Fried! Kimchi! Focaccia!
I promise it is every bit as divine as it sounds.
Is this just a kimchi blog now? (See here and here, and also now here.) I hope so. And based on how many of you are telling me how much you liked the kimchi bibim guksu recipe, it seems like maybe you do too.
I am so excited to share this kimchi focaccia recipe with y’all. I served a version of this at a Lebanese-Korean dinner pop-up I recently cooked with my friend Edy Massih, who owns the adorable Edy’s Grocer in Greenpoint. From February to July, he hosts a monthly series of small, intimate dinners at the grocer with different chef friends, and I’m delighted to say it’s as fun to cook for as it is to be a guest at the table. And for those who weren’t able to attend, over the next few weeks I’m going to share a bunch of the recipes from our dinner, adapted for the home kitchen, so you can enjoy these dishes at home.
As anyone who loves kimchi pancakes, kimchi fried rice, kimchi carbonara or ramen, etc. etc. will know, kimchi’s two great loves are 1) anything fatty and 2) carbs. So while focaccia was not the first match that came to mind, I realized it is rich in both oil (fat) and carbs which means, as I suspected, it’s a perfect canvas for some umami butter-fried kimchi, as well as lots of scallions for freshness and toasted sesame oil and seeds for some savory bass notes.
The focaccia recipe is adapted from my friend Claire Saffitz’s Soft and Crispy Focaccia recipe, which you can find in her great first cookbook, Dessert Person. It’s wonderfully light and fluffy, with an airy, open crumb and satisfyingly big bubbles throughout. If you’d like to spread this recipe out over the course of a couple of days, you can make the dough and let it slowly do its first rise in the fridge up to 24 hours in advance. You can also make the fried kimchi topping a few days ahead, storing it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake the bread. If for some reason you have a mass of kimchi, you could always fry up a little extra and store it in the fridge, at the ready to stir-fry with some broccoli or mix into some hot rice with a fried egg.
P.S. This bread is, as you can imagine, devastatingly good topped with bits of crisp bacon or pancetta.
Without further ado:
Fried Kimchi Focaccia
Makes 1 sheet pan
Ingredients
6 cups (780 g) bread flour
1 envelope (2¼ tsp.) active dry yeast
2 Tbsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 Tbsp. Morton kosher salt, plus more
½ cup (110 g) extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 cups (from one 16-oz. jar) chopped Napa cabbage kimchi
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced into rounds
2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
3 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
Flaky sea salt, for topping
Preparation
Make the dough. Combine bread flour and 2½ cups (567 g) room-temperature water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula until a shaggy dough forms and no dry bits of flour remain. Cover bowl with a dinner plate or plastic wrap and let sit 30 minutes.
When the 30 minutes is almost up, combine yeast and ½ cup (113 g) lukewarm water (about 105-110°F) in a small bowl and whisk to dissolve yeast. Let sit until slightly foamy, about 5 minutes. Pour yeast mixture into bowl with dough and use a clean hand to squish and pinch the dough to incorporate the liquid.
Place the bowl on the mixer and fit with a dough hook. Mix dough on medium-high for 5 minutes. Add salt and mix until the dough is very smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes (it will still be very sticky; this is normal!) Perform the windowpane test: Pinch off a small piece of dough and stretch it between your fingers until the dough is as thin as you can make it without tearing. If you can see light through the dough, it’s ready. If the dough tears, mix it for another 2 minutes and do the windowpane test again.
Proof the dough once. Pour ¼ cup of the olive oil into a large bowl and swirl to coat bottom and sides of the bowl. Use a flexible rubber spatula or a bench scraper to scrape the dough into the bowl. Use your fingers to dab some of the oil from the bowl over the surface of the dough. Cover the dough and let it sit at room temperature until it is roughly doubled in size, about 1-1½ hours. (If you don’t want to bake the focaccia right away, you can also transfer the covered bowl to the fridge and chill the dough overnight or up to 24 hours; it will slowly rise in the fridge.)
Make the fried kimchi topping. Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat until it just starts to brown, taking care not to let it burn (it will sputter a little—sorry and be careful!) Add kimchi and cook, stirring occasionally, until edges start to brown, 8-10 minutes. Season with salt. Transfer fried kimchi to a small bowl and let cool. (The fried kimchi topping can be made up to 3 days ahead. Cover and chill; bring back to room temperature before topping focaccia.)
When I say stretch, I mean stretch! Stretch and fold the dough and transfer to pan. Drizzle the remaining ¼ cup olive oil over a rimmed half-sheet pan (18 x 13 inches). With oiled hands, grab one side of the dough and stretch it up and over to the other side. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat this stretch and fold. Repeat until you’ve made your way around the bowl and completed 4 sets of stretch and folds.
Pick up dough and transfer to the prepared baking sheet; turn to coat in oil. Let rest for 10 minutes. With lightly oiled hands, gently stretch out dough in all directions to fill out the pan. If the dough wants to resist and springs back, let it rest another 10 minutes and try again.
Proof the dough again. Let dough rise uncovered until nearly doubled in height (it should reach near the top of the pan) and poking an oiled finger in the dough leaves a slight depression that slowly springs back. This can take anywhere from under an hour to a couple of hours, so keep an eye on the dough, not the clock.
Top and bake the focaccia. Place a rack in the lower third of the oven; preheat to 450°F.
Evenly top the dough with the fried kimchi, scallions, and sesame seeds. With oiled hands, dimple the focaccia all over by pressing your fingertips deep into the dough until you touch the bottom of the pan. Drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Bake focaccia until puffed and deeply golden brown all over, 20–30 minutes.
Cool and serve. Let focaccia cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then use a thin flexible spatula to loosen it from the pan. Slice warm focaccia into squares or rectangles and be astonished at how quickly it disappears.
