Sea Salt & Rosemary Focaccia

I like bread a lot. In fact, I'd go so far as saying I was all about it.
I think I've only made bread once before, but this was different.
Making bread is much easier that I imagine it to be. Even though it's all kneading and rising, bread isn't hard. Probably because it's all kneading and rising. I'd love to make bread all the time, but I don't have the time to wait around for it to rise. How did they do it in the old days, when they had fresh bread in the morning? You'd have to get up three hours before you wanted breakfast. Three Hours! I couldn't do that. I like to have tea and toast as soon as I'm dressed. It's just how I roll.



This bread was a lazy weekend activity. I made the bread in the morning and we ate it for lunch, stuffed with grilled haloumi and fresh salad. In that respect, it kind of requires planning, because the bread has to rise for 3 hours in total. But this does mean that you can do whatever you want while you're waiting, because the bread doesn't need babysitting. You could visit your parents, go for a run, make a dress, clean your house, play with your cat. The possibilities are endless!



The toppings for this focaccia are also endless. This one had roasted garlic, fresh rosemary, pink sea salt, and olive oil. I think the garlic was unnecessary, and if I made this again, I wouldn't use it. Garlic olive oil might be better. I think chopped olives or chilli might be nice. I also think that the focaccia should be baked thinner than I made it. You don't even really need a square tin to bake the bread in, you could just spread the dough out onto a flat metal tray and make a really thin, rustic bread. Drizzled with oil and sprinkled with sea salt, this would be the perfect accompaniment to summer salad and enjoyed with friends at a barbecue.

Sea salt & rosemary focaccia:
Adapted slightly from Food On Paper

If you want to use roasted garlic as well, simply wrap three unpeeled garlic cloves in al-foil, and bake at 200C for 30 minutes. Chop and sprinkle onto the dough before baking.
Use the best sea salt flakes you can. I used Murray River pink salt flakes.

¼ teaspoon caster sugar

1 sachet of instant dry yeast (7g)

400ml warm water

500g plain flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Olive oil, Fresh or dried rosemary & Sea salt flakes to top. 

In a small bowl, mix the sugar, yeast and 60ml of warm water. Cover and leave in a warm spot for 5 minutes for the yeast to activate (it should become foamy and almost rise up. If it doesn't, start again).

In a large bowl, add the flour, salt, yeast mix, and half the warm water. Stir with a spoon to combine.

Add more water as necessary, until a solid dough starts to form. You may not need all the water, so add a bit at a time.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead the dough for 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

Place the dough into an oiled bowl (a glass or plastic bowl is good because you can see it rising). Cover with cling wrap and a damp tea towel. Leave in a warm, draught free place for 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.

When the dough has risen, take off the cling wrap and the towel and punch the dough down with your fist to remove any air bubbles. 

Line a baking tray with baking paper (the smaller the tray, the higher the bread after its baked) and put the dough into the tray. Spread the dough out with your fingers, reaching to the corners of the tray.

Cover the tray again with cling wrap and the tea towel and leave in a warm place for another 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 220C.

Take the wrappings off the dough and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt flakes and rosemary.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden and crisp to the touch.

Drizzle with a little more olive oil before serving. 

Fish with parsely butter sauce.

Spring finally arrived today. Everything was extra vivid, like someone turned up the brightness/contrast on the colours of the trees and the sky, until they were at their all time brightest. So I think it's time to celebrate this season, with some lovely fish that has some bright colours, too.

In our house, there are certain things that Brent makes me cook, and certain things that I make him cook. He prefers it when I cook hollandaise and poached eggs, and I think he's better at cooking steak and fish.

Last night, though, I cooked the fish. I took it out of the pan, put it on the plates, then decided that it wasn't cooked, and had to heat the pan back up and put the fish back in for another couple of minutes. This wasn't a huge disaster, it just meant that it took a little bit longer to do. But, I mean, it's good practice, right?

When I made this, in my haste to get dinner out, I forgot an ingredient. One whole ingredient! When we finally got to eat, I knew there was something missing, but I couldn't work out what. It wasn't until after, when I was cleaning up, that I noticed the bright little lemon, sitting all alone on the bench, that I remembered what it was that was missing from the sauce. So when you're making the parsley butter sauce, remember to put some lemon in.

Recipe:

Adapted from Tessa Kiros' Apples for Jam

2 fish fillets (We used Ling)

25g butter, divided, one pat much bigger than the other

big handful parsley, chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and squished

1 tbsp olive oil

wholemeal flour, for dusting the fish

salt and pepper
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Dust the fish in the wholemeal flour.

Heat a non-stick frypan and put the oil and smaller pat of butter in.
When this is hot, add the fish. Cook until crispy and brown and cooked through (this will depend on the thickness of your fish).
Meanwhile, In another saucepan, put the bigger pat of butter, the parsley, lemon zest and juice and the garlic. Add some salt and pepper to taste.
Allow to melt, but not to brown or (heaven forbid) to burn. Keep on a low heat while the fish is cooking.
When the fish is done, plate up and pour the sauce over.

A 50th of a Cheesecake.

It was my Step-Mum's 50th birthday and I offered to make a cake (or two) for the celebration. I figured, seeing as I missed my Dad's 50th and both my siblings birthdays' this year, I should at least make an effort for one of them.

This was before I realised how many people would be turning up to the party. About 40 or 50. Now this may not sound like very many, but I've only really cooked for small amounts of people before.

No pressure!
So I searched high and low to find a cake recipe that would be big enough to feed so many people. Apparently, they don't exist. So I decided that I would make two cakes, plus a batch of cupcakes, to keep everyone happy. But most importantly, to keep everyone full of cake.

As it turns out, having lots of choice for birthday dessert is something that everyone appreciates. So there I was, donned in my finest attire, with everyone saying how nice the cakes were and what a good effort I'd gone too. Apparently, hardly anybody knew that I had so much talent! (Ha!)

So here's the recipe for one of the cakes I made. A rosemary cheesecake with added pinenuts, for that extra crunch we all crave. I made this with low-fat ricotta, but full-fat ricotta would probably be just as good, if not nicer, I imagine.

Rosemary and Honey Cheesecake:
Adapted from Karen Martini

oven 180
100g fresh breadcrumbs
2 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
100g honey, plus extra for glazing (about 4 tbsp)
620g ricotta
1/4 cup castor sugar
5 eggs
1 cup plain yoghurt
250g mascarpone
zest of 1 lemon
50g pine nuts (use more, if you like)

Grease sides of a 26cm springform pan with butter. Press breadcrumbs around the tin.
Mix rosemary and honey, bring to a simmer in a saucepan.
Beat ricotta and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each.
Add cooled honey, yoghurt, mascarpone and lemon, mix.
Pour into tin, and sprinkle with pinenuts.
Bake 1 1/4 hours until golden.
Melt extra honey and spread over cake to glaze.


Plus, here's a super song for you to listen to while you're getting your bake on!