TableConversation.com

A Big Book About Vegan Cooking

I'll never be vegan, yet I'm thrilled to have the biggest vegan cookbook I've ever seen.

It's "Vegan--The Cookbook" by Jean-Christian Jury, a French chef who turned to a plant-based diet after suffering two heart attacks. 

The book weighs in at just under 4 pounds. If the print were larger--it's quite small--there would have to be many more pages to accommodate the 450 recipes, and the weight would double or triple. And if Jury had written about the background of each recipe and added his own comments--well, you get the idea. 

Paging through, I find so many dishes I want to make that the book is now bristling with sticky tags. This is because Jury's food is varied and interesting. He's an internationalist, drawing ideas from all over the world--Afghanistan, Turkey, India, Thailand, Mexico, Luxembourg, you name it.

He's traveled to more than 100 countries, is especially fond of Japanese cuisine, and chose Hua Hin in Thailand as the place to establish the Blue Lotus Learning Center for Plant-Based Cuisine. Click here to learn more about that. 

His restaurant career included an acclaimed vegan restaurant in Berlin. In 2014, he gave up restaurants to concentrate on teaching. And writing books.

His first cookbook, "Vegan Cuisine," was even bigger than this one. His recipes are simply written and accessible so that home cooks don't have to search for rare ingredients and spend hours prepping them. 

 
When food writers gathered at Melissa's Produce to meet Jury and get signed books, they liked his food and went for second helpings. Here is what was served:

Portobello carpaccio with orange tartare

 Daikon rolls with avocado and micro greens

 Quinoa salad with mango dressing

Five spice stir-fried soba noodles

Pomegranate and semolina cakes

Sliced banana and peanut cream cake

 
Here is Jury with Melissa's chef Tom Fraker, who was in charge of lunch preparations. 

And here is a plate of the lunch dishes. 

Jury thinks that before long vegan and raw food will be available in every restaurant."If we don't go vegan soon, we're going to hit the wall," he said. "We don't have a chance of surviving if we don't change the way we eat."

This does not mean the end of tasty food. "There is nothing missing in vegan food," he said.

It certainly has done wonders for him. In the first six weeks after changing his diet, Jury lost 34 pounds. "I take no medicines," he said. "I just eat the right food."

And that includes desserts. There are plenty in the book, among them the pomegranate and semolina cakes that were a hit at the book signing. Jury attributes the recipe to Spain.

POMEGRANATE AND SEMOLINA CAKES
From "Vegan--The Cookbook" by Jean-Christian Jury

1 cup pomegranate juice
1 cup superfine sugar
2 cups semolina flour
2 tablespoons rosewater
1 cup ground almonds
2 tablespoons confectioners' (powdered) sugar

Combine the pomegranate juice and superfine sugar in a saucepan set over medium-low heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to a boil. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and let cool for 15 minutes.

Return the pan to the stove and bring the mixture to a low simmer. Stir in the semolina, then the rosewater, and simmer gently over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.  Add the ground almonds, mix well, and let cool for 20 minutes.

When cool enough to handle with your hands, roll the mixture into small, walnut-size balls and set aside. 

Put the confectioners' sugar into a bowl. Roll the semolina balls in the sugar to coat completely before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

85°C Draws a Crowd in Koreatown

Who wouldn't stand in line for icy, creamy sea salt coffee paired with a slice of sea salt coffee brûlée?

Even if the line lasted an hour, or more?

That's the way it was this morning, when 85°C Bakery Cafe opened in Koreatown. 

The line was a happy place. Some standees even got free coffee samples, until they ran out.

Once inside, shoppers received a bakery tote bag, tongs and a tray to heap with breads, buns, cookies and cakes. 

And who wouldn't heap, when the total would cost so little, compared to other bakeries? 

It's not like 85°C is a novelty. There's one downtown and more scattered around Southern California and one due to open in Santa Monica next year.  But this is the first in central Los Angeles. And it's in a buzzy part of Koreatown, packed with restaurants, a market, a branch of the Korean bakery Paris Baguette and shops selling bingsu and other cool treats.

The company is Taiwanese, and its baked goods are Taiwanese, European and Japanese in style plus Danish and "other," a category that includes a ham and tuna sandwich. 

Portuguese style egg tart is a big seller. A Hokkaido cheese tart is cheesy as in cheesecake. The Portuguese tart (dotted with brown) has a flaky crust, the Hokkaido tart, a cookie crust.  

This tray includes the two tarts and a berrytale, which is filled with blueberries; milk pudding bread, a cranberry cream cheese bun, a boroh Danish, with a crunchy top that looks like a pineapple shell; walnut raisin multigrain bread, a chocolate chip bowl, and a chocolate cream bread. 

The cake section (above) is glorious. There are savory snacks too, such as a Taiwanese cheese dog and garlic cheese bread. 

But it's the sweets that catch the eye.

Each item is placed in its own bag rather than jumbled together so that they mash and crumble. 

Teas, smoothies and espresso drinks are on tap, but the famous specialty is sea salt coffee or tea.

Now that opening day excitement is out of the way, the bakery will be open daily, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.

85°C Bakery Cafe, 3377 Wilshire Blvd., #101, Los Angeles, CA 90010, which is at the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Alexandria in Koreatown.  

Home and Away--a Travelers Cookbook

This may be the best Indian cauliflower I've ever made. And I've cooked many versions of that dish over the years.   

Green beans join cauliflower in the rich-tasting, subtly spiced and creamy sauce. This is real Indian comfort food, from Bengal.

The recipe appears in the cookbook "Home and Away" (Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver) by Darcy and Randy Shore. The Shores are husband and wife global travelers who recreate what they have eaten away when they return home to Canada, thus the title of the book. Randy Shore is a food and sustainability writer for the Vancouver Sun. 

