Chicken meatballs with chives and a lime raita

Recipes from the New York Times very often call for exotic ingredients and have lengthly, complicated steps that keep you toiling for hours. To make it worse, more often than not the result is entirely lacking given how much time and effort you put into it. This recipe is not that. The three best things about it: Amazingly delicious, easy to come up with lots of variations, and the end result makes great leftovers. You can even freeze them -- just heat them up like Ikea meatballs and they're just as tasty.

Two slices of bread, crusts removed

In a bowl, with as much milk as the bread will hold. Put it off to the side to soak.

Trim all the excess fat from a big ol' package of chicken thighs. This is the most time-consuming part of this recipe for me. At least chicken thighs are so cheap that it doesn't much matter if you just hack away at the fatty spots and take a little meat away as well.

Chunks go in the food processor. It takes two batches for me. The first batch I pretty much pulverize, the second I leave more chunky.

Today's secret ingredient: A habanero pepper, seeds removed and finely diced.

Then a bunch of chives -- finely chopped as well.

The recipe calls for "tarragon, basil and mint, or other mixed herbs." I usually start with the basil and parsley from the plants I keep in the kitchen window, but they finally succumbed to winter. Instead of buying a mess of pre-packaged herbs for $3 a pop, I decided to try this stuff.  It's the same brand as the chiles I used in the Thai curry. Could do without the oregano, but whatever.

Put the chicken, bread, chives, habanero, herb goo, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix it all up. At this stage I cover the bowl and stick it in the fridge because it's easier to make the balls when it's chilled. And it gives you time to make the raita. So let's do it ...

Set a colander over a bowl and line with washed cheese cloth. Add about a cup of plain yogurt. This is going to sit for half an hour so all the liquid whey stuff drains out. Not only does this make the yogurt less tart, but also improves the texture.

Next peel, de-seed and finely chop half a cucumber. That goes in a bowl with salt. This also sits for half an hour to draw some excess water out of the cucumber. We have some time to kill, so time for a nap.

OK, nap time's over; let's finish the raita. Combine yogurt and cucumber. Add in the juice from half a lime, salt, pepper, a dash of paprika and a spoonful of sugar. Cover and stick back in the fridge to await dinner time.

Using wet hands, make balls out of the chicken mixture and fry them in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. The balls never stay spherical, flattening as they cook, so I line them up around the edge of the pan. That way you can turn them in the order you put them in the pan, and if (rather *when*) a ball won't stand up on one of it's sides, you can just lean it up against the side of the pan.

The meatballs on a rack to drain.

The meatballs and raita about to go down my gullet.