Summer Harvest

It's the end of August and now your summer garden is flourishing. This is what you've been waiting for all summer. Fresh picked tomatoes and vegetables from your back yard. This Caprese salad utilizes some of the best ingredients I planted this year. I used Lemon boy tomatoes and whole fresh basil leaves. Then Drizzled with Extra Virgin Olive Oil , and a little white balsamic vinegar because I like that extra acidic flavor. A few chunky slices of hard salami and garnished with thinly sliced red cabbage to being some color to the dish. Sea Salt is an absolute must, along with fresh ground black pepper. You can use your favorite mozzarella cheese or if your really wanna go all-out, you can make your own homemade Mozzarella. I Hope this has inspired you to utilized everything in your garden.

Movie-Night Delight

Mac and Cheese is a great meal, snack, or side dish that always satisfies a craving for cheese. College students live off easy mac. Its a great thing to eat on a Saturday night while watching a movie on the couch. Here's a recipe for those cheese lovers out there. It goes great with some homemade unsweetened raspberry iced tea!

Ingredients


-1 1/2 C grated Gruyere Cheese
-1 1/2 C grated
-1 1/2 C rindless Brie
-5 TBSP Butter, divided
-1/4 C all purpose flour
-2 TSP chopped fresh thyme
-3/4 TSP nutmeg
-4 C whole milk
-1 3/4 C breadcrumbs
-1 LB Rotini pasta

Directions

- Mix all cheeses. Set aside 1 cup for topping; cover and chill. Melt 4 TBSP butter in large sauce pan over medium heat. Add flour and stir until mixture turns golden brown, about 4 minutes. Add thyme and nutmeg. Gradually whisk in milk. Simmer until thickened and smooth, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Add cheeses from large bowl. Stir until melted and smooth.

Melt 1 TBSP butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add breadcrumbs; toss. Stir until golden, about 2 minutes. Transfer to plate. Preheat oven to 375F. Cook pasta in boiling salted water until tender but fir to the bite. Drain. Transfer to large bowl. Pour cheese sauce over; toss. Divide among eight custard cups, or large casserole pan. Sprinkle with 1 C cheese. Place cups or pan on a baking sheet. Cook for about 15-20 min; or until cheese is browned on top. Let cool for about 5 min before serving. Garnish with extra thyme sprigs.

Cooking Fireside

Camping is a popular get away for people of all ages. Its a great way to escape the heat and not deal with Jersey Shore traffic. Sometimes, cooking while your out in the woods can be a bit of a challenge. For me, I like to find simple, delicious foods that will stay fresh even if kept in a cooler. Many people usually stick to the basics-hamburgers and hotdogs. If you go to a campground that provides a grill/fire-pit combo it will make cooling a lot less stressful. You can also purchase a small propane burner that is very portable if your planning on hiking to your desired campground. I have found that the best piece of cooking equipment is one round cast iron pan. These are easy to clean, and still give you that charred taste that you desire on your burgers and BBQ. I found mine for just 11$ at a TJ Maxx. Instead of buying an entire grill set with tongs, scraper, grill brush, and grill pad all separately, you can find a combination of brush, scraper and pad which is small and compact. I usually just buy a cheap pair of tongs that are lightweight and good for grilling. It is important to choose things that are light and can pack easily. Also, pack some large zip-lock bags to store any extra meats (Tupperware can take up a lot of space), and don't forget to bring a small sharp knife.

For me, I always am hungry while camping, so finding things that are somewhat healthy and also filling are important. When you go to get food for your trip, look for meats that are vacuum sealed and veggies that are pre-cleaned, meaning onions that don't need to be peeled. This will save you a lot of space and not fill your trash bags full of Styrofoam containers. Choose things that everyone will enjoy. For example; if you have a vegetarian in your group, think about either bringing two pans to cook meat seperatly in, or a pot to cook pasta/ grains in.

Here is an idea for cooking fireside.

Serves 4

Asian style flat iron steak sandwich with Asian slaw served on a baguette or on pita.

ingredients:
1 Flat iron steak
1 baguette
4 Tbsp Chili oil
4 Tbsp Mayo
8 Fresh Cilantro Sprigs
1 Tsp Wasabi


For the Slaw (This can be made prior to serving and stored in the cooler)
2 Tbsp Agave nectar
1/4 C Rice wine vinegar
1/2 C julienned carrot
1/2 C julienned Daikon
S+P
- place all ingredients in a small bowl with 1/2 C water and toss to combine.

