Home cooking

Stop in for a sack of basmati rice, garam masala, or perhaps the British chocolates the owners have set under glass - in case a light-fingered Anglophile with a sweet tooth shows up.

As you wander the aisles of this West Philadelphia grocery store, wondering what is what and how you would cook it, the sound of foreign voices, singing, catches your ear.

Curious, you move to the back of the store and find a fluorescent-lit room with a predominantly South Asian, male crowd swabbing plates of curried vegetables with rolled-up naan.

They talk quietly, not to disturb those watching the television at the front of the room on which a Bollywood film plays - a young couple, torn apart and reunited, cue the musical number.

Then, from behind a curtain come orange plastic trays with little tubs of dal and paneer, a fresh cheese common in India, and Styrofoam plates covered with chicken turned a fire-engine-red by spices and a 500-degree tandoor oven.

Eateries like this exist in every city, in neighborhoods populated by immigrants tired of cheeseburgers and with a compulsive need to slurp a bowl of noodles or feel the warmth of a freshly made tortilla. For Indians who emigrated here from the subcontinent, Rice N Spice International Grocery Store is such a place. (The sign outside, Dana Mandi Asian Spice, dates from an earlier owner.)

Located on a block of Chestnut Street where University City is fading into grittier environs, the grocery store is run by the extended members of a Punjabi clan as they rotate back and forth to India.

The head of the operation is Jasvir Singh, a 51-year-old farmer turned chef who bought the grocery store three years ago. The previous owners had done the occasional weekend meal for preferred customers, but Singh, who had previously run the kitchen at a well-reviewed Indian restaurant in Washington, D.C., had bigger ambitions.

He would serve the food of Punjab, a flat, arid region in the north of the country over which the Himalayas loom. Cooks there use a lighter hand with chili peppers than their neighbors in the south, focusing on the spices around which Indian cuisine orbits - cardamom, mace, cumin, coriander, and turmeric.

In varying combinations, they flavor lentils, goat, and the paneer prepared each night after the crowds have thinned. Or the standard Chicken Tikka Masala, Singh's concession to Western tastes.

"It's the most famous food. Most of the stuff you know started in Punjab," said Singh. "All the spices are the same as all over India. There's just different ways to use it."

Many of Rice N Spice's clientele are students, over from Delhi or Mumbai to study at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University - Singh's line cook and sister-in-law has a son in law school who is a regular.

Partly it's the cost. With the exception of fast-food chains, it's nearly impossible to find a place where you can eat out for $5, as you can at Rice N Spice if you stick to vegetarian options and drink water from the cooler set next to the television.

But it's also the preparation of the food, said a group of twentysomething software developers who were dining late one weekday evening.

Over their plates of paratha, or stuffed bread, they said that besides being too expensive, restaurant food was often too heavy for regular consumption. The food at the grocery store was lighter.

"It's close to how you get food at home," said Sachin Sachdeva, 27. "That's the selling point. That, and it's relatively cheap.

"Most, if not all, the Indian students know about it," said his friend Tarun Talwar, a Penn graduate.

Such praise is exactly what Singh is after. For a man who has spent two decades working as a professional chef, he has little love for restaurants. He believes chefs have a tendency to overseason and go heavy on butter - or in the case of Indian food, ghee, a clarified butter that has a higher burning point.

The fact that Singh cooks at all is somewhat unusual, said his nephew Sonny Singh. In their region of India, women do most of the cooking, but Singh and his friends would often get together in someone's kitchen to cook a couple of dishes to accompany the beer they drank.

"It would be pretty late by the time we got home," Singh said.

His cooking now attracts a whole new line of customers. Some positive word of mouth has started to bring in the foodie set, eager for an authentic taste of India in a town where that cuisine has room to grow.

Mary Garbiesi and Segio Panu are regulars, coming from Collingswood on the nights Garbiesi has yoga class around the corner.

Sometimes they get takeout and head back to New Jersey - fighting the urge to rip into the food as they drive. But often they'll eat in the back-room cafeteria, splitting tubs of goat curry and palak paneer, a spinach-and-cheese dish that glistens as if drawn from Popeye's own can but tastes as one might imagine it would eaten on a Delhi street corner.

"This is that hole in the wall you have to look for," said Panu. "I like the fact it's behind the market. It's a hidden secret."

Makes 4 servings

EndTextStartText

1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken 1 1/2 cups basmati rice

3 tablespoons oil and to deep-fry

1-inch cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

5-6 cloves

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

3-4 green cardamoms

2 medium onions, sliced

3 green chiles, slit

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder 2 medium tomatoes, chopped

Salt, to taste

3/4 tablespoon ginger paste

3/4 tablespoon garlic paste

1/2 teaspoon red chile powder

1 cup thick yogurt

3 medium onions, sliced and fried brown

1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder

1-inch piece ginger, cut in thin strips

A few fresh mint leaves, torn

A few fresh coriander leaves, torn

1/2 cup milk

A few drops rose water

4 eggs, boiled and sliced

EndTextStartText

1. Cut chicken in one-inch cubes. Cook rice, then set aside.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons oil, add cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves, cumin seeds, green cardamoms and saute for half a minute. Add sliced onions and saute. Add slit green chiles and chicken cubes and continue to saute. Add turmeric powder and mix Add tomatoes and salt and mix. Add ginger and garlic pastes, red chile powder, and yogurt. Mix well. Add half the fried onions. Add the cooked rice on top. Sprinkle in garam masala powder, ginger strips, mint leaves, and coriander leaves. Sprinkle in milk, rose water, and remaining browned onions. Cover and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes.

3. Garnish with the egg slices and serve hot.

Per serving: 862 calories, 68 grams protein, 77 grams carbohydrates, 12 grams sugar, 30 grams fat, 343 milligrams cholesterol, 438 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber.EndText

Makes 4 servings

EndTextStartText

2 large bunches spinach

2-3 green chiles

8 ounces paneer (or queso fresco or cottage cheese)

8-10 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

Salt to taste

1 tablespoon lemon juice

4 tablespoons fresh cream

EndTextStartText

1. Remove stems, wash spinach thoroughly in running water. Blanch in salted boiling water for two minutes. Refresh in chilled water. Squeeze out excess water. Remove stems, wash and roughly chop green chiles. In a food processor or blender, grind spinach into a fine paste along with green chiles.

2. Dice paneer into pieces one-inch-by-one-inch-by-half- inch. Peel, wash, and chop garlic. Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds. When they begin to change color, add chopped garlic and saute for half a minute. Add the spinach puree and stir. Check seasoning. Add water if required. When the gravy comes to a boil, add the paneer and mix well. Stir in lemon juice, then add fresh cream. Serve hot.

Per serving: 257 calories, 15 grams protein, 13 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram sugar, 18 grams fat, 25 milligrams cholesterol, 417 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber.EndText