I have received requests from readers to include a few recipes from China and Haiti on this blog since that is where my children are from. Recipes don't exactly fall under adoption blogging, but I will add one today since it is a comfort food for my son.

Having lived in China for 11 years of his life, Caleb's taste buds have not totally acclimated to American food. Although he eats most things willingly other than dairy products and chocolate, his face really lights up when he smells Chinese food cooking.

Our attachment therapist believes that the more you can do to "light up" a child, the faster they want to attach to their new family. If comfort foods will speed up the attachment process, then cooking them for him is something I am willing to do.

We were recently in an Asian grocery store and Caleb came running to me yelling "Yummy, yummy, Mama!", holding some kind of root vegetable in his hands. It was a strange looking one and it wasn't until I examined it more closely that I realized it was the raw version of what I had seen candied for Chinese New Year - lotus root.

I had also seen it cooking on roadside stands on the streets of Wuhan and at first glance, thought it looked like very firm tomatoes with the seeds removed.

I consented to buy it, but had absolutely no idea how to cook it. I asked Caleb, but food generally appeared to him in the orphanage already cooked, so being a chef is not exactly his expertise. He did live with a foster family for a year and was exposed to some cooking, but due to his limited English abilities, I got back something like this: "Hmmm...cut like zees, zen cook, water, ummm, I don't know, eat." OK buddy, you're going to need a bit more description if you ever hope to take over "Yan Can Cook" on PBS.

So, I called my friend who is the queen of Asian cookbooks and asked her to look up a recipe for lotus root. A few seemed too technical and had ingredients that we didn't have and Caleb clearly wanted it for dinner. She read off one to me that seemed rather simple, and since I cook most things "to taste" anyway without measuring, I just made a mental list of the ingredients and started experimenting. What follows below is our new family recipe for stir frying lotus root. Give it a try...it's actually quite delicious.

Stir Fried Lotus Root with Ham


Ingredients:

1 lb Lotus root
1/4 lb of ham ( I use sliced lunch meat)
2 tsp of minced garlic
2 Slices fresh ginger root
1 Tb of sesame oil
2 tsp of sugar
3 Tb of soy sauce
2 Tb of water


Directions:

Wash and peel the lotus root. Cut crosswise with a sharp knife into very thin slices. (Approximately 1/4")
Chop up the ham into 1/2" size pieces.

Stir the 2 tsp of sugar into the 3 Tb of soy sauce and set aside.

Heat 1 Tb of oil in a frying pan or wok and add the 2 tsp of minced garlic. Stir until the garlic is browned.

Add the lotus root, the 2 Tb of water and the soy sauce with the sugar. Stir fry approximately 4-5 minutes or until the lotus root begins to soften. The thinner the slices, the quicker the lotus root will soften.

In a garlic press, squeeze the two slices of fresh ginger over the lotus root, squeezing any liquid onto the lotus root, and adding the small bits of ginger that come through the garlic press. Depending on how much ginger flavor you like, you can increase the amount to 3 or 4 slices.

Add the ham and stir fry for 1-2 more minutes.
Turn onto a plate and serve warm. Enjoy!