Budget tour de France

What do the following have in common? (Hint: post title)

a. Macarons, gateaux, viennoiseries
b. Pierre Herme, Laduree, Gerard Mulot
c. Dorie Greenspan, David Lebovitz, Ina Garten

Welcome to the world of French pastries! Like many people who love sweets, I dream of visiting Paris and sampling exquisite French pastries (a) at some of its most venerable patisseries (b). Despite my very limited French, I want to follow the footsteps of American chefs (c) who call Paris their second home, and pretend I am a local to experience French life to the fullest. (Perhaps Ina Garten is a stretch, she's REALLY American.)

Back to reality. I have neither the money nor time to take a grand tour of Paris.

The Bay area has a fair number of places such as Bouchon in Napa Valley that sell French sweets, but they are pricey. Trader Joe's now sells macarons in the frozen section at very affordable prices, but seriously, they tasted terrible even though I've had macarons only a handful of times in my life. So what can a budget Francophile do?

LU biscuits to the rescue. I first encountered LU during my first French lessons at Alliance Francaise in Washington, DC. Madame Auclair, our teacher, often brought several packets of LU to class. There were always LU's signature Le Petit Ecolier biscuits - buttery biscuits coated with chocolate depicting a little schoolboy. I love nibbling so I tried hard to keep my hands away from the biscuits. I knew M. Auclair and my classmates in the small class could figure out how many I ate easily.

LU's signature Le Petit Ecolier biscuits

I made myself believe every bite would transport me to Europe

Call it self-delusion, but every time I had LU, I felt I was eating something uniquely European (and it is too). My two favorite LU biscuits are Le Petit Beurre and Rich Tea. They are simple, crispy biscuits with a rich, buttery flavor and nothing else, and they don't weigh you down like shortbread.

I am surprised to find LU in almost every supermarket now, likely because its acquisition by Kraft in 2007 has opened up a vast distribution network. The biscuits are straight from France, and a packet costs only about $3.

Just be careful that some flavors contain artificial ingredients. I wonder if Kraft introduced them to cut costs just like what many food manufacturers have done to brands they bought, but that's another story.

Obviously I can make French sweets at home, but many of them are infamously complicated. I finally came across a recipe on David Lebovitz's blog (check it out, he's a former Chez Panisse pastry chef now living in Paris, I LOVE his sarcastic but incredibly humorous tone) for pain d'epices, kind of a French version of gingerbread.

Freshly baked pain d'epices, coated with sliced almonds

It's simple to make and promises some complex flavors derived from a melange of spices (including pepper!), orange zest, and honey. I had never used dark rye flour before but it really deepened the flavors. This is great for breakfast or an afternoon snack, and is even better when served warm.

A slice of pain d'epices - even the crumbs were delicious

Next time when I have the chance to visit Paris, I'll find out whether pain d'epices is as commonplace in France as David described. Before then, I am planning to read Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets over Christmas, drool over the recipes, and imagine my eventual trip to the City of Light.

Happy Birthday to Mom

Spiced plum vegan birthday cake for my mom

Note to Mom: Sorry this is overdue!

This weekend was my Mom's birthday. Although she's in Hong Kong, I meant to give her a surprise and write about the birthday cake I made for her on this blog. My mom, who became a vegetarian a long time ago, was the first person who told me back in the 90s that a vegetarian diet is much less energy-intensive than an omnivorous diet (read this Mark Bittman NYT article for a detailed analysis). Environmental considerations are one of my top, if not the most important, reasons for becoming a vegetarian. That's why I want to dedicate this vegan, low-fat spiced plum cake to her on her birthday. By the way, my mom looks much younger than she is, which I believe is in part because of her vegetarian diet. Her compassion and selfless spirit certainly help too!

I combined the recipes for the Rosy Peach Cake from FatFree Vegan Kitchen and Spiced Nectarine Cake from Bon Appetit, and substituted the fruits in these recipes with plums. I was on a shopping high at the farmers' market the previous weekend and bought more fruits than I could consume, and by this weekend my fridge still overflowed with plums. My mom is never a fan of frosted cakes, so I thought she would like this simple cake that made use of plums at their peak.

