Banhoek Chilli Oil Sourdough Focaccia recipe
with za’atar, confit garlic, coat’s cheese, labneh, pomegranate, mint, pine nuts, roasted chickpeas and lemon
Focaccia is a great starter to share and it is actually quite easy to make, especially when you buy ready-made dough from your local grocery store. I made this starter for a group of friends when we got together to watch the French Open. It is also the perfect starter to bring for any other sports game, be it when the Springboks are playing rugby or during the Soccer World Cup! I have been using Banhoek Chilli Oil as a condiment for many of my dishes as it adds a great flavour without being overpowering.
Ingredients for the focaccia base
700 g–1 kg ready-made dough
Some oolive oil
3–4 tbsp Banhoek chilli oil
2–3 tbsp za’atar
10–12 cloves confit garlic
1–2 tbsp confit garlic oil
Flaky salt
The toppings
150–200 g goat’s cheese
150 g labneh
½ cup pomegranates
¼ cup pine nuts
½ cup roasted chickpeas
A large handful of fresh mint leaves
1 lemon
Extra Banhoek chilli oil
Za’atar
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
How to prepare the focaccia
Remove the ready-made dough from the fridge and leave it out to get to room temperature for 45–60 minutes. This makes it easier to stretch and helps it bake more evenly.
Generously cover a baking tray with olive oil.
Place the dough onto the oiled tray. Gently stretch it out with your hands. Do not force it. If it springs back, let it rest for 10–15 minutes, then stretch again. Continue until the dough fills most of the tray.
Cover the stretched dough loosely with a clean tea towel or some cling film and leave to rise until puffy and relaxed. This process will take around one to two hours but this depends on the dough and room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 230–240°C.
Drizzle the dough generously with Banhoek chilli oil, a sprinkle of za’atar and confit garlic oil, as well as some flaky salt.
You can buy confit garlic ready-made, but if you want to make your own:
Place peeled garlic cloves in a small saucepan and cover with olive oil.
Cook over very low heat for 30–40 minutes, until soft, sweet and lightly golden.
Do not let the oil boil. Leave to cool before using.
Press the confit garlic cloves gently into the dough, spacing them across the surface. Use your fingertips to dimple the dough deeply, pushing the chilli oil, garlic oil and za’atar into the surface.
Bake the focaccia for 20–28 minutes, until the focaccia is deeply golden, crisp at the edges and cooked through.
The confit garlic should become soft, sweet and lightly caramelised without burning.
Remove your foccacia from the oven and allow it to cool slightly.
In the meanwhile, toast the pine nuts and remove the fresh mint leaves from the storks.
While still warm, spoon over generous dollops of labneh. Add torn goat’s cheese, pomegranate rubies, toasted pine nuts, roasted chickpeas and fresh mint.
Finish with the zest of one lemon and some more Banhoek chilli oil, za’atar, flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you’ve made this recipe, I’d love to see it!
More recipes
Below the newsletter block, you will find some more recipes.
There are a lot of different types of meats you can cook on the braai. How about this Prime Rib Roast with Exotic Mushroom Sauce and Pak Choy? You can also make a Leg of Lamb on the braai or a Lemon & Herb Peri-Peri and Rosemary Deboned Leg of Lamb. I’ve also made Ostrich Fillet Kebabs with Nectarine and Rosemaryon the braai.
Other than meat, South Africans also love to put seafood on the braai. This braaied snoek recipe with plum jam is a winner.
If you’re looking for a side on the braai, you can either make this pull bread with pesto, mozzarella and Hellmann’s mayonnaise or make traditional braai broodjies(keep an eye out for my secret ingredient). If you have leftover gammon, these gammon braai broodjies are also to die for.
About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares restaurant reviews and accommodation reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (8), Olivia (6) and Harvey (4).
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