Garlic and Herb Focaccia

There's something very gratifying about baking your own bread. Firstly, there's the unmistakable aroma which fills the house, but also that slightly smug feeling of having baked your own bread and showing off about it. Focaccia is relatively easy as there's only one knead required when the flour is all added to the mix, then leave to rise, punch down, shape and rise again before baking.  

Most people think making your own bread (without a bread maker) is in the too hard basket, but it's really not. It just takes a bit of time and patience, not to mention a bit of elbow grease in that kneading process. 

However I'll share a couple sneaky shortcuts with you. In the kneading part, it can be made really effortless if you have a mixer with a dough hook (it's that weird squiggly looking thing that you thought you'd never find a use for). If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, you'll have to do it the old fashioned way. I'm sure you an find dozens of YouTube tutorials on kneading bread, but the basic technique is to use one hand to fold the dough, the other to turn, and repeat for a few minutes till the dough feels smooth and elastic. 

The other shortcut tip I use is to warm the oven to about 40 degrees Celsius and use this as the place to rest the bread while it rises. A hot water cupboard is also a good place to pop it. Basically it just means that your bread has a sure-fired warm place to rise, draught free and stable. I find that using the oven also reduces the rising time a little. Mine only needed about 45-50 minutes, whereas sometimes (especially as the nights get cooler) it can take double that. 

Ingredients (Makes an 18 x 24cm tin sized loaf)

• 1/2 cup good quality olive oil
• 2 tbsp of dried or fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, oregano, basil or Italian mixed herbs) 
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 1/2 tsp active yeast (I use Edmond's Sure to Rise) 
• 1/2 tsp honey or sugar
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour 
• 1 tsp salt 

Firstly heat the oil in a small pan with the herbs and garlic and cook on low for a few minutes till aromatic. Do not let the garlic brown or burn. Set aside to cool. 

In a large bowl (or the mixer bowl for the dough hook) mix 1 cup of warm water with the active yeast and honey. Set aside somewhere warm for 5 minutes to let the yeast activate.

Add half of the oil mixture and one cup of the flour to the yeast mixture and mix briefly so that the flour is moistened. Set aside for another 5 -10 minutes. 

Preheat your oven to 40 degrees Celsius and oil your baking dish, a rectangular slice tin is best, a few cm high on the edges. 

Now add the rest of the flour and salt, use your hands (or the dough hook attachment of your mixer) to mix the flour in and knead on a floured bench for a few minutes till smooth and elastic.

Pop the dough into the oiled tin, loosely cover with a tea towel, and pop into the warm oven for 40 - 60 minutes. Check frequently from 40 minutes, you want it to be at least doubled in size.

Once well risen, remove it from the oven and increase the temperature to 220 degrees Celsius. Knock the dough around a bit and press it down to fill the tin, using your fingers to make dimples on the top, then pour the remaining herbed oil over the top. Set aside for another 20 -30 minutes to allow it to puff up again. 

Pop the risen, piled dough into the hot oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven when golden and sounds hollow when tapped. Remove to a wooden board or cooling rack and leave for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving. 

This bread is delicious with soup, olive oil and dukkah, lathered in butter, or sliced lengthways and filled like a sandwich.  

  

Bacon and Mushroom Pappardelle

If you're a fan of carbonara pasta then this is the recipe for you. It's ridiculously easy to prepare and even easier to wolf down. Sure it's not the healthiest of pasta meals, using cream, bacon and plenty of carb loading pasta, but it's jam packed with flavour and also, in this case packed with vegetables. The cream works out to be only 1/4 of a cup per person, that's nothing! And as for the bacon, you'd probably eat more in your Sunday morning fry up. 
So when you think about it - it's actually really healthy. 
Honest. 

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 200 grams lean free range bacon, diced
• 400 grams button mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 cup of cream
• 2 spring onion, thickly sliced
• 1/2 cup of parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan 
• 400 grams of pappardelle pasta (spaghetti or fettucine would also be suitable) 
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• olive oil for cooking

Prepare your vegetables first, as the rest of the meal doesn't take long to cook and assemble. 

