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Potato Focaccia

Makes 2 large Focaccias or 6 – 8 small ones

Pre heat the oven to 425° F

Spoiler alert!!

There’s mashed potatoes in the dough.

If you think your love for all things “Dough” can’t grow bigger…you’re wrong.

Unless you have already had a potato Focaccia before. This is the lightest and fluffiest Focaccia you will ever have. When you press the Focaccia between your fingers you will see there is a bounciness that is unmatched by anything else. The mashed potato does something magical to dough.

I’ve had it in cakes before too and the same thing happens.

But back to the recipe, you will need to plan ahead, because it has to rise for quit some time. You can use left over cold mashed potato or otherwise just boil a few potatoes and mash them. This recipes makes a lot, but you can easily freeze some of the dough for later use.

The Focaccia above has home roasted Tomato sauce, grilled Onions, grilled Peppers and a few Anchovis on top. You can leave out the Anchovis for Vegans.

Ingredients:

1.5 C. Luke warm water, about 100° F

2 tsp. instant yeast

1 tsp. Honey or Sugar (for vegans)

6 C. Spelt flour

1/4 C. olive oil

1.5 tsp. Himalayan Salt

1 C. Mashed potatoes.

Method:

Put the warm water in the bowl of your mixer, fitted with the hook attachment. Pour in the honey, or sugar. Add the yeast, carefully mix and leave it to activate for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile measure out all your other ingredients.

Mix the olive oil in with the mashed potatoes and add to the bowl. Mix gently. Add the remaining ingredients and mix on medium for about 5 minutes. The dough should not cling to the bowl anymore, add a little flour if it does.

Turn out to a lightly floured surface and give it a knead and shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise for 3 hours.

After the rise. Turn out the dough to a floured surface. Divide in half. Shape one half into a Focaccia shape, I always make mine a little oval shape and also a bit irregular to give it a more rustic look.

Place the Focaccia on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Press little dimples in the dough with your finger and drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with some coarse sea salt and Rosemary. Drizzle the Rosemary with a little bit of oil before to prevent burning.

Place in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. After 15 minutes turn the heat down to 400° F. It should sound hollow when you tap on it.

Alternatively, make smaller shapes and bake about 5 minutes less.

You can also top your Focaccia with vegetables, or anything else you like. This way becoming a meal in itself.

When I bake smaller plain ones I use them for sandwiches. Or serve them with soup. The large ones are great party food cut into smaller squares, or serves two as a dinner with plenty of toppings. Basically once you have the dough let your imagination run free.

Enjoy

Myra Xo

Spaghetti alle Vongole

8 Replies

This is a really fast dish that you can have on the table in no time. It looks impressive and it taste pretty impressive too. You need to get very fresh Clams. Although this dish is very easy to make you do need to take care of your clams making sure they are properly cleaned, nobody wants to bite on sand.

Just soak them in cold water as soon as you get home and leave them in the fridge until you are ready to cook.

This dish can be easily multiplied or divided to suit the amount of eaters you’re feeding.

Some people use butter in their Spaghetti alle Vongole because it forms an emulsion, but I think it makes the dish too heavy and it takes the freshness away.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:
1 pound dried spaghetti
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
5 to 7 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 lbs. littleneck clams, scrubbed clean
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup Noilly Prat or dry white wine
Himalayan salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon cut into four to serve alongside the Pasta.

Soak the clams in water.

Method:

Soak the clams in water as soon as you come home from buying them. Leave them in the fridge until you are ready to cook. This is to remove any sand.

In a large pot bring water to the boil and add salt. Add pasta, stirring constantly in the beginning to prevent it from sticking together. Cook al dente, for about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large saute pan, add shallots and garlic and saute until soft and translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic.

Add the clams and wine. Cover and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes or until all clams have opened. Discard any clams that haven’t opened.Add 2 tablespoons chopped parsley.

Drain pasta in a colander. Do not rinse pasta with water!

Add the pasta into the clam saute pan and mix thoroughly. Check seasoning.
Pour pasta into large serving bowl.Garnish with remaining parsley and serve with lemon wedges. Eat straight away.

Enjoy

Myra Xo

Light Mash with semi sun dried Tomatoes and Zucchini

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The sour cream gives the mash lightness and freshness. With added zucchini you’ve got your veggies covered too.

Ingredients;

Serves 4

2 lbs. Yukon potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 tsp. salt
1/4 C. milk of choice
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 C. Sour cream
2 tbsp. Semi sun-dried tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp. chopped chives
2 tbsp. chopped dill
1 large Zucchini, diced in 1/2″ cubes.

Method;

Put the potatoes in a pan and add cold water and half way the potatoes with the salt. Bring to a boil, turn the heat lower and boil for about 15 min, or until soft when pierced with a fork. Drain. Return to the pan and let them steam off. Add the milk and mash the potatoes. Check seasoning and add more salt if needed.

Keep warm.

Meanwhile wash the Zucchini and dice. Heat a frying pan and add the olive oil. Sautée the Zucchini for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to fry for two more minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the Zucchini to the mashed potatoes, together with the sour cream, the herbs and chopped semi sun-dried tomatoes. Carefully stir together, do not over mix. (you don’t want to end up with glue). Serve straight away.

Black Bean Burger

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I had mentioned in another post that my favorite food is actually Hamburgers. Well one of my favorite Hamburgers is this one, the Black Bean Burger. It is so good and if you serve it on a home made bun even better, goes without saying.

You won’t miss the meat at all with this one. They’re crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside but with enough bite to give you the burger sensation. The bite is because you’re not supposed to squash all the beans to a puree, but leave some whole. You also need to add enough seasoning. Then bake them nicely in a pan until they get a dark golden crust on the outside. I serve mine with grilled Eggplant & grilled red Peppers.

Ingredients:

2 C. Black Beans, cooked

1 tbsp. Olive oil + 2 tsp. for cooking

1 Onion, peeled and chopped fine

1 clove of Garlic, peeled and grated

1 tbsp. Nutritional Yeast (optional, but it does add a hearty flavour)

1 tsp. Taco seasoning

1/4 C. Breadcrumbs or use GF oats instead.

1/4 C. of mixed nuts

1 Flax egg (1 tbsp. flax + 3 tbsp. water) Let sit for 15 min.

1 tbsp. Chia seeds

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Method:

Put the beans on a plate and squash them with a fork until roughly mashed. There should still be enough chunks for texture.

Meanwhile cook the onion and garlic in 1 tbsp. of olive oil over gentle heat until golden. Let cool slightly.

Put the squashed beans in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients.

Form into patties and place them on a slightly oiled plate. Cover with cling film and put them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to firm up.

When ready to cook. Place a frying pan over medium high heat, put in the 2 tsp. of olive oil and cook for about 5 minutes on each side. Serve with toppings and additions of your liking. I do recommend you put them on the Hamburger Buns ,that makes them even better! Enjoy.