that I HAVE TO have a huge mug of tea before I can function. Those who are really close to me, like my good friend Sree (also my traveling partner)  know that they should stay clear if I haven't had my tea. 

And yet, I love breakfast. Well, I love breakfast food. Eggs are a favourite; as are puff pastries (I love croissants) and bread. So, I kept a slice of this gorgeous creature for my Sunday dinner. 

What this is, really, is genius. You make your focaccia dough, you divide it into two. Instead of spreading it out on a rectangular baking pan/sheet, you use a round, spring form pan. You spread one portion of the dough on the base of the pan, add whatever filling you wish in  the center and lay the other piece of dough on top, indenting it and drizzling olive oil and toppings (herbs or chilli, salt and pepper) as usual.

Elaine's recipe for focaccia differed a little from mine. Her's is courtesy of award-winning cook Carol Field and uses a sponge (a starter) to give the dough a better rise and a softer, spongier texture. The recipe was genius and I think this will be my go to recipe for focaccia for a while.

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For my stuffing, I chose roasted red peppers, sauteed mushroom and cheese. It was good but I really should have packed more stuffing in! Next time I will. And next time, I'll make a chunkier, more robust filling because this bread deserves it. 

Try it! You have to try it.   

Stuffed Focaccia Bread With Sausage and Onions

adapted from The Italian Dish

The sponge

1/2 cup tepid water

3/4 teaspoon instant yeast

3/4 cup all purpose unbleached flour

The dough 

1 heaped teaspoon instant yeast

1 cup water 

3 tbsp olive oil

3.25 cups unbleached all purpose flour (+/-)

 2 tsp sea salt 

The Stuffing

Anything you wish!

Topping

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Coarse sea salt

black pepper and a sprinkling of chili flakes/dried herbs  

First, we make the sponge.

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer; stir in the flour and cover it with cling film and  let rise until double the original size (it will be a little bubbly) for about 45 minutes.

Moving on to the dough. Add the yeast, water and the olive oil to the sponge in the bowl. Using the dough hook, start mixing on a low speed and gradually add 3/4 of the flour and all the salt. The dough should come together; if it's sticking to the sides of the flour add more of the flour until the dough doesn't stick to the sides anymore (almost completely stick free). Make sure you don't have a dry ball of dough though. You should use the amount of flour stipulated or just a couple of tablespoons more. Thats all.  The dough should be nice and smooth and elastic. 

Transfer the dough into a nicely oiled bowl, cover and leave it for about 75 mins. IT will rise to double its size. 

Meanwhile, you can prepare your stuffing. I'm leaving this one up to you.

Assembling the bread

Lightly oil the base of a 23cm spring form pan.

Punch down the dough that's risen and divide it into two. Flatten one gently and transfer into the spring form pan, to cover the base nicely. 

Add your filling and please, be generous.

Stretch the second portion of dough and place it atop the stuffing.

Dimple the dough with your fingers and drizzle some olive oil on the top. Sprinkle some salt, pepper, chilli flakes and herbs and let it sit for about 30 mins.

Preheat your over to 200C

Bake for 30-35 mins; your crust should be a rich gold. 

Remove, drizzle a bit more olive oil and cover with a damp cloth until you're ready to serve. 

Oliver without the twist

He makes everything look so easy! Or, in his words, easy peasy.

Yup, I am talking about Jamie Oliver. The scruffy, multi-millionaire British chef who became a celebrity with his cooking show, The Naked Chef. Thankfully, he doesn't really strip down in the show. No... the title "Naked Chef" wasn't even his idea, apparently. His producers thought it a clever way of marketing his style of cooking: the no frills, no fuss way of cook. Jamie's was among the first of its kind, a stripped down cooking show about how anyone can just "chuck" a few gorgeous ingredients together and come up with a superb dish.

Yes, Jamie is full of superlatives.

I've been following Jamie on TV off and on for a while. Only "off and on" because I find  I can only take Jamie in small doses. Don't ask me why exactly, its just one of those things.. I've bought some of his books too although its been a while since I touched them.

And then I had a dream of him. The result of watching too much of Top Chef I think. In the dream, I was in a cooking competition and Jamie was a competitor. We were neck in neck in every round. I woke up before the final round of the competition but since it was a dream, I reckon I won. Ha ha.

Anyway, it got me thinking about Jamie. So, I took my Jamie books off the shelf and began looking for recipes that appealed to me. It was my turn to write the cookbook review for Don't Call Me Chef (a column I co-produce with Marty Thyme and Hungry C) and so I decided I'd write about Jamie since he was my present focus.

As I tried a number of his recipes out, I remembered why I bought all those books. The boy can cook. His recipes are easy and always turn out well. The food always tastes fantastic. They aren't exactly sublime (that's fancy talk for fancy gourmet food) but they're good wholesome food that is good for a family dinner or a feast. Your friends will be impressed.

I tried out more than a dozen recipes in just one week. My favourites were the Sweet Garlic, Bread and Almond soup which I wrote about in the book review and these Focacia loafs which I kinda played around with.Both are from the book Jamie's kitchen.
  

Jamie's recipe was for a tomato focacia for which he used cherry tomatoes: green, red and yellow tomatoes and basil. I had some basil but I didn't have any cherry tomatoes. What I did have was a whole bowl of chunky tomato sauce which I made a couple of days ago to douse some burgers in. I decided to use the sauce instead.

I also decided to make two types of focacia instead of one. My new favourite flavour is that of roasted garlic so I decided to go with roasted garlic and rosemary.

