I have started, so I will continue ...
From my perspective, there is only one great basic certainty about oesophageal cancer: food is life. If my husband can't eat, he will starve.
For fellow carers, and those who have eating problems due to cancer, I hope your experience of dieticians has been better than ours. I seem to remember the only advice we were given was aimed at all cancer patients who were going through chemo, and that advice was only given when we asked to see a dietician. I don't know, call me naive, but I would have thought a dietician had valuable expertise for someone who has oesophageal cancer? Apparently not. And there are some hightly questionable things that are recommended in the standard advice for cancer patients - but that is another story.
So what can you do for someone who is constantly losing weight, who is so hungry that even the brussel sprouts and pigs' trotters in some Sunday newspaper supplement look appetising, but who can hardly swallow anything?
This takes us back to the chicken broth: get your pens ready:
You need:
Method:
Take the breasts of the chicken off - you need to eat something!
Very roughly chop the vegetables - you won't be eating them so being tidy is not an issue. Pop the chicken into the pot, roughly chopped vegetables, herbs and peppercorns. Cover with water - you should need several pints. I add a very little olive oil - it gives texture. Pop in a generous pinch of salt - you can add later.
Simmer (not boil - put in the oven if that is best for you) until the chicken is falling off the bone. If you find it tasteless, add a vegetable stock cube. If it is too strong, add a little more water. If the vegetables aren't cooked, keep cooking!
Or ask the patient to taste - you can then season/dilute accordingly.
Strain off the broth - throw out the bones and old vegetables.
For those who can eat solids, a good idea is to shred (tiny pieces) one of the chicken breasts very finely and then pop it into some of the broth with a little basmati rice/finely chopped whatever. Simmer for about fifteen minutes.
In the meantime, cook the remaining chicken breast for yourself ( and no, I am not telling you how to do that).
There should be enough basic broth/stock for you to simply re-heat or add to for several meals. Obviously, your must store it in the fridge and take care that you always boil stock/broth for at least five minutes when you are re-heating it - kill all the bacteria.
Phew! Such a simple thing, but such a long recipe. Yes, to you cooks out there, this is just a basic chicken stock. But how many make real stock these days? (How many care ...?)
Dear, oh, dear. That all took more explaining than I thought. If anybody got this far, bravo. I barely managed it myself.
Back to the 'teach-yourself' Italian. I am hoping to get to the future tense ... perhaps tomorrow ...
