Skip to main content

Casual cooking - Preserved Mayer Lemon Foccaccia


My 'burn out' from daily recipes is yet to dissipate, but I think I still plod on. Quickly scribbling down ideas as they pop into my head and before they disappear, like the same flash with which they crossed my train of thought. My support system comprising of fellow bloggers gave me a much need 'kick in the pants' last weekend when we met up at home for a casual lunch. Siri, the bubbly author of 'Cooking with Siri',  Radhika  ( Food for 7 stages of life ) and Latha ( A Peek into my Kitchen ). 

(L to R: Siri, Me, Radhika & Latha)

As is with all the food bloggers I've met so far, there was no ice to break whatsoever, the conversation just flowed, along with the wine & food!

Quinoa, roasted corn & Black bean tabbouleh with pomegranate

Motivation all fired up, I decided that I was going to surprise my son by making him Pizza for Dinner. My standard go - to failproof recipe for the dough is from Food52 - in particular Jim Lahey's no knead Pizza dough  'Genius' recipe



This time around, partly accidentally and partly on purpose. I decided to tweak the dough. I used bread flour (higher gluten content) instead of the standard all purpose flour and (accidentally) used a whole packet of yeast instead of the recommended 1 teaspoon. The result was a rather 'liquidy' looking dough that I definitely did  NOT feel confident of rolling into a Pizza round. So, in the interest of not wasting precious ingredients, decided to 'pour' out the dough into a well oiled baking pan and make a focaccia instead. once that was decided, the choice of toppings just fell into place.

Preserved lemon Focaccia


You need: (For the dough)

500 gms Bread flour (you can substitute with All purpose flour if you want, the bread will not be quite as chewy)
1 packet active dried yeast (the regular one,  not the instant/rapid rise )
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups water at room temperature

For the topping:

1 preserved lemon,  chopped (added bonus if its a Mayer lemon)
2 tablespoons rosemary needles coarsely cut up
1-2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes or Korean chili threads (if available)
1-2 tablespoon brown sugar.






Combine the flour, yeast and the salt in a large mixing bowl. Gradually pour in the water, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until all the flour seems to be moist. Cover and place in a warm place for about a couple of hours (~3 hrs)  until the dough has more than doubled its original volume (it should look like its completely rising up the sides of the bowl with no discernible shape.

Liberally coat a 13 * 9 inch baking pan with olive oil and 'pour' out the dough into the pan. using greased finger tips gently press down the dough so that it evenly fills out the entire base. The surface of the dough should be uneven and feel free to 'dimple' the dough with your fingertips. Sprinkle the chopped preserved lemon, rosemary , brown sugar and the chili pepper flakes / threads.
(I did sprinkle on some added flaked salt but that kinda over salted the bread, so my advice, leave it out even though you see those flakes in the photographs).

Allow the dough to rise again for about 15 - 20 minutes (A great time to click those 'before baking' pictures!). During this time, Preheat the oven to 450 F (230 C).

Place the dough into the oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes until the top turns a golden brown color.


 Once the bread is ready, allow it to cool slightly before cutting it up. Swallow whole or in pieces at room temperature or slightly warm. It tastes best when eaten the day its baked.

Anyone who may feel intimidated by ingredients like preserved lemon - Don't be.. the classic Indian 'Neembu ka achar' (without the red chili pepper and asafetida) is a perfect substitute.

Bon Appetit!


Comments

  1. Jim Lahey's no knead Pizza is the best. I made couple of years ago and posted on my blog. The pizza recipe itself is such a beautiful canvas to play around with different flavors. Had a fun time meeting you all Niv. Thank Y.O.U for opening the house for us.

    Cheers,
    Siri

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's my favorite food, are very happy to see it here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, this looks amazing. it really good and interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very nice, looks good, I like to cook, and I like bread very much

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good to see a get together event like that. I miss my old buddies.We used to party like this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is Great Post.I like it. I have some tip here
    Thank you for sharing and keep your work.
    Can I share it on my facebook?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh thank you so much for sharing this post!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for sharing this, really loved the way you hangout with your friends. Cheers.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I'd love to hear feedback from you, your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.

Popular posts from this blog

Sputtering back....

I seriously feel like this scene from the movie 3 idiots .. remember this one? The way I kept racking up drafts and eventually stopped doing that as well. Lulled into complacence by the quick high from Instagram posts. Recipe measurements hastily scribbled into a Moleskine notebook faithfully depending upon my moods. The truth is that I keep over thinking the backstories needed to make the post more interesting while in reality the truth is that ideas and inspirations just occur spontaneously (like little itches , sneezes or twitches) whenever the opportunity happens to strike. Some really cool ideas that scare the beejeezus out of me and yet prove to be utterly delightful and simple in the end. Others, that seem so trivial that I feel it wouldn't be worth crowing about -- even if there are enough other recipes in that genre that get so much publicity simply because the author happens to have the right marketing knack. So in the past 4 years that I've been

Product Review: Ninja Mega Kitchen system and a recipe for Masala Dosa

 One of the biggest reasons for attending conferences is the priceless experience of meeting fellow bloggers and get an invaluable exposure to all things  culinary. This includes vendors with new products to savor and get inspiration from. I had no complaints about whatever appliances I had for making traditional Dosa (Traditional South Indian rice & lentil crepes) batter, a sturdy tabletop stone grinder that you could add the Urad dal, turn the timer on , and 30  minutes later, come back to a container full of fluffy, batter with the consistency of whipped egg whites. The The cons of this is the cleaning up, of the various parts, the roller, the grinding bin, the multiple trays on which the rollers need to be placed while transferring the rice & lentil batter, the invariable drips of thick batter on the counter.... you get the point, It takes quite a bit of time. I was pleasantly surprised when the appliance company, Ninja asked me if I'd like to try any of their

Pickling & preserving the Buddha's Hand!

 Got your attention with that sacrilegious sounding title on this post, didn't I? Well, I'm as spiritual as the next person out there, and never in my life will I ever commit that variety of Blasphemy, so nothing to fret about. I still wonder why these curious looking citrus entities (other than the obvious visual reason) were called such. It turns out that these fruits are used as a religious offering to the Buddha. My neighboring Whole Foods Market (which is quite some distance away, in Princeton) had a stock of these weird looking citrus and I must have been the oddball customer who immediately went cuckoo on spotting them. Since I had never seen one before, I immediately went for the biggest fruit with the most tentacles (since they were sold as individual units rather than by weight) The first three 'tentacles' were peeled off for their zest, dried in the oven and went into making a citrus salt for my Food52 Secret Santa .     Making