Wednesday, June 22, 2011

I was a proud Copy Cat

When I saw the focaccia that Alan of travellingfoodies made last Sunday , I have been dreaming about it for a few nights. You see, she is not only an eloquent writer but also a very artistic photographer.  Any simple food that goes through his camera will come out as 5 stars cuisine. Don’t just listen to me, hop over to her blog and see for yourself.  Oh remember to read her notes on personal reflection at the end of each recipe.  Those notes are informative and educational. I learn a lot from them. One of the many things I like about food bloggers are their willingness to share whatever knowledge they have about cooking, baking and other lessons they learned with no monetary benefits in mind.  They are not the "No Money, No Talk" type. 

So, here I am, The Copycat!  I adapted Alan's focaccia recipe and made it with some modification yesterday. When it was in the oven, my whole house was filled with the aroma of rosemary.  I could smell the fragrance from my office (my office is in my home) and heard my stomach growling. I went in to look at the bread several times as though the more I looked, the quicker it would baked. Finally, the moment I anxiously waited had arrived. "DING!", it was the oven bell!  I dropped whatever I was doing in the office and rushed to get the bread out. GORGEOUS! Grinning from ear to ear, I came back to the office to tell my Quay Lo that I was extremely happy with the look and the taste of my focaccia. I want to say a BIG thank you to Alan for sharing this recipe and for the effort in writing easy to follow instructions that even this simple minded Quay Po can follow. Aren't you proud of me?

We had focaccia sandwiches for dinner last evening.  Quay Lo and I loved the bread so much and we both agreed that we will make this again for company. This bread is so easy to make, it looks inviting and taste wonderful. Honestly, you can just eat as is, without anything else to compliment it..  Whoa!!  It was DIVINE! 

Rosemary olive focaccia 
Largely adapted from travellingfoodies with modification.

Ingredients:

Before baking
The final product

Ingredients:
300g bread flour
1/2 tsp dry yeast
20g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
50ml olive oil
200 ml warm water
2 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
1 sprig rosemary, leaves only
2 sprigs rosemary (to infuse in olive oil)
3-4 cloves of garlic with skin
15 pitted black olives, cut into rings
4-5 slices of sundried tomatoes in olive oil, thinly jullienned
1 roasted capsicum, cut into thin slices

Method:
In a glass of 50ml warm water, stir in yeast and sugar and set aside for 30 mins. Place two sprigs of rosemary and garlic clove with skin into the olive oil on medium heat till fragrant and set aside. When the oil is cool, remove the rosemary and dish out the garlic, removed the skin and minced them and set aside. In a mixing bowl, place bread flour, salt and mix roughly. Add yeast mixture, 2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary and garlic rosemary infused olive oil and 150 ml warm water. Use the hook attachment on low speed, mix the ingredients until a sticky dough is formed. Turn the speed to medium and  knead the dough with a mixer until it is less sticky. Turn to slightly higher speed to knead that dough till they no longer sticks to the sides of the mixing bowl and comes off in one smooth lump. Pull a small piece of dough and stretch it and if you can stretch the dough till very thin and does not break easily, you can now form the dough into a ball and cover with cling wrap. Leave it in a warm area and let it rise for 1 hour, about double its original size. Apply some flour on the surface to roll out the dough to get rid of air.  Sprinkle, sun-dried tomatoes, half of the olive rings, minced roasted garlic and roasted capsicum. into dough and knead them in. Place the dough onto a 8 in x 8 in square baking pan and flatten it outwards by pressing with your fingertips to fill up the pan. Cover again with cling film and leave to prove for another 30 mins. Dip an index finger into olive oil and make dimples about 1 inches apart all around the dough. Brush the top generously with olive oil and arrange the remaining olive rings  Sprinkle rosemary leaves on the surface. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170C for 20-25 min until the surface becomes golden brown. Leave on rack to cool. Apply your creativity on how to serve the bread or just eat them as it is.

30 comments:

  1. looks like you do magic with your camera as well my friend.

    beautiful

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  2. Its very beautiful...love your pictures here..:)

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  3. Veron, I like your stuffed in method. I used to place them on top. I'll keep that in mind next time when I make this. Thanks for sharing. Have a lovely day.
    Kristy

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  4. Sometimes the story is even better than the recipe!

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  5. WOW! it look really like what i seen on alan's blog! he's amazing and you're equally good as well! nicely baked focaccia and great photos taken! i want to eat it too :D

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  6. That looks like one of the most delicious looking breads ever! Happy Baking!

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  7. Your foccacia looks delicious! I've made some before, but never with black olives (which I love)! I'll have to make this recipe and try it out. Great post!

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  8. Yum! I used to not like olives, but thankfully grew out of that!

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  9. Your pics look good too :)

    And that's one very luxurious focaccia!

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  10. That's one gorgeous looking focaccia!
    I think any blogger who blogs and not share shouldn't be blogging in the first place. That's the whole idea of blogging after all ... to share!

