The Temporary Vegetarian

There's a column in the New York Times called The Temporary Vegetarian, and last month, it featured a recipe for "A Vegan Main Dish of Indian Green Beans." Halfway through my two-week dairy and soy hiatus, and this recipe is coming in handy.

Not only is it handy; it's actually very, very good--the sort of vegetable dish I can see myself making again and again. While Julie Sahni, a cooking teacher and cookbook author who created the recipe, says you can make this with cauliflower, eggplant, carrots, or brussels sprouts, I went with green beans tonight. They got plump as they cooked, and soaked up the rich sauce, a savory and spicy mix of ground cumin and coriander, red pepper flakes, and paprika, built up with finely chopped onion and garlic, and thickened with coconut milk.

Sahni suggests topping the dish with sliced almonds which you fry gently, and this is a nice touch, adding crunch and earthiness. A squirt of lime brings out even more flavor. Definitely make a pot of rice to serve alongside the beans; it helps soak up the sauce and temper the heat. We also had some seared scallops (so much for that "vegan main dish" thing--oops), which were also excellent with the coconut sauce.

I'm actually relishing the challenge of avoiding dairy and soy. It's leading me to some great new recipes--and making me so much more conscientious about what I eat.--S

Street Meat for the Rest of Us

There's a popular food truck in my neighborhood called Rafiqi's. It sells gyros and meat-and-rice combo platters that smell very good and have a come-hither sizzle, though I'm too skeeved out by the street meat stigma to actually buy it for lunch. But many of my friends are big Rafiqi fans. I should note they're all men and none of them is particularly health-conscious.

I think I may have come upon a healthy version of Rafiqi's: Indian-Spiced Chicken Burgers. The recipe, from the Everyday Food cookbook, combines dried spices (paprika, cumin, cardamom and cayenne) with fresh seasonings (ginger, lemon, scallion, cilantro), resulting in a snappy dish that is deeply and richly flavored, and not heavy at all. It's healthy, too: you grill boneless, skinless chicken thighs that you've ground up in the food processor along with the spices, using just a little bit of oil on the grill. Once the mini-burgers are cooked, you stuff them into a whole-wheat pita, slide in some cucumber slices, and top it with cilantro sprigs and a dollop of creamy cumin yogurt sauce.

I know I can't knock it 'till I've tried it, but I'll still take Indian-Spiced Chicken Burgers over Rafiqi's any day.--S

Indian-Spiced Chicken Burgers

1 1/2 lbs (4 to 5) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into rough chunks
4 scallions, thinly sliced
3 T chopped fresh ginger (from a peeled 2-inch piece)
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
1 T paprika
2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground cardamom
1/4 t cayenne pepper
Coarse salt and ground pepper
Vegetable oil, for grates
4 (6-inch) whole-wheat pitas
1 cucumber (8 ounces), halved lengthwise and thinly sliced on the diagonal
1/2 c fresh cilantro sprigs
Cumin Yogurt Sauce: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 c plain low-fat yogurt with 1/2 t ground cumin; season with coarse salt and ground pepper.

1. Heat grill to medium-high. In a medium bowl, place chicken, scallions, ginger, lemon juice, paprika, cumin, cardamom, cayenne, 1 1/2 t coarse salt, and 1/2 t pepper; toss to combine. Set aside to marinate, at least 10 and up to 30 minutes.
2. Transfer chicken mixture to a food processor; pulse until roughly chopped, but not pasty, 10 to 12 times. Gently form mixture into sixteen 3/4-inch-thick patties (about 3 T each).
3. Moisten a folded paper towel with oil; grasp with tongs and rub over grates. Season patties with salt and pepper; grill until opaque throughout, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
4. Halve pitas crosswise (toast on grill, if you like). Into each pocket, place 2 chicken patties, cucumber slices, and cilantro sprigs. Serve with Cumin Yogurt Sauce.

Recipe courtesy of Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

Spice Girl

Check out the what one of my office pals, Louisa, brought back for me from her recent trip to India. No, it's not a selection of slides of the Taj Mahal. Nor is it one of those multi-pack of postcards they sell at every major tourist attraction in the world. It's a variety of Indian spices--18 in all! Coriander, star anise, mustard seed, clove, cardamom, fenugreek, cumin, turmeric, "ani" seeds, red "chilly," something called "nutmace"... the list goes on. I was beside myself with curiosity. After lunching with Chris Kimball, founder and editor-in-chief of Cook's Illustrated, at Union Square Cafe that afternoon, I decided I'd find a recipe from Cook's using at least three of the spices in my new spice portfolio. The result: Chicken and Rice with Indian Spices. It called for a cinnamon stick, turmeric, coriander and cumin--all of which were included in my gift.

