My Seventy-ninth - Chicken Marsala -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Seventy-ninth - Chicken Marsala -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

So, in cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, I found a bottle of Marsala wine in the back.  It has probably been there for over 6 years.  I haven't made Chicken Marsala since well before my first oral cancer treatment in 2010.  I love chicken Marsala.  But, I'm the only one in my house that does.  As I held the bottle in my hand, I thought about all the meals that require a little bit of liquor / liqueur like cognac, Cointreau, red wine, beer, etc.

For many cancer treatment people, these are strictly forbidden, because of the alcohol.  However, for cooking there are often non-alcohol alternatives, like flavored extracts, or non-alcoholic beer and wines.

Marsala does not have an alternative. But you can cook the alcohol out of it. by boiling the water on the stove, and add the Marsala wine to boiling water, and turning the heat off, and letting the water cool down a bit before adding it to the blender.  There is a little magic required trying to estimate how hot the water should be compared with the cold items in the blender.

This recipe is for people like me, where no one else in the house will eat it.

1-part pre-cooked chicken

1-part starch

1/2-part mushroom

1-part cream

4 parts warmed chicken stock 

warm water

Dash of Marsala wine

WARM LIQUID

The key to this dish is to make it warm enough that the Marsala wine gives a nice fragrance.  It is also a dish, where you need to feed it to lip sippers in a small portion, so that you can make sure that they always have a warm cup in front of them.  It will lose all its charm when it is cold.  Yes, I would not start with this dish, as the first one I make for a patient.  Maybe the twentieth and thirtieth, once I've gained their trust.

PRE-COOKED CHICKEN

This is a perfect example of a dish where I keep unseasoned pre-cooked meat in the refrigerator. Some call it leftovers, I call it life.  When I cook myself a meal, I typically cook the meat unseasoned, and then pull half of it out and store it in the refrigerator for a meal for the next day.  Most of the issue with pre-cooked meat, is the texture - pureeing solves that problem.

LIQUEUR

The beauty of liqueur is they add a lot of aroma.  Liqueurs remind the patient of good times, and good days.  

Remember, it takes very little liqueur to add a lot of flavor.

STARCH

Some like Chicken Marsala with rice, others with pasta.  I like mine with egg noodles.  It's a personal preference. 

CREAM

I've had chicken Marsala without cream - it is a little too intense of a flavor for my taste.  Typically, the patient needs to put on weight, so cream is good.

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