For the Sandwich
- Cook the steak till desired temp. While the steak is cooking assemble the Sandwich. Slice the baguettes into equal portions, mix the wasabi and the mayo together and spread on both sides of the bread. When the Steak is done Slice thinly into about 2 in portions, layer with fresh cilantro sprigs and asian slaw. Serve and enjoy.

StoneRose recent events

The past few months have been quite exciting and eventful. We started with Restaurant Rally in the spring. We served our short-ribs mac and cheese dish and the sweet chili calamari. We had a great turn out and everyone loved the food. We actually ended up winning Conshohocken's best restaurant.

                                        Brian Pieri (Owner), Me, and Jay Mase (Executive Chef)

In June, we participated in Conshohocken Restaurant Week. This is a way for the restaurant to bring in new customers and have people try our menu at an affordable price. It was a Prix-Fix menu with three courses including a dessert. It went very well, and once again we had rave reviews.

This week, began with some great specials and interesting menu ideas, but was cut short due to a fire which happened overnight on Wednesday evening, around 4 AM. We are still unsure of the cause, but it devastated the  kitchen and restaurant. There were no injuries or any damage to other buildings besides minor smoke damage. Now that our kitchen is gone, what we are doing is rebuilding the whole place making it bigger and better. This will allow us to construct the kitchen the way me and the executive chef would like it. We will be able to work on new ways of cooking and improving our menu until we are reopen. We are all trying to look at the positive side of this fire and have had an overwhelming outreach from the people of Conshohocken. This itself has been inspiring and motivating to come back better and stronger than ever.

Fresh ideas

Jason and I have been working on some great new dishes for the Spring Menu and The StoneRose. Come check them out the next two weeks on special. Jay has some killer ideas including Veal Dumplings, and Calamari. My ideas include a fresh chopped salad and a Yellow fin Tuna Tar tare. If your not familiar with Tar tare, its basically raw fish cut into small dice and served as a refined appetizer. WE are also bring in some new plates to explore different plating techniques for the entire menu. In addition to new items we are working on changing some existing dishes already on the menu, making improvements, and lightening them up for spring and summer. Here's The Tuna Tar tare that I experimented with tonight at work. It will be run as a specials a few days this week, so stop in and let me know what you think!

Eating your way through San Fransisco: North Beach

In California, the variety of food is endless. There is every kind of cuisine imaginable in San Francisco. If you are not familiar with San Fransisco, It is separated by neighborhoods, which are very culturally different. 

 North Beach, right near the downtown area, is mainly Italian and called "Little Italy", much like in NYC. It is full of great Italian restaurants, delis, pizza shops and markets. I explored North Beach while eating a 1/2 lb of soppresatta tuscana, and a slice of the best pizza I have ever tried. There were some very exciting restaurants to check out. It has so many places to try, the best Italian meats and wine bars in the city hands

down. Its defiantly a spot for any meal or time of the day or night, considering it also hosts the Red Light District of San Fransisco.

The Stinking Rose is a restaurant that celebrates garlic in every way imaginable. There is even a huge garlic braid that weaves through the entire restaurant. Its defiantly a destination restaurant worth trying.

North Beach Restaurant is a high end restaurant which hosts everyone who is well known in the city including the Mayor. It is a pricey Tuscan style restaurant, with the very talented chef Bruno Orsi, and a fairly extensive menu. There is a nice variety of veal on the menu which looked the most intriguing to my taste. If you want to blow lots of money on food and wine, this is the spot. I met a Waiter who was on a cigarette break and was telling me how one of the requirements of being hired for front-of-the-house was being able to carry at least 40lb trays above your head to your table. Defiantly a talent which one cannot acquire overnight.

Fish and the city

In San Francisco on e of the best things to eat is the sushi. Seafood in general, is awesome in San Fran, but the sushi is defiantly the best Ive had anywhere. I will talk about all the food I tried out in California in the next posts, I just wanted to talk about the Sushi first. The restaurants are very unique. Some, called Sushi Boats, have the chefs in the middle of a big circle, and around the outside where the people sit are little boats that go by with 2 pieces of sushi on them. So you get to see each one as it goes by and decide which one you'd wanna pick up. Then you just take your stack of plates and you pay by the amount of plate. Its a great way to try all different kinds of rolls without spending a lot of money, because each plate was only 2.00. Another perk of going to the sushi boats, is that if you just want something light, and small, you don't have to pay a whole lot for food your not going to eat. For someone like me who doesn't necessarily have a HUGE appetite, it is perfect.