Comfort Foods

Drinking right now: Masala Chai Organic Black Tea. Origin: China (Fair Trade) $29.99/lb

Forgive the lateness of this post. I've been trying to keep on an every-other-day posting schedule, but this week had me frazzled. If you haven't noticed, I tend to be a worrier. It used to be bad enough that I was on medication for it, but after years of treatment and therapy, I only worry about the important things. Most of the time.

This is the limit of his tongue, split from the pressure.
It would go forward this far, but not up.

In this case the worry was over my son, Raziel. When he was born (on a chilly December morning in 2007), the doctors immediately noticed there was a problem with his tongue. It's generally referred to as being “tongue-tied,” which often makes people think he simply doesn't talk. The technical term is “ankyloglossia” and it's a fairly common condition. So common, actually, that the doctors refused to do anything about it (even though it would have required a simple in-office “clipping”) on the grounds that most kids either grow out of it or don't find it limiting.

 Well, after three and a half years of watching Razi being underweight from an inability to nurse, then choke on his food every time he would eat (because his tongue couldn't move the food around in his mouth; he had to use his fingers), the doctors finally decided it just might need to be taken care of because he was having speech problems.

I don't blame my current pediatrician, as Razi was already older than the cutoff age for the office procedure when we started going there. At that point, there was nothing to do but wait. I am, however, very upset with the doctor we had when Razi was born, whose inaction brings us to this past Friday: Razi's full-blown surgery.

“But it's a minor surgery!” some people said. The more understanding people knew that when it comes to your children, there is no such thing as minor surgery. I did alright up until Wednesday night; then the nightmares started. Not dreams that anything would go wrong, but that something would be messed up at registration and they wouldn't let Razi have the surgery he's needed so badly. I didn't even bother going to bed the night before, and I haven't really caught up on missed sleep yet.

To wrap it up before I get emotional again, here's the good part: Everything went great! The drive was OK, everyone at the office was friendly, and Razi behaved better than the majority of the kids there (not that I blame them—none of us were comfortable being there.) The absolute worst part was putting him under, but once that was over with I was sent to a private waiting room to cry. The doctor came and got me within 10 minutes, and I headed to recovery to be with my baby.

Razi is doing swell. He gets a little feverish in the middle of the day, but that's easily fixed with Tylenol and a nap. We didn't even have to make a follow-up appointment! His favorite part is getting to eat as many popsicles as he wants.

Tried to get him eating one, but I turned and it was gone.

Touching the roof of his mouth for the first time.

Comfort Food

My comfort foods have always been a little different. When I'm upset, I love something rich and soothing, like perfectly-toasted bread with cream cheese, or a beautiful leafy salad. Right now, my comfort food happens to be Akalee's favorite dish I've made recently—which made Friday night's dinner a simple choice.

This is fried tofu with fried rice. Not fried rice and tofu, nor fried tofu and rice—they aren't cooked together at all. Fried rice, with fried tofu on top. This worked for Friday's dinner also because it was soft and could be broken into small pieces for Razi (who devoured all his tofu while Beorn finished all the rice for him.)

The basis of the entire dish is the teriyaki sauce, stolen gleefully from Rochelle at Acquired Life. I didn't have any mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine) on hand the first time I tried to make it, so attempted another recipe I randomly found online—it was horrid! At the grocery store I grabbed mirin and was able to make the recipe I wish I'd started with. This is my own version after trial and error; I think the seasoned rice vinegar I keep around made it too sweet too keep the sugar, and I added too much garlic the second time (is there such a thing?)

Traditional Teriyaki Recipe
my "more or less" version

½ c dark soy sauce
½ c seasoned rice wine vinegar
¼ c mirin wine
2 cloves garlic
thin slivers of fresh ginger, about 10

I measure and pour these straight into a canning jar, add the garlic and ginger, and shake well. If making ahead, I just put the jar in the fridge; otherwise, just keep it out to use. The remainder can be refrigerated for a few days, and any extra you need to make can be mixed straight in.


Fried Tofu

I am blessed to have a wonderful rice cooker (hm, the reviews are bad, but I've had this one for 6 years and it's still going strong) that I set to cooking while I start the tofu. If I'm making the teriyaki sauce fresh before cooking, I cut the tofu into bite-size pieces and press them while I make the sauce.

If you don't remember from a previous post, you press the water out of the tofu by placing the pieces close together in several layers of paper towels or on a dishtowel. Put another layer on top of the tofu and add flat, heavy items to apply slow pressure.

1 lb for four people is what I generally use, more if we're extra hungry.

Coating:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
dash salt
dash pepper
dash Adobo
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp dried basil

Other ingredients:
teriyaki sauce (see above)
firm or extra firm tofu, pressed
Wok Oil for frying


Put enough oil in a large skillet to thinly coat the bottom. You may or may not want to begin heating it now. If you have very little tofu to cook, go ahead and heat the oil over medium-high heat. If you have a lot, you may want to wait and prepare at least half the tofu before turning the heat on and adding the tofu. Basically, you're going to need to be able to turn a whole lot of tofu at once (prepared before heating), or stagger adding them so you have time (add to hot pan as they're ready.)

Whatever you decide, it's really simple from here. Just dip a piece of tofu into the teriyaki sauce (I put a few tablespoons of sauce into a shallow bowl) and dredge through the flour mixture. Let them cook until they're golden on the bottom, then turn and allow the same on the top.

I've found the easiest utensil for this is chopsticks. If you're not used to using them, it may not be, but being able to quickly grab a piece and flip it over without disturbing its neighbors is necessary to keeping them from burning. Frying them over lower heat doesn't work to keep that from happening—once they finally start to brown, they burn fast! This is why you want them staggered as you add them—either as you coat them, or prepared and added one half at a time. Turning 30 slices of tofu at the same time does make for a very amusing and high-energy game, though.

Once they're brown on both sides, just move them to a heat-proof bowl.

Fried Rice

All that done, there's just the rice left to fry! I add a little more wok oil to the pan and scoop all the rice in with my rice paddle. Pour teriyaki sauce to taste over the rice and mix it in—just enough sauce to turn the rice a light brown. Once that's been cooked into the rice (there's no longer any liquid, for the most part), clear the middle of the pan of rice and add an egg for every serving of rice you have. For all four of us, I generally add 3 eggs because I've cooked three servings. Let the eggs fry slightly while scrambling them, then mix the rice into the eggs and stir it all until the eggs are mostly cooked. It may be hard to tell because the rice will be very sticky, but rest assured that as long as the eggs are heated all the way through, they've been on there long enough that they're safe to eat.

Serving is up to you—I like my rice in a bowl with the tofu on top so I can choose what to eat with each bite, but my husband always has me mix them together (makes it easier to inhale.)

Time to get started on dinner tonight. I think I now have a good idea of what I want to cook.