onion focaccia

Da and I enjoy eating focaccia. The smell of the herbs when the bread is warmed up in the oven is simply heavenly.

In the old days, I used to spread my home-made garlic spread onto french loaf when I made garlic bread. Nowadays, I prefer to use focaccia. When I am pressed for time, I will buy Gardenia focaccia. If I have the luxury of time, I will make my own focaccia.

Recently, I watched an episode of "Chef at Home" on the Asian Food Channel. In that episode, Chef Michael Smith made olive focaccia. It looked heavenly! I am amazed at how easy he makes cooking / baking look. It is indeed a source of encouragement for me. Other than "Chef at Home", my other favourite programmes on the Asian Food Channel are "Sugar" and the "River Cottage" series.

The Asian Food Channel website contains some of the recipes from some of the programmes. I could not find the recipe for olive focaccia by Michael Smith in the website. However, I found Jamie Oliver's recipe for focaccia with rosemary and olive oil topping. Jamie Oliver is one of my favourite chefs. Like Michael Smith, Jamie Oliver makes cooking / baking easy and that is the way it should be. If Pebbles can cook, so can you! (sorry for the little pun.... *grin*)

Onion focaccia can be eaten on its own or with a creamy based soup (such as clam chowder soup). All you need to do is to warm it up in the oven and it is ready to be eaten. You can, of course, eat it without warming it up. However, it tastes better when eaten warm.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp dry yeast
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp dried rosemary leaves
2 tsp dried thyme leaves
2 tsp dried parsley flakes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup warm water
1 medium red onion (about 80g) (finely sliced)
1 tbsp grated sea salt
1 tbsp olive oil (for drizzling)

METHOD

1. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.

3. Add the yeast, cheese and herbs to the flour mixture. Mix well.

4. Pour in the oil and water gradually to the flour mixture and mix to a soft dough.

5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface. Dust your hands with flour and knead the dough for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

6. Place the dough on the lined baking tray and press into a rectangular shape.

7. Cover the dough with a cling wrap and place the baking tray in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

8. Remove the cling wrap. Sprinkle the dough with the onion slices and grated sea salt. Drizzle with 1 tbsp of olive oil.

9. Bake in an oven preheated to 220 degrees celsius for 25 minutes.