Kenny Rankin is Fifteen's Head Baker with over 20 years experience. He's responsible for providing the flagship restaurant in London with the best standard of Italian-style breads. Alongside his baking expertise, Kenny is responsible for training and mentoring the chef apprentices in the skill of artisan bakery. "Fifteen is great because everything is cooked with integrity – you can always trace where the ingredients are from and that's important to me. Also there's so much you can do with the apprentices, you can teach them the basics but there's also the Swiss and French style bakery that's invaluable learning. Baking is such a dying art and is one of the oldest and most important skills we can teach the apprentices." Here's Kenny's favourite recipe for rosemary focaccia, best made in a wood fired oven.
Kenny Rankin's rosemary focaccia
Nutritional Information - Amount per serving:
- Calories 439kcal
- Carbs 81.9g
- Sugar 1.7g
- Fat 5.3g
- Saturates 0.8g
- Protein 14.4g
Method
Combine the bread flour, 00 flour, water, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl and kneed gently until smooth. This should take approximately 5-10mins. Cover the mixing bowl with a tea towel and leave to rest, in a warm place, for 45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. This allows the bread to become lighter and softer in texture.
Whilst the dough is rising, prepare a baking tray by lightly oiling the base and sides using vegetable oil. Now's a good time to make sure your wood fire oven is pre-lit and ready for your bread.
Transfer the dough to the baking tray. Spread out evenly using the palm of your hands and gently expel the gas from the dough (you'll notice that the dough is airy). Drizzle some olive oil over the surface of the dough using your fingertips; 'dimple' the dough ensuring that you don't press all the way through to the base. Cover with tea towel and leave to rest in a warm place for a further 20-40mins, or until the dough has doubled in size.
Place the baking tray in the wood fire oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden; this will vary depending on temperature so it's best to keep a close eye on the bread for your first attempt. Just prior to the bread coming out of the wood fire oven, mix together the topping of 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of water. Whisk lightly until it becomes an opaque emulsion. Once removed, brush the bread with the emulsion (I use a pastry brush), which makes the bread surface moist.
To finish, stud the bread with fresh sprigs of rosemary and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve warm with a small bowl of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
BUYING SUSTAINABLY SOURCED FISH
Buying sustainably sourced fish means buying fish that has been caught without endangering the levels of fish stocks and with the protection of the environment in mind. Wild fish caught in areas where stocks are plentiful are sustainably sourced, as are farmed fish that are reared on farms proven to cause no harm to surrounding seas and shores.
When buying either wild or farmed fish, ask whether it is sustainably sourced. If you're unable to obtain this information, don't be afraid to shop elsewhere – only by shopping sustainably can we be sure that the fantastic selection of fish we enjoy today will be around for future generations.
For further information about sustainably sourced fish, please refer to the useful links below:
Marine Stewardship Council
http://www.msc.org/
Fish Online
http://www.fishonline.org
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