rosemary and sea salt focaccia

This is one of my favourite baking tricks. It's so easy, always tastes great, and while it takes a-g-e-s, this is mostly because you have to keep leaving it to rise. In fact, the longer you can give it between kneads, the better the end result. And oil - lots and lots of good quality extra virgin olive oil. Don't try to make this without the right quantity of oil, or you'll just get a dry, powdery bread. Ick.

You will need:

2 sachets of dried yeast (14g)
600g strong white bread flower (type "00")
1 1/4 cups tepid water
1/2 cup good quality olive oil
3 tbs good sea salt (I use Maldon)
1/2 tsp cooking salt3 sprigs of rosemary

What to do:

Put the flour, yeast and cooking salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Make a well in the centre. Pour in all of the olive oil except 2 tablespoons, and the tepid water. Combine first with a spoon and then knead, in the bowl, with your hands.

Sprinkle some flour onto a work surface and knead the dough until it is elastic (about 10 minutes). Sprinkle the reserved olive oil into the mixing bowl and return the dough. Cover with glad wrap and leave to rise for an hour, or until the dough is twice its original size.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it to remove the air. Lightly oil a rectangular baking tray. Roll the dough out to roughly the size and then ease it into the tin. Use your fingers to push it into the corners.

Preheat the oven to 180'c (fan forced). You don't want the temp to be too hot so this may take a bit of experimenting to get it right. You don't want it to get too brown on top.

Make indents in the top surface with your finger tips. Sprinkle a little more olive oil and the maldon sea salt over the top, and add rosemary sprigs into each divet.

Bake for around 40 minutes. It should be lightly golden and soft and springy to the touch. Leave it to sit for 10 minutes and then serve with good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Delicious!

cooking challenge week nineteen: jam doughnuts (yum yum)

Growing up in Australia, warm jam doughnuts were a tuckshop regular. I went to a small school and in those days, the canteen only opened on Tuesdays and Fridays. You would staple your 45c into a corner of a paper bag, write your name and order on the front, and then five minutes before lunch, a designated canteen liaison would get to leave class and collect a cardboard box brimming with the treats of the day. Jam doughnuts, coated generously with cinnamon and caster sugar, were the most popular treat by far.

I used to bite into them, and let the jame ooze out, and my fingers would be sticky and pink with jam when I was finished.

And so I have learned to make them. They are not difficult, but they are time consuming and messy, and positively dreadful for you, so I am not going to be whipping these babies out too often. Having said that, the first batch I made was a gift for a friend. We packed as many as we could into a polka dot red box and ate any that couldn't fit in about two minutes.

You will need:

4 cups plain white flour

2 x 7g sachets fresh yeast

300ml full fat milk

2 organic, free-range eggs

1/2 teaspoon caster sugar plus extra for dusting

1/2 teaspoon salt

Really great strawberry or raspberry jam

Flavourless vegetable oil for deep frying

What to do:

Mix the yeast sachets with a 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1 tablespoon warm water. Stir well until you get a thick paste. Put it in a draft free place for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, put the flour, salt and butter in a large bowl and use your fingertips to rub them together, until you get the consistency of bread crumbs. Put it in a warm place for 10 minutes.

Put the milk and eggs into a bowl and whisk until combined. Pour into a well in the middle of the flour mixture. Add the yeast paste. Mix to a dough. Add more flour if too wet, more milk if too dry. The dough should be elastic and stretchy.

Cover and put in a warm, draft free place for an hour. The dough should double in size.

Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll to about 2cm thickness. Put a teaspoon of jam in the centre of HALF of the circles. Put some water into a little bowl and use your fingertips to run water around the edge of the circles. Lay a dough circle on top of a jam covered circle and press down. Repeat with all the dough. Once you've done this, set them aside for another half hour until they've risen some more.

Meanwhile, put the vegetable oil into a deep sauce pan and bring up to around 180'c. Carefully deep fry the doughnuts in batches for around 2 minutes - they will become quite a dark brown. Don't overcrowd the oil. Lift them out into a paper lined colander.