I cut down on the sugar called for and used only two teaspoons of oil in the batter with no detrimental effect. The cake was still moist, lightly sweet, and fragrant because of the plums and rose water in the batter. I sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on top of the batter before baking to give the cake a rustic, golden-brown hue. As you can tell, I am no expert cake decorator - I simply dusted the cake with powdered sugar to make it a little bit prettier.

Cake dusted with powdered sugar (try pairing it with ice cream!)

Although the cake was great as is, I also tried pairing it with the new coffee ice cream from Starbucks. The combination was wonderful.

Happy Belated Birthday to my mom again!

A perfect tie-in for...salads

Yes, it's Mark Bittman's "101 Simple Salads for the Season" article that appeared in the New York Times this week. When he speaks, people just have to listen.

Of the Times's popular food column Minimalist fame, Bittman is a towering figure in food writing. He proselytizes how easy it is to cook well with few quality ingredients, and takes on various causes from promoting sustainable food to a healthier, more vegetarian diet. He has inspired me to learn to cook, and I continue to be his fan by reading his weekly column, subscribing to his Bitten blog, and following his various media appearances, such as his cameo in the everything-looks-so-perfect food and travel show Spain - On the Road Again with fellow hosts Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali.

This 101 salads article is the latest in his series of "101" articles on quick and easy summer cooking over the past few years, each of which I keep referring to from time to time. My favorites are his 101 simple meals from 2007 and 101 picnic recipes from last year. You can make a vegetarian version of most of the recipes, which often take less than 30 minutes to prepare. The thing I like most about these recipes is that they all have some flair - either a tweak of a predictable classic or an exotic touch easily accomplished with everyday ingredients. They make great office lunches too.

Ok, back on topic. I haven't had time to go through all 101 salad recipes yet, but I put together all sorts of salads regularly. They are the best way to showcase seasonal produce in their unadulterated form, require little cooking, and for someone who loves to eat A LOT, they offer the advantage of filling you up without substantial fats and calories (of course you've to be judicious about salad dressings).

My salads usually consist of greens plus 4-5 ingredients with contrasting colors, tastes, or textures rounded out with a homemade salad dressing and crusty loaves of bread. In the summer, I use mostly raw ingredients; in colder months, I often roast the vegetables to give the salads some warmth and depth. The quality of the greens is key here - I've had much tasteless greens, even ones I bought from a farmers' market. So I don't hesitate to pay more for truly fresh, crisp greens.

This "Salad Spinner" article from the Washington Post is another fantastic salad guide I'd recommend. Finally, here are two salads I made recently.

Frisee salad with cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, roasted potatoes, and blueberries, served with European-style multigrain bread

Spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, avocadoes, lemon cucumbers in a lime-cumin dressing, served with batard

July 4th color-coordinated jelly

I was reading a Mighty Appetite blog post last week about making color-coordinated sweets for July 4th, and I finally settled on making a jelly, inspired by the Red, White, and Blue Terrine recipe from the blog Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. Believe me, I am no Martha Stewart, but after some busy days at work, I really wanted to do something unique to this patriotic holiday. Since it's almost the end of cherry season, I floated the idea of making a clafoutis, a sophisticated-sounding French dessert I've been dying to try. But I was hoping for a more healthful dessert, so I was thrilled that this jelly is not only vegan, but also fat-free and requires no refined sugar.

I didn't get to buy blueberries that give the original recipe the blue color, and I substituted them with some fleshy, crimson-colored pluots without a hitch. I was surprised that it took so little time to prepare this dessert (or perhaps, I work more quickly now). Dissolving the agar powder, cutting and layering the fruits, pouring the agar mixture over them, then popping the jelly pan into the fridge - all under 30 minutes. When I got back home a couple of hours later, I had a chilled, guilt-free dessert waiting for me.

Chilled July 4th jelly made of summer fruits

The jelly looked gorgeous when you served it upside-down with the sliced strawberries on top. It was sweetened only by fruits (strawberries, bananas, pluots) and the pear juice I used to dissolve the agar, and while I'm all for cutting down on sugar, it turned out to be a bit too light for me. So, you guessed it right, I grabbed more sweets! There happened to be a bazaar run by a Japanese Buddhist temple near where I live, and I went there and bought two imagawayakis, Japanese pastries filled with adzuki bean paste, still warm and fresh off the molding pan. Oh god, I rarely come across imagawayakis ever since I came to the US, and they were as homey and comforting as I've always known them. Too bad that the bazaar was around for a weekend only!

