_iamstorm Food, Fashion and Travel

Todays feature goes to _iamstorm  http://instagram.com/_iamstorm . Hazel Pascual”s profile says it all “I love Food, Fashion and Travel. Check out her Instagram feed for an eclectic mix of all three.

If you’d like to be considered for a featured spot please use hashtag #theculinarylens on your instagram images. Please share the hashtag with your friends.

Pumpkin Challah: Filled With Fall Flavor

It has been some time since I posted an actual cooking post my blog has been much more lens than culinary but I am trying to snap out of that rut. I had an afternoon at home recently and needed to repot a load of cacti which I had grown from seed and figured proofing some bread while I was working would be a good idea.

Pumpkin Challah Recipe

I used a recipe from my bread machine cookbook but actually made the bread by hand.
Source: "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook," by Beth Hensperger
1/2 cup water
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
3 large eggs
3 tbsp. light brown sugar
2 tbsp. walnut or canola oil
4-1/2 cups bleached all purpose flour
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. wheat gluten
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2-1/2 tsp. yeast
For the bread machine instructions click here.

To make the bread by hand you just follow a standard process for making a challah. I only made three strands in each loaf but you could get adventurous and and do four or six strands.
Simple Bites has a better set if instructions for the method than I could write up… http://www.simplebites.net/how-to-make-pumpkin-challah-recipe/
Here is a great instructional video if you want to do a six braid challah.

And this is what kept me busy while I waiting for the bread to proof.

Funnel Cakes and Culinary Espionage On The Boardwalk

I really did not notice the “No Photos” sign until after I had taken the picture. I then realized the funnel cake guy looked really mad at me. Being the curious kind I wondered what he could possibly have to hide. I decided to make it my mission to make a funnel cake of my own.

I did a little research and found this recipe over at tasteofhome.com.  It is very quick to put together and actually kind of fun to make. It is not the healthiest food but might be fun to have a taste of summer in the depths of winter.

Funnel cake  recipe

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Oil for deep-fat frying
• Confectioners' sugar

Click over to Taste Of Home for the instructions.

I even attempted this replacing 1/3rd of the flour with whole wheat. I would not recommend this as the finished product is not as light and airy.

Of course this can be served with any number of toppings but I had mine with some Nutella. In my humble opinion my homemade version was better than his offerings.

Eataly NYC, Amazing Food Emporium

It has been almost a year since I blogged about Eataly in NYC. I visited again over the weekend and wanted to share some photos of what I have to say is one of the most incredible food stores I have ever seen. It is somewhat outside my price range but it is enjoyable to walk around and look at the delicious items for sale.

 

 

MARIO BATALI and LIDIA BASTIANICH are two of the founding partners and it is looking like they have an winner on their hands. When I was there a year ago I assumed even if it was successful it would not stay as busy as those early days. Much to my amazement the place is still very busy.

www.eataly.com

Curried Vegetable Fritters: A Versatile Recipe

This is my reworking of the recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen for Zucchini Fritters. She describes her process as basically making Potato Latkes which is the perfect way to explain this. I decided to move away from using Zucchini alone and added Carrot and Yellow Squash which gave these a beautiful color. I also used a madras curry powder in the seasoning which added an wonderful layer of flavor. I tried making these both with and without the baking powder she suggests using. The baking powder version is much better it really lightens them up.

Vegetable Fritter Recipe

• 1 Shredded Medium Zucchini
• 1 Shredded Medium Yellow Squash
• 2 Shredded Medium Carrots
• 1 Teaspoon of Kosher Salt + Extra to Taste
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 Cup Of Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon of Madras Curry Powder or Garam Masala
• Oil For Frying

Although as you will see I changed quite a few of the ingredients the recipe is basically Smitten Kitchen’s so click over there for the directions.

I served mine with Greek  yogurt and warm pita bread.

