After straining my back, I've been awfully lazy lately in my endeavors. This includes cooking. The upside is that I've been pulling a lot of old standards that get forgotten in the spirit of learning new recipes.

Set the spaghetti to boil. Sweat carrots, onions, garlic and mushrooms. Brown beef, breaking up till some pink is left. Add ketchup to coat stirring till thickened slightly. Pour crushed tomato into the pot and bring to a boil. Turn down heat immediately, add sugar, then wine if using, and simmer for at least 15 minutes. Adjust with seasoning or spices. Before serving stir in olives. 

So I don't want to get in that whole internet discussion about what a real woman does with literature in her spare time. Instead, I offer this much about the first episode (mild spoilers to follow):

Camera malfunction, but definitely not food malfunction at Mission Street Chinese Food. Pork belly, deep fried Filipino style, with traditional tea smoked eggs and flat rice noodle rolls that usually are served at dim sum.

Mission Chinese is queer place, both hipster and humdrum. The 90's rap on rotation and the lantern lit dragon on the ceiling, recalls some seedier sections of Asia, and the menu mixes takeout standards with some beloved but lesser known favorites that "non-asians" dont typically order or even see. Chef likes to tinker and his dishes reflect that sense of whimsy, so the food here is inconsistent from visit to visit - by that I mean, mixing things up, rather than taking a downturn. There is tender, oh so tender, brisket rivaling the best that Oakland has to offer, melty fat infused with woodsmoke and tempered with Mexican Coke bbq sauce. A variety of tart pickles that recall Chinese street fare and Korean pan chan, make the best accompaniment. Then theres a hodgepodge of pan Chinese references for the main courses, from Lion's Head Meatball Ramen, where the meatball is actually a twist on the pungent stinky fish patty, to Mapo tofu, hot on all kinds of levels, fiery, searingly, and numbingly. Surprisingly, the Salt Cod Fried Rice plays it safe but offers a soft landing to all the bigger flavors on the menu. This flip flop of textures and tasting profiles is what defines Mission Chinese Food, where fusion comes correct, and with a low price tag. Get in line!

Sundance also has an affordable 20 dollar Twilight Dinner that includes a 6 oz steak, cup of soup and same choice of sides as the regular meal. As for the rest of the straightforward dishes at this basic steakhouse, everything was carefully executed. While I don't love the creamed spinach, mashed potatoes were creamy and garlicky. The squid in the calamari appetizer was perfectly tender (DD loved the smoky spicy dipping sauce), as were the clams in the chowder, which everyone preferred to Sam's New England. Heck, the steak was tender too, even after microwaving the leftovers.

My second attempt at making Yellow Cake from the The New Best Recipes book ends in success! The small blemish on top occurred when the skin stuck to the plate before reversing on to the rack. Otherwise, the cakes are only slightly lopsided and rose to a healthy inch. The flavor is extremely eggy, and may not be the kind of cake that I ultimately want to proceed with in future, since I'm after a French or Asian cafe cake which is based on the chiffon. However, the Yellow Cake recipe is really not as complicated or delicate as others that I've come across and therefore is a reliable American style cake that serves a purpose at the end of a homey, hearty weekday meal.

Tinkered Yellow Cake Recipe

1 3/4 cup (7 oz) cake flour
1 1/2 cup (10.5 oz) sugar
16 tbsp (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but cool, cut into pieces
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9" cake pans. Grease and flour a parchment circle for the bottom of each. In a large mixing bowl, whisk dry ingredients together. Cut in butter with a fork till the meal is coarse with pea size bits.

Beat together the wet ingredients, egg, water, vanilla. I do this straight in my large 4 cup Pyrex measuring "jug". Pour 1 cup of the egg mixture into the flour and with a hand mixer beat on low for 5-10 seconds till incorporated. Turning the mixer to high, beat until light and fluffy. Add the remaining egg liquid in a slow stream for about 30 sec, then stop and scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix on high until thoroughly combined and the batter looks a little curdled, about 15 seconds.

Divide batter equally in the pans, spreading with a spatula till smooth. Bake till light gold and tooth pick comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the perimeter of the cake, and invert onto a large flat plate quickly. Peel off the parchment and immediately turn onto a wire rack. Cool before frosting.