San Mateo Japanese Buddhist Bazaar

Imagawayakis filled with adzuki bean paste

Start Sunday right with scrambled tofu

I used to like eating out for brunch over the weekend a lot. A leisurely weekend brunch is the perfect time to catch up with friends and just shut down the Internet or whatever that keeps me hyper-engaged during the work week. However, the social dimension aside, I increasingly don't find the weekend brunch to be good value. Call me a cheapskate, but it costs much less to prepare typical brunch food (eggs, French toast, etc.) at home, and most places' brunch offerings are mediocre at best. Especially if I want to eat vegetarian, I can use better ingredients and play with infinite variations by cooking on my own.

A favorite among vegetarians and vegans alike, scrambled tofu is a easy-to-prepare, filling, and nutritious alternative to scrambled eggs for brunch. I love tofu for as long as I can remember, but I had only known of ways to prepare it in Asian cuisines until I discovered scrambled tofu. Since tofu has little flavor by itself, you can scramble anything with it and add any seasonings or spices you want. Because I like to clear out my fridge every Sunday, I usually just improvise and throw in any leftover veggies I have. Onions, grated carrots, black olives, mushrooms, bell peppers, herbs such as parsley and mint all go along well with tofu. Occasionally I include chopped nuts to give the scramble a bit of crunch. Feel free to heat some grated ginger, curry powder, or chili peppers/powder in oil first if you want a more exotic scramble. Serve the scrambled tofu with toast or crusty bread topped with butter (I used the vegan Earth Balance buttery spread) and you'll have a satisfying (and colorful!) brunch spread.

Scrambled tofu served with multi-grain toasts

Remember to press the tofu before cooking though so the scramble doesn't get soggy. This feature from Bon Appetit shows how. I like tofu with a soybean flavor but unfortunately most tofu brands in the US taste completely bland. The better ones are Azumaya from Vitasoy and store brands in Japanese grocery stores. Many recipes call for nutritional yeast to give the scramble a more creamy, egg-like texture but I just leave it out (I don't have it in my pantry anyway) and it still tastes great.

Here are two recipes to get you started: a pretty standard one from Isa's Post Punk Kitchen and an Indian-like version kicked up by a splash of garam masala from 101 Cookbooks. But there's really no set recipe for scrambled tofu and I'm sure you can create one that works best for you.

The quintessential American dessert - carrot cake

I was reading a Bay Area Bites blog post today about the chocolate chip cookie as a classic American dessert. While I agree that there are few treats more satisfying than a warm, gooey, yet slightly crunchy chocolate chip cookie like the one I had at Levain Bakery in New York City (still the best I've ever had), my pick for the quintessential American dessert would be carrot cake instead.

Unlike the chocolate chip cookie or New York cheesecake that suggests decadence and excesses, which unfortunately characterize American desserts for many people, the carrot cake is down-to-earth yet full of surprises. I had rarely had carrot cake before coming to the US, but once I was exposed to it, I got hooked. It's not a fancy dessert for sure, but it so ingeniously incorporates a veggie into a dessert, and along with other ingredients such as walnuts, coconut, and crushed pineapple, the end-result is a delicious combination of textures and flavors that won't leave you with a sugar-high afterwards. I think carrot cake captures the American spirit because most people I've met in the US are simple and forthright, yet they may be passionate about something in such unexpected ways that not only lead to many interesting conversations, but you also can't help but admire them.

Enough of my rambling...this is a food blog after all. My favorite carrot cake recipe is from one of the most unlikely places - the packaging of my Bob's Red Mill whole wheat pastry flour. The recipe creator actually won a baking contest because of it, and the cake did not disappoint. It was smooth, moist, and infused with cinnamon flavor like any good carrot cake. A thin layer of cream cheese frosting (I used the vegan Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese) rounded out the cake perfectly.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The next time I make a carrot cake, I want to try another of my favorite bloggers Heidi Swanson's recipe on her award-winning natural food blog 101 Cookbooks. It doesn't contain any processed sugars - always a plus for me since I eat way too much desserts and need to cut back on sugars!