You can use this basic idea using almost any shredded vegetable and suitable seasoning. Sliced scallions or chopped cilantro would be very good in this particular version. Also you could easily make mini versions of these to use for Hors D’Oeuvres.

 

Pleas remember there are only two days left in the Linkup and Giveaway. Check out the post and either add a link or leave a comment to be entered. There are two cool gift baskets up for grabs.

http://www.theculinarylens.com/2012/04/muir-glen-sweet-springtime-link-up-and.html

Now This Is The Way To Do a Friday Fast

If you follow the rules of the Catholic Church and abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent you might as well do it in style. Here are some of the Catch of The Day Specials we have been serving.

     

    

     

When it comes to restaurant dishes writing recipes can be very difficult. Each plate can be a combination of several component recipes. In the case of these dishes it is some simple but quality fresh ingredients well prepared and artfully presented. I cannot take credit for these dishes as they are a product of the culinary team. I am much more involved in the catering end of our operation but this is the kind of food that is produced in the main restaurant.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and My Irish Roundup

I hope everybody has a wonderful day and remember the idea is FLOAT THE SHAMROCK DON’T DROWN IT. I have had an interesting start to the Irish themed month so far and have had more posts in a short period of time than at any time in the past. I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few links in my Irish food series and a couple of older Irish themed posts for you to check out. 

While St. Patrick’s day is a great day for me to celebrate everything Irish coincidentally it was on March 17th 2005 that I was sworn in as a US citizen so I can never remember if I am American-Irish or Irish-American.

Individual Shepherd’s Pie	Beef and Guinness Casserole	Potato, Leek and Mussel Soup
Irish Soda Bread and Rhubarb Jam	Irish Soda Farls The Quickest of Quick Breads	Smoked Salmon and Dubliner Cheese Muffin
Some Of My Irish Photos	Not Your Mother’s Dublin Coddle	Meatballs With Guinness Gravy

Please remember I am keeping my Irish food link up open and would love to see your favorite Irish Themed Food Posts. Pop over and see what everyone has being sharing.

http://www.theculinarylens.com/2012/03/mikes-miscellaneous-mondays-irish-food.html

I do not go to the NYC parade every year, in fact I have been out of town the past few years. But a year I will never forget was the parade following  9-11. As you can imagine emotion was running very high. I would consider this photo one of my best ever when it comes to capturing how a lot of people were feeling at a single moment in time. I was able to find this guy using his collar pins and get copies of this to him

The picture above is create from some photos I took in Chicago at the Smith Museum of Stained Glass quite a few years back.

Irish Smoked Salmon and Dubliner Cheese Muffins

I am a big fan of Mark Bittman and own  his How to Cook Everything book and even the iphone app. The app is kind of cool with timers built into the recipes which set of an alarm on the phone.
His Muffins Infinite Ways is a great example of some of his recipes were he give you a basic recipe and the the adjustments you need to be as creative as you like.
In keeping my month of Irish food posts I decided making a a Smoked Salmon and Cheese Muffin might be good. To the basic recipe I added about 1.5 oz of chopped smoked salmon, two tablespoons of shredded Dubliner cheese and one table spoon of chopped fennel fronds (you can use dill as this is what I had on hand)
I urge you to try Dubliner cheese it's a great sharp Cheddar type cheese.

As it was a savory recipe I reduced the sugar and because I was adding smoked salmon I excluded the salt. So ttake a look at his recipe and suggestions and allow your imagination run wild.

Just one more thing pleas drop over to my Irish food link up and check out what people have being posting.. Add a link of your own and make it an even bigger party.

http://www.theculinarylens.com/2012/03/mikes-miscellaneous-mondays-irish-food.html 

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Mikes Miscellaneous Mondays An Irish Food Link Up

 Q: What is in an Irish seven course meal?
  A: A bag of potatoes and a six-pack of beer.

