Cumin

On busy weeknights, we take our dinner shortcuts wherever we can find them. But this doesn't require sacrificing healthy home cooking. Make smart choices - as in this recipe for red curry potatoes and chickpeas - and you can have a great from-scratch dinner on the table in under 30 minutes. For deep, lush, and totally effortless flavor, I use canned coconut milk for the liquid. Looking to cut fat? Don't hesitate to use low-fat coconut milk. It won't be quite so lush, but the flavors will still be great.

A samosa is a fried dumpling filled with meat or veggies (or both) that in India is traditionally sold by street vendors. At Mirchi, a Mexican and Indian restaurant at 236 South St., tradition mixes with nontradition as owner Satish "Sherman" Sharma incorporates the potato samosa into his specially designed sandwich. Served on freshly baked Indian bread known as Tandoori naan, this sandwich is stuffed with veggies, potatoes, spices and herbs such as cumin, cilantro and fenugreek leaves.

While 1,300 Steeler fans are wolfing down Woodson Burgers on Super Bowl Sunday at Rod Woodson's restaurant, some 500 Cowboy fans will be chowing down on chicken-fried steak at Bill Bates' Cowboy Grill in north Dallas. Bates, a safety in his 13th year with the Cowboys, opened the restaurant last year. Decorated with Cowboys paraphernalia, it's fan-oriented and family-oriented - not surprisingly, since Bates is the father of four children, including 6-year-old triplets. Manager David Cooper said the Cowboy Grill isn't selling advance tickets for game day - "It's first come, first served" - and that a DJ, giveaways and "linebackers" (jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese and chicken)

Spice companies make things easy on the cook by marketing a variety of ethnic spice blends. A seasoning mix may contain up to a dozen spices; typically, two or three dominate, with the rest providing flavor nuances. According to Stephen Wirtz, technical services manager for Specialty Brands Inc., maker of Spice Islands products, the exact formula is treasured like an old family recipe - and protected like a corporate secret. Generally, Italian blends rely on basil, oregano, fennel, garlic, thyme, rosemary and sage.

Too often less fat means less flavor. This is not just because oils and fats are themselves flavorful, but because most flavors - including those of herbs and spices - need the presence of fat in order to be perceived. So whenever we think of reducing fat in a recipe, we must also think of how to preserve and boost the flavors that remain. That's when a good rub can help. What are rubs? Rubs are powders ground from flavorful ingredients such as individual spices and herbs or blends of seasonings.

Cook curries with your nose. Don't worry about their color or bother to take their temperature. Don't poke and prod and taste. A curry is done when it smells done. How strange for us Western cooks, trained to ignore aroma for the authority of a thermometer and the chime of a windup timer. In India, where curries originated, a curry is a stew. But not a stew of the sort Westerners are used to. A curry is a stew of spices with just enough food to give the diner something to chew.

Wayne resident Sandy Greene got a surprise early last week when she tuned in to her usual a.m. round of televised news and chatter. Her entry in Good Morning America's recipe contest was announced among five entree finalists in what had been promoted as a sort of calorie-cutting cook-off. By week's end her creation - Oven-Fried Chicken With Andouille Sausage - was named number one by noted chef-judges Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck. "I watch some cooking shows and I collect cookbooks, but I've never entered a recipe contest before," Greene responded during a phone interview Friday, shortly after learning of her win and scheduled TV debut.

Cumin, cayenne, and coconut milk are among the diverse flavors of Brazil, where immigrants from Japan, Africa, and Europe brought their cultures and cuisines. They are featured in this sauteed chicken dish served over quinoa, an ancient grain indigenous to the Andes Mountains. Green beans can be substituted for okra. Add them to the chicken after it has simmered 10 minutes. Brazilian-Style Chicken Over Quinoa Makes 2 servings 1. Mix cumin and cayenne and rub over chicken.

Americans are not adventurous seasoners, usually opting for simple salt and pepper, punctuated by an occasional parsley sprig or a blush of paprika. Then there's that big bowl of chili. Fumes of cumin mingle with oregano, cayenne catches the throat, and the slow glow of jalapeno can be felt on the lips. Chili is at once exotic and homey, challenging and comforting. It is a bowl of contradictions, and maybe that's why we can't agree on exactly what it is. We all know that chili is a stew, but what makes up the mix is a matter for perpetual debate.