Several points of note:
1. The cake pans really need to be well oiled and floured, especially in the corners, or else some loved bits get left behind.

2. Leveling the batter before baking is important to achieve a perfect layer.

3. My hand mixer is old and grumpy, so the mixing takes a bit longer than stated above. Furthermore, this cake is perfectly fine as made with a wire whisk but will likewise take a proportionally greater length of time and more elbow grease. The consistency is more crucial than the timing.

Since this is my everyday dessert, I didn't bother knife leveling the layers. Instead, I whipped up the Penuche from Betty Crocker's All Time Favorites and slathered brown butter frosting all over my peaked and lopsided cake. Again, I'm making use of my buttermilk powder in lieu of milk. The below recipe is slightly less frosting than needed for the cake above. One option is to substitute a light whipped cream filling in the center, or increase the Penuche recipe by about 1/4.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tbsp buttermilk powder
2 cup powdered sugar

Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan. Heat to boiling and whisk in buttermilk powder and water until the mix looks like roux. When bubbly remove from heat and gradually stir in powdered sugar little by little, whisking till smooth and spreadable. The book says to put the hot pot in ice water while whisking, but I just did it off the heat. To compensate for the evaporated moisture I did have to add a little water once cooled and whisk again before applying to the cooled cake. While tasty, the frosting is not particularly light and fluffy. I would have to test the recipe again to be sure. For now, the cake is just right.

Serve chicken garnished with chives and flour dumplings on the side. However, I just used packaged fresh gnocchi in lieu of dumplings. While flavorfull, the skin is not very appetizing and can be dispensed with prior to seasoning.

1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 garlic clove, minced, or powdered garlic
4 chicken legs
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tsp hot smoked paprika
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup sour cream 

Rub chicken with garlic, salt and pepper on all sides. Dredge lightly in flour. Brown in a large skillet with olive oil and butter, turning once. Remove from heat.

In the same pan on lower heat, saute onions till barely wilted. Make a little room in the pan and bloom the paprika on the bottom surface. Deglaze fond with chicken stock. Lay chicken pieces over the onions and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through or longer for chicken that is falling off the bone. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Adjust seasoning.

Reference:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Paprikash-with-Sour-Cream-237284
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_paprikash/

Granola is a no-brainer really. Below are the basic ratios with some ingredient suggestions following. Recipe makes a good amount for having on-hand and is ripe for spontaneous experimentation.

Syrup

A recipe for layered yellow cake turned into disaster when I forgot the sugar. Faced with two 9" round vanilla scented biscuits, I figured fried chicken was the way to go. The easier solution? My take on Shake and Bake, perfected in college. Martha Stewart's buttermilk herb dressing with a twist necessitated, once again, by missing some items on the grocery list and a desire to test out different ways of using that bag of buttermilk powder.

Why am I not buying all fresh? Because I'm tired of throwing out half empty cartons of dairy and digging up wilted bunches of herbs from the bottom of my crisper. Have I eschewed produce forever? No. But that dried stuff needs turnover too.

Baked Chicken

I'm totally guessing at the amounts here.

4 whole chicken legs with skin, room temp, lightly salted
1/3 cup of panko flakes, but breadcrumbs of all kinds will also do
1/4 tsp of smoked paprika
1/2 tsp of kosher salt
1/2 tsp of powdered garlic
2 tbsp flour
cracked pepper
*opt. parmesan, dried spices like parsley or seasoning of choice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Throw the dry ingredients into a bag and shake till chicken is coated. If theres a lot of extra panko left over, sprinkle some drops of water over the surface and press on the excess breading. Bake legs skin side up for about 30-35 min or until juices run clear and the skin is crackling and golden (more golden than in the picture). If theres not a pool of tasty liquid on the pan, then the chicken isn't done yet. To make the skin extra special all around, bake on a rack.


Buttermilk Powder Vinaigrette

2.5 tbsp buttermilk powder
1/2 cup water
1.5 tbsp balsamic
1/2 tbsp each of rice, cider, white vinegar (last dregs...)
1 tsp kosher slat
1/3 tsp ground pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup minced chives
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1/4 tsp of dried thyme
1/8 tsp of dried oregano

Whisk all the ingredients up and let it sit before using. Add some extra pinches of herbs if you want the dressing stronger.