My Own Recipe for Asian Comfort Food

Asian Comfort Porridge

I've noticed, ever since I adopted my daughter, that I should come up with some special comfort food to feed her when she's feeling sick. After all, who doesn't want comfort food when they're sick? How much more comforting would it be when it's something familiar that you've been comforted with during your early childhood? Well, since we adopted an older child, I needed to come up with a recipe of something that would come close to what she was familiar with. Fortunately, I also had a little experience and knowledge of Asian cooking, thanks to having lived in Japan for six and a half years. So, after five years I feel like I've come up with something that will pass for decent comfort food to satisfy my daughter's longings when she's feeling ill. It's a kind of porridge, using both Japanese and Thai ingredients. You could certainly alter ingredients to your own taste, but here's what I've discovered meets her credentials:   

                                           ASIAN COMFORT PORRIDGE
Ingredients:
2 Chicken Bouillon cubes
2 C. water Two shiitake mushrooms (soaked in water)
2 slices of galganal
3 small lime leaves
1/2 tsp. lemon grass (I use the kind in a tube that you can find in the produce section of the supermarket.)
1 tsp. fish sauce
1 TB. sugar
1 egg
chopped cabbage
chopped green onions to taste
1 C. rice porridge

Boil the water and add the chicken bouillon cubes, until dissolved. Add the galganal, lime leaves, lemon grass, fish sauce, sugar, and shiitake mushrooms. (Optional: You can add the water you soaked the shiitake mushrooms in to add a nice flavor, but it will cause a strange discoloration of your egg) Crack open and add one egg to the boiling mix. Add as much chopped cabbage and green onions as you like. Ladel this mixture over a bowl of rice porridge. (Many rice cookers have a rice porridge setting.) Please remove the slices of galganal and the lime leaves, as these are just to add flavor, but not to be eaten. Note: To extend the life of the Thai ingredients, I do freeze my galganal, lime leaves and tube of chopped lemon grass.) I just thaw the galganal in the microwave before I use it, so to soften it and make it possible to slice it. Then I refreeze it.