FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Food

How to Make Lunch with Julia Ziegler-Haynes

Welcome to our brand new how-to series called How To, where we’ll learn to achieve a wide range of cooking and drinking techniques, recipes, and anything that won’t light our hair on fire (unless that’s part of the plan).

Welcome to our brand new how-to series called How-To, where we’ll learn to achieve a wide range of cooking and drinking techniques, recipes, and anything that won’t light our hair on fire (unless that’s part of the plan). Joined by musicians, chefs, artists, actors, writers, home cooks, and anyone with a skill set we’d like to learn, we’ll explore a varied spectrum of skills that we can all keep in our back pockets to look like pros in any situation. This week, we teamed up with artist and chef Julia Ziegler-Haynes, the mastermind behind the Dinner Bell, one of Brooklyn’s most beloved supper clubs. We caught up with Julia in her kitchen the day after the Dinner Bell took place somewhere in Brooklyn, where she taught us how to make lunch with leftovers. Joined at the kitchen table by her friends, musicians Merica Lee and George Michael Jackson from the Naked Heroes, Julia revives leftovers and the entire notion of lunch altogether as she whips up an impressive sandwich that pulls the trump card on PB&J: lamb-meatball sandwiches topped with ramp aioli and fennel slaw on homemade focaccia bread. When she wasn’t caught massaging the focaccia dough, occasionally yelling at her guests, or waxing poetic about weird scents that turn men on, Julia showed us some serious food-porn shots that fogged up our camera lens. One handkerchief just wasn’t enough to help us out on this shoot. Check out Julia’s homemade focaccia recipe featured in the video below:

Advertisement

Focaccia

By Julia Ziegler Haynes

Chef’s Note: I used an electric mixer, but this is very easy to stir together in a large mixing bowl.

Ingredients:

7 cups unbleached flour

2 tsp. yeast

3 1/2 cups water

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs. kosher salt

Directions:

1. Add dry ingredients together, stir to combine. Add water and stir well to incorporate. You will be left with a sticky blob. Drizzle half of your olive oil on top and drape a damp (clean) dishtowel over the top of the bowl.

2. Let dough rest for three to four hours in a warm or sunny spot, periodically checking to make sure it is not overflowing. (Use a large bowl because this bad boy grows a lot.)

3. Thickly coat an 18" x 13" rimmed cookie sheet with the rest of your olive oil.

4. When the dough has risen to be at least twice its size, pour it out onto the sheet. Spread you fingers out wide, keeping your hands flat, press down and outward on the dough. Spread the dough toward the edges of the cookie sheet without poking holes in it.

5. Heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. While the oven is heating, allow the dough to rise again. Sprinkle heavily with coarse sea salt.

6. Bake until golden brown, approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

Hungry for another serving of lamb?

Lambstock Leaves Me Weak