When people hear I cook for a living and come from Ireland they just love telling me that joke. I guess the joke could be offensive but rather than be offended I would just like some help proving the joke wrong. I would like people to share links to there favorite Irish themed blog posts.

There is no need to have a link back to this in the post but I would greatly appreciate you sharing this on your Facebook Pages, Twitter or even just send an email to a friend who might be interested.

Pleas tweet this..

@theculinarylens is having an Irish Food Link party please share a link to kill a myth http://t.co/PzPjymXk

Over time I have posted quite a few Irish posts and will add some of my own to get the ball rolling. Feel free to post more than one link.

By the way the above collage is a small collection of my photographs from my trips back to Ireland.
By the way if you have a favorite Irish restaurant or website please share a link in the comments section.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and yours.

Beef and Guinness Stew a Real Taste of Dublin Comfort Food

A nice way of turning a basic stew into dish worthy of guests is to create a crisp topping with sliced potatoes. Guinness in a stew adds a complexity and depth that will surprise you, it also gives the stew an incredible almost chocolaty color. The maple syrup just helps balance out the slight bitterness of the beer.

After making the stew and cooking it almost three hours (I do like a long slow cook) I sliced potatoes on my trusty Oxo mandoline then tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper and some chopped thyme. Layered them on top and then baked in a 350F oven for 30 minutes.

Recipe For Stew

• 1 lb Cubed Stewing beef
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 medium onions roughly diced
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 2 medium carrots peeled and sliced
• 1.5 Tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 Cup of Guinness
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon of Maple Syrup (or more if you really want to sweeten things up)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Sauté in pan beef  over high high heat till brown. Remove beef from pan leaving a little fat behind to cook the vegetable. Sauté onions and garlic till lightly browned. Mix in tomato paste and cook for a few minutes. Add flour to make a roux and mix. Next add liquids stirring constantly to avoid lumps . Add carrots and return beef to pan. Bring to simmer and lower heat. Keep on for low heat for several hours till meat is very tender.


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Mikes Miscellaneous Mondays 1st Edition.. Holy Canolli

I have come to the realization that I tend to take lots of photos of stuff that can not easily stand alone as a blog post. So I thought I would start a somewhat regular feature where I would share some stuff I just gather on my wanderings.
This is actually the photo that triggered me wanting to start this as I really wanted to share it but did not know how to frame the idea.

I cannot take credit for this but we use a great Italian bakery at work and my boss requested they make the giant cannoli's as a great way to present the minis. This looked so good on the buffet.

I wonder what they used as a cannoli tube for the large ones.

Feel free to post a link to your favorite Canolli recipe in the comments section.

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Irish Soda Farls. The Quickest Of Quick Breads

March is suddenly upon us and as it is Irish American Heritage Month I thought I would post some recipes and general food ideas from my home country. I actually do very little “Irish Cooking” but will have fun discovering my roots. I thought starting with the simplest of breads would be interesting.

If you are ever in need of something to serve along side a pot of tea I could not recommend this simple bread enough. Farls are basically a soda bread recipe which are cut into triangles and cooked on a cast iron griddle or pan. Before you start mixing heat your griddle to medium high.

• 2 Cups of All Purpose Flour
  
• 1 1/2  teaspoon Baking Soda
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 Cup of Buttermilk

Whisk  all all dry ingredients to combine. Add butter milk and mix gently to make a sticky dough. Turn onto floured surface and shape into  an 8” circle being sure not to over mix the dough. Cut circle into four quarters and cook for about eight minutes on each side. Serve warm with an nice homemade preserve or better yet a big full Irish breakfast. I used some Rhubarb Jam I made.

I plan over the coming weeks on the lead up to St Patrick’s day to share some more Irish food ideas check out below for a different take I had on Irish Soda Bread,

                                        http://www.theculinarylens.com/2011/06/irish-brown-bread-and-rhubarb-jam.html

 

You may also like to check out some of my photographs from Ireland.

http://www.theculinarylens.com/p/irish-photos.html

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