The result was a piquant, tasty dish. I couldn't distinguish between the turmeric or coriander, though I could detect the cumin. And Fork and I agreed the cinnamon was more present in aroma than taste. All in all, though, a pleasing combo. Who knew when I woke up Tuesday morning that I'd be using a web site I'd never used before, to find a recipe that included ingredients I'd never even considered using?--S

East Meets East

Chinese Mirch
120 Lexington Ave (Cross Street: 28th Street)
New York, NY 10016
(212) 532-3663
Directions: 6 train to 28th Street
THREE SPORKS

Just days after Spoon finished running her second New York Marathon, Carlos and his girlfriend Lisa kindly invited us to dinner at Chinese Mirch, an Indian-Chinese fusion joint located in the heart of Curry Hill. Katy, Alex and Robin joined us, comprising a most excellent crowd of fearless spice-loving New Yorkers. When we arrived, the spice had already begun to flow. Carlos and Lisa had arrived first and gotten the meal off to a delectable start with an order of smoked, chili-dusted fried Okra. The pods were served in a paper funnel, like belgian frites, upright in a silver stand. We ordered beers, chomped away on the Okra, and re-ran the highlights of Spoon's Marathon and marveled at her remarkably quick and efficient recovery.

A few months earlier Carlos had invited us and a few friends to his place on the West side and cooked for us a delectable Mexican feast, favorites from his childhood. It was a spicy, delicious meal with Patron tequila flowing throughout and finished with some fresh ice creams from the Chelsea Market and Spoon's own homemade pistachio. We'll try to get Carlos to post the menu and recipes at some point. It was at this dinner that I first heard about Lisa--actually it was my first time meeting Carlos! Like Carlos, Lisa, who resides in cold and rainy (ahem) San Diego is also a scientist. I have few friends who are scientists, and I find I really dig saying "my friend...the scientist." Not to mention that Carlos' work is fascinating. He works with lab rats. Drills their brains, too. Cool.

Dinner at Chinese Mirch was the first chance we had to get to know Lisa, and we liked her immediately. It's a lovely thing when two scientists get together and successfully form this volatile compound called love, truly a bond no supercollider could ever hope to top.

So, away we feasted. Amazingly, no one at the table ordered the same thing, so between appetizers and platters we got to try at least a dozen dishes from Chinese Mirch's extensive, inventive menu. The appetizers were mostly little fried bits of food. Cauliflower, Okra. Corn fritters. Very tasty, although we each got nailed at some point by the miniature, bright-green peppers hidden in the dishes--yow they were hot. It was a quick-hit hot, though, nice and clean; once you downed a little water (and it helped that the waitstaff was very on top of the refill situation), you were back in the game. Standouts among the appetizers included fore-mentioned Okra and the lollipop chicken--wings trimmed like little drumsticks lightly fried and coated in a spicy sauce.

When dining out at spicy restaurants, its always nice to have a doctor along. Good thing for us, Alex is a physician, and was even donned in his emergency room garb as he was scheduled to begin a ten hour shift at Montefiore hospital at 10 pm. Having a doctor at the table made Fork even braver as we feasted. Luckily Alex's skills were not required, but he regaled us with fascinating stories of life NYC's emergency rooms. Mostly, as you might guess, they're full of sick people with no clue how as to get treated. We were astonished to learn however that gunshots were so routine, nearly a nightly occurrence, if not surprised that drug-related incidents were all-too-common.

Dinner came with a flurry of plates, and we passed them round, family style, dining on chili garlic noodles, spicy sauteed garlic prawns, chicken coriander, fluke fillets in hot curry, and thin crispy strips of szechuan lamb. And, of course, many cold beers. Here the choice was clear: go for the Tsing-Tao over the Kingfisher.

The verdict? For us, the spice was perfectly meted out. The fusion of East and, uh, East were nicely blended but also distinguished. The service was good. And the room, while crowded and as generic as any chinese or Indian kitchen (minus the penchant for christmas lights so popular on sixth street) was nevertheless festive. On a scale of 5, Spoon and Fork give Chinese Mirch three Sporks. We definitely recommend Chinese Mirch for fans of the eastern spices.

Do yourself a favor: come early or late. During the peak dinner hours (7-10)the restaurant can get awfully crowded and waits for a table can get up to 45 minutes. And spice lovers are notoriously bad with waiting. Fork throroughly enjoyed watching an altercation between a hefty, bearded older man and a tartily made-up young lady over who was the annointed heir to the next table for two. "No, I didn't give you my name," the gentleman insisted, "but I was here before them."

Nice try, dude. While Fork waited for a young lady to finish with the men's room (she left the seat down, typical) He was amused to watch the rejected table-seeker stand just inside the doorway of the restaurant glaring as the hostess seated the winning young lady and her friend just a few feet from the dispossessed. Enjoy the view!

The next morning, Carlos and Lisa were off to Mexico City to visit Carlos' family. Word later arrived over the transom that they were engaged! Spicy, indeed! Congratulations, Carlos and Lisa.