Mix some sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and run the doughnuts through the mix. You're done! Enjoy whilst warm.

Will I make this again? yes, yes, yes! Already have!! So great, and such a lovely treat to give good friends. I want to try baking them instead of frying them, and also using different jams for fillings.

prawn toasts

Believe it or not, this recipe and these quantities made 8 prawn toasts, which I think is more than enough for 2 - 3 people to share as a starter.

You will need:

4 medium - large prawns (uncooked)
2 tablespoons cornflour
1/2 tablespoon ground white pepper
a pinch of salt
1 egg white
Baguette, sliced into 8 rounds, approximately 1cm thick.
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 cup oil for frying

What to do:

Peel the prawns. Use a paring knife to run down their backs and remove the vein. Flush with cold water.

Use a very sharp knife and carefully mince the prawns. Put into a mixing bowl. Combine the pepper, egg white, cornflour and a pinch of salt and stir to make a thick paste. Some recipes advise you to fridge it here for a half hour or so, but I didn't, and they turned out brilliantly.

Spoon the mixture onto the toast, and press down gently. Use all the mixture. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan (non stick) over moderate heat.

Cook the toasts prawn side down for 1 - 2 minutes. Don't let them burn! Watch them very closely. As soon as the prawn mixture becomes opaque and the sesame seeds have started to darken, gently flip them over (watch out for the oil splattering). Brown the bread (30 seconds, max) and serve immediately, with some light soya sauce on the side.

O. M. G. These are seriously so, so, so goooood. Calorific. Yes. Carbtastic. Totally. Nutritious? Not really, no. But absolutely crave inducing. Your friends will love them. You will love them. You must make them.

cooking challenge week eighteen: thai green curry

This challenge is technically easy - the trick is getting the balance of flavours right. I personally like curries that are fresh, robust but with only a kick of spice, rather than an overwhelming hit of heat.

You will need:

For the curry:

2 tins coconut milk
Selection of vegetables, including broccoli, mushrooms, tofu, bean sprouts, carrots, mangetout.
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons light soya sauce

For the paste:

6 small green birdseye chillis (whole)
3 cloves garlic
about 3cm length ginger, sliced
1 cup loosely chopped coriander, including stems
2 lemongrass stalks, sliced (just the soft core)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander

What to do:

Put all the ingredients for the paste into a food processor and blitz until the consistency of pesto. Leave for a few minutes whilst you prepare/chop/slice your vegetables.

Boil or steam your vegetables for around 3 minutes. You don't want them to be too al dente, as they will get a few extra minutes cooking time in the curry.

Fry off some oil in a large frying pan/wok over moderate heat. Add onion and garlic, and tofu/seafood/chicken (if using). Fry until browned. Add the curry paste and stir constantly over moderate heat until fragrant. Pour in the tins of coconut milk and stir thoroughly. Allow to heat until simmering, then add vegetables and season with fish sauce, sugar and soya sauce.

Cook for another two minutes. Serve with steamed rice.

thai-tastic

As you know, the cooking challenges have been coming fast and furiously so that I can keep the recipes flowing whilst abroad, and this means we have been eating almost more than humanly possible. As an antedote to the rich, creamy European meals we both love, I decided to make a clean and spicy curry for this week's challenge. We both adore Thai food, and have lived within 100 metres of a thai restaurant in every one of our homes.

We started off with prawn toast - a real favourite, and another surprisingly simple dish to prepare. Keep in mind, I don't have a food processor, and only the most basic of kitchen appliances, but as long as you have a sharp knife, you'll be able to easily whip these up yourself. Recipe coming in the next few days!

The curry turned out really nicely. I worked with the vegies that were locally sourced, and I think any combination would have worked well. I really like loads of broccoli, cauliflower and potato in my curry.

For dessert, we had a coconut and strawberry cocktail. Why not combine our sweets with some vodka, at the end of the evening!?

Happy cooking!
dd.x