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Updated take on Indian food takes spices for heady spin

JOURNAL WIRE REPORT

Published: March 25, 2009

■ Modern Spice, by Monica Bhide. Simon and Schuster, $25.

Spice cabinets are like cars -- you never quite know what they are capable of until you push them a little.

And Indian cuisines are among the best road maps for taking your spices for a drive. They use spices we think we know in ways we wouldn't dream of.

Cookbook author Monica Bhide gets this and invites you along for a tasty ride in her new book, Modern Spice. In it, Bhide offers a modern interpretation of Indian flavors and cooking techniques. The result is something cooks need -- new ways of thinking about common ingredients.

Many Indian recipes, for example, rely on toasting or blooming spices to intensify their flavor. Whole spices are either toasted briefly in a dry skillet or heated in fat, and sometimes both.

The results can be quite different than just tossing the spices into a recipe. Both approaches are used throughout Bhide's book, as in the Pan-Fried Zucchini with Cumin and the Garlic Smashed Potatoes.

Particularly nice are Bhide's Indian-inspired versions of mainstream American dishes, including Hoppin' John and Indian Chicken Wings.

■ Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, by Nava Atlas. Broadway, $17.95.

If it's conventional but vegetarian comfort food that you are after, check out Nava Atlas' Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, a dairy-free reworking of one of her earlier cookbooks.

Atlas walks home cooks through the seasons, offering Curried Red Lentil Stew and Chickpea and Tahini Soup in fall, Taco Soup and Minestrone in winter, plus a host of offerings for the warmer months.

Doubters of vegan cuisine will be won over by her macaroni and "cheese" soup.