Raji Jallepalli redefined Indian food when she opened Restaurant Raji in Memphis, Tenn. Twice nominated for the James Beard Award for her Indian-French fusion cuisine, she shares it now with the rest of us in her first cookbook, "Raji Cuisine: Indian Flavors, French Passion," coauthored with Judith Choate. Trained as a microbiologist, Jallepalli lent her scientific mind to blending French and Indian flavors. Using a variety of exotic spices (ajowan, black onion seeds, tumeric) and oils and fats (ghee, sesame oil and mustard oil)

On busy weeknights, we take our dinner shortcuts wherever we can find them. But this doesn't require sacrificing healthy home cooking. Make smart choices - as in this recipe for red curry potatoes and chickpeas - and you can have a great from-scratch dinner on the table in under 30 minutes. For deep, lush, and totally effortless flavor, I use canned coconut milk for the liquid. Looking to cut fat? Don't hesitate to use low-fat coconut milk. It won't be quite so lush, but the flavors will still be great.

Needing a warming bowl of chicken soup and having the time you need to make it too often don't coincide. That's why I came up with this quick and easy way to get a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup on the table in less than 30 minutes. The trick is to use mostly prepared ingredients, such as rotisserie chicken, frozen peas, carrots and corn, and broth. With little effort you'll be curled up on the couch slurping your soup in no time. For an especially nice touch, serve this soup with crusty sourdough bread topped with fresh mozzarella and popped under the broiler for a minute.

The ever-expanding Tiffin franchise has set a high bar for its local Indian competitors to hurdle. But now the also-growing Ekta, a no-frills Indian storefront in Fishtown started by one of Tiffin's founding chefs, Raju Bhattarai, offers a very respectable (and slightly less expensive) option. If anything, Ekta, which recently expanded to a Bryn Mawr location (1003 Lancaster Ave.; 610-581-7070), distinguishes its food with an edgier spice, like the dry and pungent pepper heat of the fresh chiles scattered like green confetti over the hari mirch ka naan flat bread.

LATE-NIGHT dining often means less-than-healthy choices. Fortunately, newcomer Leila Cafe brings healthy Mediterranean cuisine to daytime as well as wee-hour noshing. Partners Smiley Al Chebab and Mohammad Kammon offer Middle Eastern fare with a Lebanese emphasis in a small Center City cafe appropriately named "pure night. " My first visit was early fall and the sidewalk was overflowing with al fresco dining and bustling, friendly table service. A recent renovation made the interior much more appealing for the colder months.

I used to think it wasn't possible to have too much of a good thing, and for the longest time, that was my sentiment regarding our abbondanza of Italian BYOBs. Who doesn't want a go-to trattoria for an affordable plate of pasta and a juicy branzino within a short walk of home? And yet, when Novità opened its doors on the 1600 block of South Street in the fall, the realization that there were nearly a dozen Italian BYOBs now within a five-block radius had an unexpected effect.

A samosa is a fried dumpling filled with meat or veggies (or both) that in India is traditionally sold by street vendors. At Mirchi, a Mexican and Indian restaurant at 236 South St., tradition mixes with nontradition as owner Satish "Sherman" Sharma incorporates the potato samosa into his specially designed sandwich. Served on freshly baked Indian bread known as Tandoori naan, this sandwich is stuffed with veggies, potatoes, spices and herbs such as cumin, cilantro and fenugreek leaves.

Raji Jallepalli redefined Indian food when she opened Restaurant Raji in Memphis, Tenn. Twice nominated for the James Beard Award for her Indian-French fusion cuisine, she shares it now with the rest of us in her first cookbook, "Raji Cuisine: Indian Flavors, French Passion," coauthored with Judith Choate. Trained as a microbiologist, Jallepalli lent her scientific mind to blending French and Indian flavors. Using a variety of exotic spices (ajowan, black onion seeds, tumeric) and oils and fats (ghee, sesame oil and mustard oil)

Wayne resident Sandy Greene got a surprise early last week when she tuned in to her usual a.m. round of televised news and chatter. Her entry in Good Morning America's recipe contest was announced among five entree finalists in what had been promoted as a sort of calorie-cutting cook-off. By week's end her creation - Oven-Fried Chicken With Andouille Sausage - was named number one by noted chef-judges Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck. "I watch some cooking shows and I collect cookbooks, but I've never entered a recipe contest before," Greene responded during a phone interview Friday, shortly after learning of her win and scheduled TV debut.

Who knew that ancient stone could be as sensuous as this? These voluptuous maidens, whose chiseled curves are frozen in mid-gyration above us, stand in alcoves around the dining room at Khajuraho silhouetted against the light. They look down at our table with blissful indifference, as if daring us to quit the inhibitions of our meal and imagine them come to life. The heavenly apsaraa maidens of Khajuraho - the little town in Central India where ancient Hindu temples festooned with erotic sculpture have been the focus of sensuality for 1,000 years - have a rightful place in this Main Line restaurant of the same name.