Put a good lug of olive oil in a large frying pan, and cook the bacon for 5-8 minutes, stirring on a medium heat till lightly browned. Remove from the fry pan and set aside. 

In the same pan, add another generous lug of olive oil and cook the mushrooms, stirring for 5 minutes, till they are softened and starting to shrink down. The juice from the mushrooms will help you to get any sticky bacon bits from the bottom of the pan. Next add the garlic and at least a teaspoon of cracked pepper and cook for another 2 minutes. Set aside with the bacon. Do not rinse the pan - we'll use it again later. 

Meanwhile boil your pasta in a large pot of heavily salted water - I usually add at least 1 tbsp of salt to the cooking water. For the last four minutes of cooking, add the frozen peas. Before you drain the water, scoop half a cup of the cooking liquid into the fry pan which you cooked the bacon and mushroom. Drain the pasta and peas, then pop them into the frying pan. 

Turn the frying pan onto a medium heat and add the bacon and mushrooms along with the spring onion, cream and beaten egg yolks. Work quickly to toss everything together. After a couple of minutes you'll see it start to thicken. Now remove from the heat and stir through the parsley and parmesan cheese. 

Use tongs to ladle the pasta into serving bowls. Sprinkle with extra parsley and parmesan if desired. 

Spring Risotto: Spinach Zucchini and Feta

Today is World Vegetarian Day! Hooray! So in honour of this, I thought I would share this tasty spring vegetable risotto, seasoned with oregano and lemon, and mixed with salty feta, it's the perfect meat free meal.


Risotto often gets a bad rep, running with the misconception that it's full of cream and 'unhealthy'. However, traditional risotto, often has little to no cream. The creamy texture however comes from the slow cooking of the starches in the rice, and a dollop of butter added at the end. A little butter never hurt anybody right? 


Each bowl of this risotto is packed with seasonal veggies and flavour. The lemon gives it a real zing, combined with the saltiness of the feta (or toasted almonds if dairy free). Best of all, it can all be whipped up in under 30 minutes, and uses a minimal amount of dishes. 

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 4 stalks of celery 
• 2 large zucchini 
• rind and juice of 2 lemon
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 cups of arborio risotto rice
• 4 - 6 cups of baby spinach leaves, washed
• 2 cups of vegetable stock - ensure vegetable stock is gluten free if necessary
• 3 cups of boiling water 
• 30 grams of butter
• 200 grams crumbled feta* - Swap for toasted almonds for a dairy free alternative, and replace butter with oil. 
• olive oil and lemon juice to serve

Combine the hot vegetable stock and 3 cups of hot water in a bowl or pot. 

On a low temperature, heat the oil in a large saucepan with a lid, and gently saute the celery and zucchini for 3-6 minutes till softened. Add the lemon rind and oregano, cook, stirring for another minute. 

Add the rice to the pan with the juice from the lemon, stir over a low heat until the juice is absorbed and rice is translucent. 

Add half a cup of the stock and water mixture, continue stirring, and when most of the liquid is absorbed, add another half a cup full. 

Repeat this process until all of the water is in the pot - However, when you add the last amount, also add the baby spinach leaves. Cover with a lid and let the spinach wilt for a minute or two. Remove the lid and stir all of the spinach in, and continue stirring till most of the liquid is absorbed. 

Test a spoonful of rice, it should be al dente, still a little firm to the bite, but soft enough to eat. Remove from the heat and add the butter, stirring till melted through. 

Stir through 200 grams of crumbled feta and spoon into four bowls. Serve immediately with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and squeeze of lemon juice.

* For a dairy free alternative swap the butter for coconut or olive oil, and replace the feta with 1/2 a cup of toasted chopped almonds sprinkled over the top. Alternatively if dairy is your thing, you could add 1/2 a cup of grated parmesan just before serving.