Sambal & Potato Focaccia

Like many over the pandemic, I decided it was a good time to learn how to bake bread. Why? Especially considering there was a shortage of flour… I have no idea, lol. Maybe it provided me some sort of comfort to learn a new skill, who knows! What I do know, is that baking bread is satisfying AF! Satisfaction in making and DEFINITELY in eating. Maybe that’s because so many of us find the process so intimidating. This recipe is so easy that any one can make it, seriously you can’t f*ck it up. Once you’ve mastered the bread, you can go your own adventure with the toppings. Here I have shared one of my favorites with potato, cheese and sambal olek. If you’re not familiar with Sambal Olek, it’s a chilli paste typically from South-East Asia and is made of chillies (obviously) and other good sh!t like ginger, garlic, shrimp paste (trust me, it doesn’t taste shrimpy), palm sugar and lime juice. It’s a fridge essential in my opinion. You can add it a quick weeknight stir-fry, marinades, soups, blah blah blah, pretty much anything you want to have a spicey kick. Paired with the bread, potato, herbs and cheese, the sambal brings something unexpected to this focaccia. Highly recommend!

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Sambal & Potato Focaccia

Yield: 8-12

Ingredients

Dough

• 7g sachet dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 600ml warm water
• 650g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons salt (or according to your taste)
• ½ cup olive oil, divided

Topping

• 300g potatoes, boiled and cooked through
• 200g fresh bocconcini (sub for fresh mozzarella)
• 3 tablespoons sambal olek
• 2 cloves garlic
• Small handful basil leaves
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• Flaky salt

Instructions

1. Mix together the dried yeast, honey and warm water together in a large mixing bowl. Whisk, then leave for 15 minutes until a foam forms.
2. To the bowl, add the flour and salt. Stir to combine until you have a shaggy/rough dough and no dry flour is left.
3. Add ¼ cup of olive oil to the dough and cover your hands with some of it. Perform 12 stretch and folds, rotating a quarter turn each time*. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight or if you want to make this the same day, leave covered at room temperature for 2-4 hours or until doubled in size.
4. Grease and line 24x36 cm (9x13 inch) inch baking tray** with baking paper, pour in ¼ cup olive oil. The tray should be at least an inch in depth. Remove dough from the fridge and tip into the tray.
5. Greasing your hands with the olive oil in the tray, spread to the size of the tin. Don’t worry if it doesn’t spread out fully. Leave to rise for at an hour, covered lightly with a tea towel.
6. While the dough is rising heat the oven to 220C (200C fan-forced). Make the sambal oil by crushing garlic cloves and basil leaves in a mortar and pestle with a little salt, until a rough paste is formed. Add in the sambal olek and ¼ cup of olive oil, mix until well combined.
7. Using well oiled fingers, make indents all over the bread and then evenly spoon over the sambal olek mixture. Using your hands, roughly break up the potatoes into chunks and push into the dough. Do the same with the cheese. Sprinkle with a little flaky salt.
8. Put into the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

* Stretch and folds: Keeping the dough in the bowl, lightly coat your hands with some of the oil in there. Then slip your hand down one side of the bowl, pull up the edge of the dough and fold over the top. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat.

**Using a roasting tray this size makes the focaccia approximately 4cm thick. You can use a wider pan for a thinner bread or a smaller one for thicker. Most importantly, ensure the tray has high sides as the bread will rise a fair bit.

http://recipes/sambal-and-potato-focaccia