this is what happens...

When one posts only once a week, what happens is either you end up leaving out significant pieces, or you end up with a post that is rather more like a word smörgåsbord. Hopefully this will not be the trend here at Bamboo Village, because we are soon getting wireless internet and will not have to be computer-sharing as much. Hooray for our household!

Here is our week in review, working backwards:

Cozies a go-go.

I love knitting while watching tv, and these cozies are super-easy! Strangely enough, my own French press is still without its own cozy, but I think I'm going to fix that today. It's getting cold enough that the coffee is cold before I get to my second cup. I've always wrapped a towel around the cylinder, but I want my own cozy! Here's the new one, just added to Bamboo Village Press:

Saturdays are for Delicious Food

measuring out the rice

anise cloves

Yesterday I went to spend the day with Knittah, her husband and close friend Amy. It was a lovely, crisp fall day, perfect for slow-cooking meat. Don't worry, dear veggie friends, there will be no photos of the pork. This is one of my all-time favorite recipes, and it's always a hit with guests. It's very easy, and ridiculously scrumptious. It's the "Shanghai Ham" recipe from the Joyce Chen Cookbook, and is just one of many crowd-pleasing meals from this great collection of Chinese recipes.



红烧猪肉
Shanghai Ham

4lb fresh pork ham, butt or shoulder [we always use shoulder, bone-in is best, but buy more than 4lbs if you're getting one with the bone]
1 cup dark soy sauce [if you can, buy your soy sauce from an Asian market. it will give much better flavor than the kikkoman you usually get at the regular grocery]
1/2 cup sugar [honey is also ok!]
1TBS dry sherry [i skip this and use a splash of white or rice vinegar]
2 [generous] slices of fresh ginger - or 2 whole cloves garlic
few cloves star anise
1/2 - 1 cup water

Sear and scald the pork by soaking it in boiling water for a few minutes. Rinse with cold water.
Place the pork with all the ingredients in a large sauce pan or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer. Turn the pork over occasionally until tender - about 2 hours or more. Remove cover and increase heat. Baste the pork until about 1 cup of liquid remains (about 15-20 minutes). Skim fat and serve it hot or cold.

Gifties!

Unexpectedly, the gathering of friends yesterday also opened the birthday lead-up, complete with gifts and talk of cheesecake.

I received these two awesome books, appropriately, from Knittah. I think we have an unspoken pact to support each other's knitting obsessions on our birthdays. The first book, Last Minute Knitted Gifts, has been a long-time favorite. The photographs are stunning, and I like almost all of the projects. It was among my last batch of overdue library books, and was destined to be so again, so this is super-awesome!

The second, Knitting Nature, is as artistic as the previous is practical. The patterns are simply mind-blowing, so this will be a book of patterns to aspire to making.

I've also included here a gift from Knittah's aunt, Mother Earth and her Children, which was signed by the author. If you don't know the story behind this book, take the time to look it up. It's completely worth it.

Autumnal

On Friday, my sister and I were fortunate enough to take a 2-hour hike at the Wissahickon, one of my favorite places for outdoor bliss in this area. I say fortunate because it was our last chance to see the foliage before it all dropped to the wintery ground. Here are some of the photos... you can see more on Laurie's blog, linked above.

covered bridge along the "forbidden trail"

japanese maple, in full autumn glory

And, although that is not a *week* in review, it's all I've got in me! Stay tuned next week for a new moleskine design honoring Bamboo Village's China roots and Zhang Lin, our sponsored student.

晚饭- Dinner - Havij Polo

I was recently talking up a wonderful Persian rice dish and was asked for the recipe, so here you have it, in my improvised form!

The fun thing about the recipe is that it is VERY flexible! Want more carrot? Go ahead and add more? The only risk is that if you add too much oil, you'll have an oily rice... but I don't see any problem there... do you? Feel free to ask if you have questions - this is the first time I've written up a recipe from memory!



Havij Polo

Ingredients:

*white basmati rice
*5 medium carrots, grated
*2-3 onions, finely sliced
*cooking or olive oil
*1/2 c. sugar or 3/4 c. honey (or alternative sweetener)
*salt
*1 potato, cut into 1/8" slices.


In a large skillet, saute onions in oil until translucent, then add carrots. I always have to add more oil at this stage, to accommodate so many carrots! Add enough salt that this mixture will be on the slightly salty side. Add sweetener. Simmer until carrots are soft.

While onions are cooking, in a large pot, add 3 cups of rice to a whole pot of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat so the rice is simmering, uncovered. Cook until the rice is al dente. Drain in a colander and keep rice in colander.

When both the rice and the carrot/onion mixture are done, cover the bottom of the pot used for cooking the rice with oil (butter if you're feeling indulgent!) and turn burner on medium high. When oil is hot, add potato slices to cover the bottom of the pan and salt potatoes.

Spoon carrot mixture on top of the rice, blending the two as you go. Once the rice and carrot mix are combined simply add by the spoonful to the pot. When all ingredients are mixed and in the pot, take a clean kitchen towel or cloth napkin and cover the pot, then put the lid on the pot.

Continue to cook at medium high heat for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for another 30 minutes or so, until the rice is fully cooked.

To serve, carefully spoon rice onto a platter, and then use a spatula or flip pot to remove the crisply cooked potatoes & rice from the bottom of the pot. This part of the rice is called tadik and is a much-loved part of any Persian rice dish! (see top photo)

Enjoy as-is or serve with kabobs, lamb, meatballs, or other rich meat.


the finished rice, without tadik.