Invalid food

When you are recovering from an illness or emotional turmoil or an unpleasant medical procedure, you need food that is appropriate for your weakened constitution. It should be sustaining and digestible, not cloying or prickly. But at the same time, it should not be flavorless; it should have flavors that soothe and reassure. You want something like eggs and rice. Eggs and rice are not beautiful. They are not company food. They belong in a nice bowl, perhaps with Peter Bunny on the bottom, and you are always welcome to eat them in your pajamas.

If you are a high-functioning invalid, you can make them yourself. If not, your kindly caretaker should first make a batch of long grain rice. My usual method is to take 1 1/2 cups long grain rice (thoroughly rinsed, if I am feeling energetic -- it does make a difference, but for purposes like this I don't usually bother) and 3 cups water, bring them to a boil together, and after three minutes turn down the heat and cover the pot. After fifteen minutes, the heat goes off and the pot sits for fifteen minutes more. Do this, or whatever you prefer, but add to the water about a teaspoon of salt and a little blob of olive oil. You will now have a lot more rice than you need for a couple of servings of eggs and rice, but you can use it for other purposes, or, if you are going to be (or to feed) an invalid for a while, you might like to keep it around for a few days' worth of invalidish meals.

When the rice is done, and slightly cooled, take two or three large eggs and beat them lightly in a bowl with a little salt and a little ground cumin. The nicer the eggs, of course, the nicer the results will be. I have become a bit ridiculously addicted to the expensive farm eggs to be had at the farmer's market and our local co-op. They have bright orange yolks and taste deliciously of egg. It is my opinion that expensive eggs are a pretty cheap luxury, but it is also the case that most things will taste perfectly all right with ordinary eggs. Choose as you will.

Melt a little knob of butter in a decently large frying pan, nonstick or well-seasoned cast iron if you have it, over medium-low heat. When it begins to foam, tip your eggs in and begin scrambling them, with a gentle touch. (I have found that my favorite implement for egg-scrambling is a heat-proof silicon spatula like this one, which has by the way become my general favorite all-purpose kitchen tool of the moment.) When you have some largeish curds but the eggs are still runny, crumble in about half a cup of the rice, maybe a little more. Keep on scrambling until you have a nice jumbly golden pile of food, on the dry side of normal for scrambled eggs, but not, of course, anywhere crispy. Invalids eat soft food. Crunchy edges are too challenging for their weakened state.

After you have eaten your eggs and rice, accompanied by some tea or ginger ale or warm milk and honey, you may curl up and drift off into a deep, healing sleep.

Posted by redfox at June 23, 2003 01:19 PM (essays)

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