Bad Indian Lunch Buffet tour

Posted by Kathryn @ 1:35 PM

This is a long standing tradition with my friend Aman. Unfortunately, now we are separated by hundreds of miles and therefore cannot get large groups of friends together for lunch. Essentially the concept was that we would go to as many Indian buffets as possible in the suburbs of DC and then decide what was the worst buffet. I figure Aman's votes should have counted double at least at the Punjabi options, but as you might expect. We didn't really ever make it to the voting stage of this endeavor. After trying a plethora of places we all just fell into a comfortable format of one or two favorite locations. You can tell how serious we were about the "bad" portion of the tour. Once one of our favorite places had a fly in with the lentil soup that you eat with Idli and we realized that we were back to our original plan after all... the bad Indian buffet had crept up on us, when we least expected it.

So with my fond memories of checking out all of the Indian options, I decided to try a similar adventure here in PGH! My first outing with the Indian buffet group (although this time without the desire to find the worst) was a small but cordial bunch of coworkers. We all had previously had Star of India and thought it was time to branch out a bit. We decided to trudge through the slush on Craig up to Namaste (at Centre ave). When we got there, to our surprise... there was no buffet! A buffet table yes, but actual buffet, no. So we quickly turned around and visited Tamarind on Craig. Apropos of little, the name reminded me of the tamarind paste I love on South American snow cones, oh how I look forward to those. It was a Friday during lent, so I was quite happy with the vegetarian selections at this South Indian buffet. In comparison to Star of India I liked the vegetarian selections better at Tamarind, but the naan is far superior at Star of India. My meat eating companions seemed like the meat entrees could be better... aka meatier, but considering the other foods on the buffet were quite diverse, and the regional influence this did not surprise me. I was terribly disappointed with the fried lentil patties ( look like yellow indian falafel) that were reminiscent of hockey pucks. I had expected so much more from this mouth searing south indian delight that I had enjoyed from Amma's Vegetarian Kitchen in Virginia so many times. The potatoes with coconut were my hands down favorite of the day. In general though, I would say it is worth stopping through until I do find the veritable best Indian buffet in town.

So now the question is, where should the next stop be on the Indian buffet tour of Pittsburgh! I am contemplating Prince of India or Peoples. We will have to wait and see.

Moules Craving

Posted by Kathryn @ 9:16 AM

I got home from work, opened the refrigerator trying to plan out our dinner, but I felt entirely uninspired. Then I thought... Hmm mussels would be good. I quickly considered my favorite mussels recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer- Crostini del Mare Makes approximately 25 crostini

• Half a skinny baguette ( i sometimes want the whole thing to sop up the juices
• Tablespoons olive oil, approximately
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsley, plus extra to decorate
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds mussels
• 18 ozs Littleneck or Manilla clams
• 1 Tablespoon Vermouth or white wine

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the bread into slices, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. You need about 25 slices for the amount of chopped seafood topping here. If you want crostini: Using a pastry brush or your fingers, dab the bread, on both sides, with the olive oil and sit these lightly oil-brushed slices on a rack over a roasting pan and bake for about 5-10 minutes, turning once. Otherwise you can just use fresh untoasted slices.

Put the garlic and parsley into a large saucepan with the oil and cook, stirring, over a low heat for a couple of minutes. Pour in the cleaned mussels and clams, turn the heat to high, add the tablespoon of vermouth or wine and put on the lid. Cook for 4-5 minutes, You may want to shake the pan a few times throughout.

If desired, Chop the shellfish flesh finely with a mezzaluna or knife then spread onto the crostini and sprinkle over some more chopped parsley. Eat while still warm.

As you may know mussels on their own are a super easy and quick dinner paired with a nice chunk of fresh baguette. As I am still on the hunt for the best baguette in town and didn't have any mussels around, I decided instead that we would be going out to Point Brugge. For those of you familiar with the limited but good haunts in the Point Breeze neighborhood this news is old hat. But for those of you that haven't had an opportunity to venture to this portion of the city, run don't walk. Point Brugge is a lovely Belgian cafe with a fabulous beer selection, but there is a catch in that it is packed on the average weekday night. I particularly like their sour flemish beers and a nice plate of moules and frites.... It is simply decadent.

Winter Comfort Food

Posted by Kathryn @ 11:33 AM

As some of you may know, Pittsburgh gets rather cold in the winter. It definitely feels like soup or stew weather most of the time, so when I was watching Jamie Oliver's most recent series and he did a Guinness Steak and Cheese pie, my head almost spun. It combined three of the great food loves of my life- pie, cheese, and Guinness. I simply had to make the recipe.

Of course then I struggled to find an actual copy of the recipe. Usually www.foodnetwork.com has the recipes, but apparently Jamie has not officially released this particular dish, so I found a backup source.

The recipe is lacking in some specifics. I used about a pound of mushrooms and a11/2 pounds of brisket in my stew. I also threw in extra flour because several reviews remarked that it gets a bit runny. Next time though I would just not add any additional stock or water on top of the beer. Since there are just two of us at home I also decided to make 1 smaller pie and freeze the extra filling for future pies. For a 1/3 of the stew you need 1 sheet of pepperidge farm puff pastry. I know I know, Dufour is far superior, but not as readily available, so this attempt was with the Pepperidge farm. It was divine. Everyone should try it. I just can't say enough for this recipe.