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  11. I'm proud of u too, Veronica! I can also smell it from here. Hahaha! So won't u send me some??

    I've just posted an article on Amazing Kitchen Tips (Part I). Thought I share it with u :)

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  12. Looks really delicious, with all those olive oil oozing out:)

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  13. I love foccacia and yours look amazing. Recipe looks easy enough - must try this out soon! :)

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  14. Lovely focaccia. Thanks for sharing.

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  15. Hi tQ for dropping by. Bananaz knows nuts about woking, baking etc but only can kaypo *busybody*. Cant even handle a flying egg while frying it hahaha. Why*Ask*Why it has to do with cat in copycat when we often hear 'monkey see, monkey do'? Guess copymonkey would be too long? muahaha.

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  16. Beautiful and delicious photos of your focaccia bread, i could eat them :)
    i found your blog on Very Good Recipes and i am sure i will be back to look for some great cooking ideas. thanks for sharing.

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  17. I am going to copy this too it looks so good!

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  18. My dear, You are one of the best food photographers I've seen.
    That is why I follow your blog, even though I have food allergies and cannot eat a lot of the foods you prepare. I love to look. (and sometimes adjust recipes so I can eat them.) But mostly, I just love to look at your food pictures. Such an eye!

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  19. hehhee, in the food world, the more we copy (With credits) the better no? we share and try! isn't that the beauty of cooking and eating!

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  20. Thank you for being such a nice "copy cat" and to share this amazing focaccia. I can tell you one thing though...I will not be slicing all those Spanish olives, because we have them already sliced...LOL
    Your focaccia turned out gorgeous, spongy, and delcious. I will visit the original "cat"...LOL...and I will also want to be another "copy cat" to make this fabulous focaccia:D

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  21. Hi Veronica! Thanks for the shout out!

    I'm so glad the recipe worked out for you :) And I should say that you'd done much better than I did! Especially in folding the ingredients into the dough itself!

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  22. Veronica, I have made this type of bread before and absolutely loved it. It was one of the first types of bread that Valerie from A Canadian Foodie had taught me. Yours looks much yummier than mine. Love the addition of the black olives and sundried tomatoes. I could just eat this as is.

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  23. LeQuan: You are so lucky, you have Valerie to teach you how to make the bread. I wish stay near you guys and can join in the fun.

    Echo's Kitchen: Thanks for dropping by and love such a nice comment.

    Alan: Thanks so much. It means a lot when a compliment comes from you:D

    Elisabeth: HUGS! Good to see you and I just visited your blog and find that you and family had a wonderful father's day!. Life is good isn't it?

    daphne: You are right! Copy and learn, fail and try again.

    wendycooks: it is so kind of you to say that but I am really just an amateur photographer. I am learning from all my food blogger friends but slowly and surely I see improvement in my photos. Me too, I love looking at beautiful and mouth watering food photos.

    Jeannie: Oh please! you will love it.

    Mom: Many thanks for your visit. I am delighted to hear that you will visit me often.

    Bananaz: hahaha, you are so funny, ya,ya, there is no cat in copycat and it is a fact the money see money do so in this case I am the Monkey! hehehe

    Yummybakes, Three-cookies, Marnely, That Girl: Thanks and really appreciate you guys taking time to leave me your kind words.

    Pureglutton: Yes it is easy, one of the easiest bread to bake.

    Shirley: Thanks. If you come to KL for holiday, let me know in advance, maybe can bake you some but if it is not durian season then it will the normal cream puff.

    ping: Good point!

    Wendy: thanks, a compliment comes from a "Sifu" is very much appreciated:D

    Nobel4lit: I am glad you grew out of not liking olive, if not you miss our a lot of yummy food the has olive as an ingredient.

    Jasmine: You brighten up my day! I am so happy to hear.

    Kristy: looking forward to see your version of focaccia soon.

    Reese: Thanks, hope to catch up with you soon.

    David: You are always so supportive and encouraging. Thanks and HUGS!

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  24. I am so glad you shared this with all of us, I would love to be a copy cat too, but then isn't that why we are all here blogging? We love to share. This looks fantastic...right up my ally! Yum!

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  25. This is a keeper; love it!
    Rita

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  26. i just noticed that you changed your profile photo..look good both of you! i just saw the photo in quaylo's blog.first of all, can i ask something? is alan a he or a she? i'm laughing when i type this question out..sshh..never mind, i think i better ask alan in his/her blog!haha! i've seen alan's foccacia earlier, really beautiful and yours look just as great as alan's. btw, your photographs are also as excellent as alan's..both of you..in chinese we say 'poon kan 8 leong!'

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  27. Lyndsey: Always happy to:D

    Rita: Glad you like this.

    Lena: Ya I did, see how long you did not come visit me? Alan is "HE" Lucy! hehehe As regards to photos, mine is far from Alan's but it is good to hear from you that it is comparable.

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  28. Wow, this is a lovely focaccia!! now you are making me feel like making it too !

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  29. @petite nyonya
    You probably can do better than this! :D

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