Paging through, I want to make dish after dish. I loved this delicious salad centered around grilled haloumi cheese.

And a simple bean dish from Turkey, which worked even though I used the wrong bean, dried limas instead of the Great Northerns called for in the recipe--these had vanished from my cupboard.  

And soy and honey-braised chicken, blackened by the soy sauce-laden braising liquid. 

The book is divided into sections covering East Asia and Australasia; Africa, India and West Asia; Europe and the Americas. In each place, the Shores have ferreted out great dishes and recreated them in authentic detail rather than dumbing them down. 

Their rule for travelers is to "ask what the locals eat." As Randy Shore writes in the introduction, "...nearly every day on the road presented an opportunity to discover a local secret, learn how to consider food in a new way, and indulge in the visceral pleasure of eating."

Bengali Cauliflower, which is accompanied by recipes for fragrant rice and puris, "has been among our go-to Indian recipes for 30 years," the Shores write. This photo shows the ingredients before cooking. 

Click here to order their book through Amazon. 

BENGALI CAULIFLOWER
From "Home and Away" by Darcy and Randy Shore

2 tablespoons salted butter
2 tablespoons canola oil 
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup diced onions
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 cups diced, seeded tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 pound cauliflower florets
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and halved

In a large pot on medium heat, brown butter in oil. The milk solids will turn golden after about 1 minute. Take care they don't burn.

Add mustard seeds and stir for 15 seconds. Add ginger, garlic and onions and saute, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and the oil has separated, about 5 minutes.

Stir in cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne and saute for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and salt and cook until the tomatoes break down into a paste when mashed with a spoon, about 5 minutes.

Add water, cream and tomato paste and stir to combine. (If you like a smooth sauce, puree with an immersion blender.)

Add cauliflower and green beans and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender and the sauce is reduced, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Makes 4 servings. 

Julie Taboulie Makes--Taboulie

Taboulie, the bulgur wheat and parsley salad, gets a new look from Julie Taboulie.

In her newly released cookbook, "Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen," she gives the conventional bulgur version but suggests quinoa as an alternative. And when she appeared at Melissa's Produce to present the book along with a buffet of her dishes, the taboulie (also spelled tabbouleh) was made with both red and white quinoa for color. 

Taboulie's name isn't really Julie Taboulie, although she's been called that since she was a kid. It's Julie Ann Sageer. But the Taboulie moniker was just right when she began to create her brand. From local cooking classes, she went on to host the first cooking series in the USA and Canada that featured Lebanese food.  Now PBS is set to launch her new series, called "Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen," the same as her book. 

Born in New York State, Taboulie learned cooking from her mother (above) and from family in Lebanon. About taboulie, the salad, she says, "It's not the national dish of Lebanon, but it might as well be. There's no kind of party without taboulie."

She's so enamored of the dish that she says, "Every time I eat it, it's like eating it for the first time." Here she is with the finished dish, followed by the recipe.

TABOULIE
From "Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen"

3 bunches fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup #1 fine bulgur wheat or 1 cup cooked, chilled quinoa
4 firm, ripe tomatoes, finely diced
6 scallions (green onions), ends trimmed, green and white parts thinly sliced
3/4 to 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
Hearts of romaine lettuce, for serving

At least 30 minutes before preparing the taboulie, thoroughly wash the parsley and mint leaves in cold water to remove dirt or debris. Shake out any excess water and drain in a colander, stem sides down. If you have a salad spinner, you can dry the herbs in that way or lay out on paper towels or a clean kitchen cloth to air dry. Just make sure they are very dry before you chop them.

Place the bulgur wheat in a bowl and cover with 3 cups of cold water. Set aside to soak and soften, about 20 minutes. 

Combine the tomatoes, scallions and herbs in that order in a large mixing bowl. By now, the bulgur wheat should have softened. To test, squeeze some of the grains between your fingertips. It should squish and be completely soft. Soak the bulgur longer if needed.

Using your hands, squeeze out the soaked bulgur, removing as much excess water as possible. Sprinkle the bulgur on top of the fresh herbs and vegetables in the bowl. Pour in the lemon juice and olive oil, and season with the salt. Toss all the ingredients together (preferably with your hands); it should be juicy but not soggy. Taste and add salt as needed.

Serve the salad as soon as possible with fresh, crisp romaine lettuce hearts for scooping.

Makes 6 servings.  

Sampling Food at Full Moon House

Golden City, an old timer in Chinatown, has given way to the new Full Moon House, which was almost empty when I had lunch there the other day.

This may have had more to do with declining business in Chinatown than with the restaurant, which produced a tableful of dishes that pleased my group of Chinese food fans.

This is what we ate:

A basic hot and sour soup came first.  

Shrimp with scrambled eggs may sound like a trendy brunch dish, but is quintessentially Cantonese, shrimp nestled in eggs as light as a fluffy pillow. 

Deep-fried fish fillets were so well seasoned, they needed no sauce or dip.

These are called French style beef cubes.

Beef stew with turnip included tendon, which changed the usual texture of this dish. 

Cantonese food is not all gussied up with seasonings. This cold steamed chicken was plain, relying on a side dish of ginger and green onions for flavor.

How could you have a Chinese lunch without noodles? Our choice was seafood chow mein

Brilliant green pea shoots were a bright spot in the lunch.

The waiter brought shredded pork with spicy garlic sauce, but quickly changed it for what we had ordered, eggplant with spicy garlic sauce.

One complaint: The plates are too small. Mine was piled with food on top of food, making it hard to appreciate the flavors of each dish. A separate bowl for rice would have helped. 

The plus: Validated parking in the Bamboo Plaza garage. This is not free, unless you eat within a time limit, but it's convenient. 

Full Moon House, 960 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Tel: (213) 537-0792.