I've made focacia before and though it wasn't too complicated, Jamie's recipe simplified it further. It really was easy peasy and the result was a deliciously soft  bread that can be eaten like pizza: on its own sans any spreads, topping, dips or filling. Just smashing.

Focacia, two types

A: Prepare the bread dough
1 tbsp instant yeast
1 tbsp honey
315 ml tepid water (you may need about 50 ml more, depending on the flour)
500g bread flour
1 tbsp salt
some extra flour for dusting

Dissolve the yeast and honey in half the tepid water.
In a bowl, mix the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in the dissolved yeast mixture. With four fingers of one hand, make circular movements from the centre moving outwards, slowly bringing in more and more of the flour until the yeast mixture is soaked up.
Pour the remaining water into the centre and gradually incorportae all the flour to make a moist dough.
Now its time to knead. Roll, push and fold the dough over and over for 5 mins. This develops the gluten and the structure of the dough. If the dough sticks to your hand, rub a little flour and go on.
Done? Flour both hands and the top of the dough and shape it into a footnall. Place it on a floured surface, cover with clingfilm and allow it to proof till it doubles in size: about 40 mins.

B Prepare the toppings

2 cups cherry tomatoes

handful of basil

5 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

With a small knife, core the tomatoes. Score the tomatoes in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and peel off the skin. Cut in half and remove seeds. Place in a bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil. Cover.

2 heads garlic

1 tbsp dried rosemary

5 tbsp olive oil.

Roast two heads of galic in the oven at 180C for 30 mins. Cool and squeeze out the jammy garlic from the skin. Set aside.

C. Back to the dough

Once the dough has doubled, remove cling film and knock the air out of the dough but punching it with your fingers. Divide into half. Place on a floured surface and roll both out till 2.5 cm thick. Transfer onto oiled trays.

Pour the olive oil over. Place the tomatos and basil/garlic and rosemary and push your fingers to the bottom of the tray accross the whole expanse of the dough. Use your fingers like a poker: push them through and flatten them out when you hit the tray. This gives the bread the classic focacia shape with indentations all over. 

Let it double again and bake in a preheated oven (220C) for about 15 to 20 mins till the outside is nice and brown and crispy and the inside is soft.

Drizzle some olive oil on top when out of the oven. Cook and eat.    

Do you roll with bananas?

It's strange. I don't quite like eating bananas but give me banana cake or bread and I'd gladly gobble it up. But, being a fussy eater, even with banana breads and cakes I prefer it when the taste of the fruit is not all empowering and is instead tempered  with spices like cinnamon or nutmeg. I've made banana bread before but I wasn't quite satisfied because though tasty, it tasted suspiciously like cake. I have been on the lookout  for an alternate recipe. So, when I spotted a recipe for a yeasted banana bread on My Diverse Kitchen, one that seemed more bread than cake -- i.e very little sugar and a moderate measure of banana, my curiosity was piqued. Actually, more like my greed. My hopes and expectation were high as the picture of the rolls depicted  on My Diverse Kitchen was tantalising.

So, I actually made it a point to get up real early on Saturday (to beat the traffic at the morning market -- believe it or not, it gets insane after 730am!) and got myself a bunch of ripe bananas: I chose the small, sweet pisang mas because I think they cook  well.  I had all the other ingredients in my pantry already: all purpose flour, cardamom, butter, salt, sugar and yeast so I was all set.

I followed the recipe to a T, with one exception: I used instant yeast instead of active dry yeast --  a small inconsequential adjustment. The recipe was easy enough to follow but let me caution you: it takes about 3 hours to make these rolls. You need to allow the dough to rise twice and the first rise is for 2 hours. Yes, 2 hours. Anyhow, it was worth the time. The rolls turned out well. They were soft and fluffy and just a little moist. And, it looked like a football/soccer ball! How apt that the World Cup final starts in less than 6 hours!

The only problem was that I could hardly taste the banana; they tasted too much like dinner rolls. Delicious dinner rolls, no doubt,  but where'd the taste of the cup full of mashed banana go? Perhaps the bananas I bought weren't sweet enough...



Told you I was fussy. No  matter, I finished the eight rolls the recipe yielded with the help of a couple of  friends and guess what I did? I  decided to give it another go, adding more banana this time around. After all,  I reasoned, I wasn't going to eat the remaining fruit in a hurry ...

Instead of 1 cup of mashed bananas, I used close to 2 cups. I added a bit more cardamom and a little nutmeg too. This time, it was just  perfect.

Here's the recipe.

31/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup lukewarm water (plus a bit more, in case)

½ cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp butter, at room temperature

1 cup banana, mashed

1/2 tsp  cardamom powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg powder

Melted butter for brushing on rolls once they're out of the oven

Whisk together the banana, water, buttermilk, yeast, salt, sugar, cardamom,  nutmeg and butter in the bowl of your stand mixer till all the ingredients are well incorporated. Fix the dough hook attachment  and,  adding the  flour in two batches, mix  the wet and dry ingredients till a dough forms, about 5 mins. The dough should be sticky and moist.

Remover the bowl from the mixer and cover with a damp cloth. Let it sit in a warm spot, allowing the dough to rise for about 2 hours. It should double it's size and deflate. If it hasn't deflated, de-gas it gently after the two hours are up.

Flouring your hands, gently form balls (the size is up to you; mine were half the size of a tennis ball) and arrange them (touching each other) in an 8-inch round cake tin.The balls need to be the same size: they look prettier and will cook more evenly.  Cover and let the dough balls rise again for about 30 -45 mins. Bake at 180C for 30 to 40 mins or till the tops are golden.

For soft rolls, brush the top with melted butter once you've taken them out of the oven. Set aside to cool. Best eaten warm.