Giving Up the Goods: Modern Spice

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, November 20th, 2009

Although author and food writer Monica Bhide now calls Vienna home, her artistic center and culinary sensibilities pogo between the otherworldly sights, flavors and smells she experienced as a youth in New Delhi and the modern flourishes she’s amassed after years of stateside cooking and dining.

Modern Spice is the culmination of her intercontinental education, providing home cooks with a very personal road map chronicling the intersection of traditional South Asian ingredients/cooking techniques and contemporary cuisine.

Bhide shares over 120 recipes that challenge the status quo of classic Indian cooking–don’t come looking for tandoori chicken or vindaloo anything in these pages–including:

* pineapple-lentil relish (a tangy topping gleaned from a D.C. chef);

* emerald-ade (a rum-mango-mint cooler);

* roasted spicy fig yogurt (laced with shredded coconut, cloves and honey);

* paneer-stuffed  chicken breasts;

* pomegranate shrimp, and;

* saffron-cardamom macaroons

To claim your copy of Modern Spice, just tell us where you go to stock up on exotic spices or ethnic staples in the comments below.

Bhide suggested that she spends most of her time (and money) at her neighborhood go-to, the Aditi Spice Depot. But she has been known to wander the aisles at other local specialty shops from time-to-time.

“I love Penzeys and also going into Hmart to see what I can find!” she admitted.

We’ll select one winner at random from all the comments submitted before 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov 26.

And don’t forget to check back next Friday for our next cookbook giveaway.

–Warren

Tags: A Life of Spice, Aditi Spice Depot, cookbook, cooking, giveaway, Gut Check, Hmart, India, Modern Spice, Monica Bhide, Northern Virginia Magazine, Penzeys, recipes, Warren Rojas