Good morning. Ligaya Mishan has a wonderful Eat column in The New York Times Magazine that we pitched onto porches this morning, all about the origins of chiffon cake in Los Angeles in the 1920s and how this bake found abiding fame in Asia.
Her recipe (above), adapted from one she learned from Christopher Tan, a cookbook author who lives and teaches chiffon cake workshops in Singapore, delivers a gossamer fluffiness. Bright with citrus, the cake is, in Ligaya’s words, “almost nothing … and yet so rich: angel and devil at once.”
So that’s on the docket for today, absolutely, as a Sunday gravy bubbles away on the stovetop in advance of a substantial dinner.
As for the rest of the week …
Monday
I love the idea of Ali Slagle’s new recipe for udon with spinach and brown butter, nutty and fresh — and a perfect start to a chilly week of after-work gift shopping and office parties.
Tuesday
Vallery Lomas’s recipe for shrimp Creole is like a supercharged version of New Orleans-style barbecued shrimp. It’s a stew that’s close to a gumbo, rich and velvety, served above a mound of stovetop rice.
Wednesday
I love this recipe for rice cakes with peanut sauce and hoisin from Hetty McKinnon, in part because of its luscious sauces but also for how it expands my rice cake repertoire past tteokbokki. Rice cakes are going to be big pantry players for me in 2023.
Friday
And then you can wind down the week with Yasmin Fahr’s coconut-braised chicken with potatoes, exactly the sort of rib-sticker this month calls for and celebrates as we march into the sunset of the year.
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Now, it’s nothing to do with food (though quite a lot to do with drinking martinis), but when — if ever — did you last watch William Powell and Myrna Loy in the 1934 film “The Thin Man”? It’s streaming on HBO Max, and you should take advantage of that.
Psst. Should you find ourself in Bayside, Queens, at some point in the coming days or weeks, there’s an exemplary hot-and-sour soup at Little Dumpling on Horace Harding Expressway. (Next, try some sliced flounder with ginger and scallion.)
Happy birthday to The Los Angeles Times, which was first published on this day in 1881.
Finally, let’s get shoegazey with the cooking music today, shall we? Here’s “Pharmacist” by Alvvays. Play it loud. Melissa will join you on Monday, and I’ll return on Friday.
