Vichy Carrots (Carottes Vichy)

Carottes Vichy is named after the town of Vichy, located on the banks of the Allier River in the northern part of the Auvergne region in France. Vichy is famous for its numerous spas and its carbonated water, which is used in this dish to soften the carrots.

This recipe is ultra easy. All you need are some carrots, some Vichy water and some butter.

Veni, Vidi, Vichy! Maybe it's just me but I find this funny. It's in reference of Julius Caesar's immortal words "I came, I saw, I conquered" when he announced to the Senate his victory over Pharnaces. I spent 5 years studying classical Latin in school; that's probably the only few things I remember.

As a child, carrots Vichy was probably my favorite meal at the cafeteria of my elementary school. It was easy to eat (I was a slow eater), tender, sweet and so flavorful. For lunch time, I remember it was always served with a filet de merlan au citron et persil, which is a pan seared sage-flavored whiting (fish) drizzled with lemon juice with some capers and parsley.

Check back often to follow my French-inspired menu this week. We're having a 4-course "French meal" in honor of the opening of the movie called Julie and Julia. 

An Entire Week of Julia Child Inspired French Recipes

Simple Green Bean Salad with Toasted Sliced Almonds and Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Green bean salad is probably the simplest, healthiest dish you can make. I usually serve it as a first course or as a side dish accompanying a roasted chicken or any other white meat.

As with other easy dishes, the key is to use good, fresh ingredients. I got some crisp haricots verts fins from the local market. Haricots verts fins literally means thin string beans in French; they are much more tender than regular green beans.

For an added contrast of texture, I added some toasted, sliced almonds and some coarsely chopped sun dried tomatoes to bring a tart, acidic flavor. 

What I love about this dish is that you can mix and match green beans with anything, such as wax beans (called haricots beurres in French). Just select an ingredient that will create an appealing color contrast: nuts, capers, feta cheese or even anchovies all work well.

Matcha Green Tea Agar Agar with Sweet Black Sesame Sauce

When I think of Asian sweets, the flavor that comes to mind after mango, litchi and durian  is matcha green tea. I love pairing matcha with black sesame; I think the flavors go perfectly together.

Lulu and the girls made a beautiful rau câu birthday cake for my birthday several weeks ago, based on a recipe I posted. Rau câu means agar agar in Vietnamese.

I made a matcha agar agar jello cake paired with black sesame sauce and garnished it with fresh diced mangoes for color. The dessert tastes like a sweeten matcha green tea with a soft jelly texture.

Punjabi-Style Chaat (Layers of Tomatoes, Raita, Ginger Garbanzo beans, Mint Sauce and Tamarind Chutney)

Chaat is an Indian snack. There are many varieties but they all use similar ingredients. If you think of it as in Mexican food where you see salsa, guacamole, sour cream, refried beans and cheese, repeated in many different dishes, similarly chaat is made up of a crispy fried bread called puri and garbanzo beans, tomatoes, yogurt, taramind, mint sauce and spices.

This particular version of chaat is one Lulu's aunt makes whenever she has a family get-together at her house. Since it's more constructed than many of the other chaats, it's got distinct layers. She usually serves it with potatoes as well, which I didn't have on hand; I'm going to post my personal favorite later on, which is called dahi papdi chaat.

For those of you who think Indian food is mostly butter chicken, tandoori chicken or palak paneer, there is a whole world of cuisine that I've been introduced to since I got married I never knew existed. I love South Indian food in particular and I'll try to put up some recipes from that region.