It's been a few weeks since I started making some
meals for my mom, and I think I'm seeing some
improvement. The week before I started she made
some comment about her body is breaking down, but
last week she said she thought she was in pretty
good health. I'm hoping to see some improvement
in her problems with memory and equilibrium, but
it's way too early for that.

I switched to Kikkoman to make the food closer
to what she had back in Hawaii. I've settled into
sort of a routine, alternating chicken and pork
with the occasional shrimp. I begin the day before,
by peeling and slicing a piece of ginger about
6 inches long and adding that along with about
a dozen star anise heads to about 10 oz. of soy
sauce. I soak them overnight in the fridge.

Then, I fish out the ginger and anise and use that
as a marinade for about 2 pounds of meat. For
chicken, I get boneless thighs, trim off the fat,
and marinate for 2 hours. I used to marinate
chicken for 1 hour, but 2 seems better. For pork,
I get boneless pork leg, remove any silverskin
and tendon, and marinate at least 2 hours, but
I've been lengthening this time.

After trimming the pork, I have variable sized
pieces. I think that's okay -- some small pieces
will get over-marinated while there's usually one
big piece that will be under-marinated in the
center. In the future, I'll cut the big piece
in half to reduce the thickness. I think having
a variety of levels of marination is better than
everything marinated to the same degree.

I've tried other ingrediants in the marinade,
like a sliced onion, but I don't find their flavor
detectable in the final product. I have tried
sesame oil, and that seems to work, but if I add
it at all, it usually goes in the pot right at the
end of cooking everything.

As I recall, mom would always cut the meat into
strips before marination and only marinate for
an hour. I don't do that, again because I want
a variety of levels. When I cut up the big piece
I get that variety in each strip.

I stir-fry in the big cast iron pot I use for most
of my cooking. Two pounds of chicken or pork is
too much for one batch, but about right for three.
I don't want the meat strips to completely cover
the bottom of the pot or overlap each other. They
have to fry separately to become properly fried,
otherwise it's more like steaming them.

I fry the meat with a few whole dried chili peppers.
Mom knows not to eat those. I can't say I really
notice much difference when I forget them.

I haven't timed it, but it only seems to take a
few minutes to fry a batch. I use high heat the
whole time. I do allow the pot to recover a little
between batches, but the first batch gets the best
fry, because if I let the pot get as hot for the
second and third batches the fond would burn and
smoke.

When the third batch is done frying, I dump the
vegetables in and heat them up, stirring constantly.
When they're hot, I return the first two batches
of meat to the pot and keep stirring until I think
the whole thing is done.

I use two or three vegetables, always at least one
for texture -- bamboo shoot, water chestnuts, or
gobo -- and one for nutrition -- Napa cabbage, baby
choy sum, gai-lan, or long beans. Everything is cut
small, matchstick strips for bamboo shoots and gobo,
1/4-inch thick stem slices for baby choy sum and
gai-lan, and inch-long segments for long beans. I
only use the midribs of the Napa cabbage, which I
cut crosswise into narrow strips.

When the vegetables seem properly cooked, I turn off
the heat and sometimes cover the pot to let it steam
for a few minutes, but usually I immediately scoop
the food into the Glasslock container I bought for
the purpose. A 1000 ml container holds nearly a
whole pot of food. I'm surprised mom eats the whole
thing in about 2 days -- I weigh about twice what
she does and I don't eat that much meat. But that's
good. The whole point is that I was afraid she was
eating too little and that might be related to some
of her problems. I surmised that might be because
her food just wasn't that attractive anymore, and
the way to reverse that is to make food better than
what she was eating. I was a bit shocked to discover
she way frying up Spam and eating that over rice. No
wonder she lost so much weight in the last 9 years.
I think I may have solved that problem -- she keeps
telling me the food I make is really good.