Cancer Patients-Chicken Stock-Congee Recipe-Rice Porridge-White Rice

Five Phase Congee for Cancer Patients

Five Phases Congee for chronically ill or cancer patientsWhen your loved one is struggling to get enough nutrition into their system and the digestion may be effected, the foods that you cook for them ought to be very easy to digest. They should be cooked and warm which will support the Qi of the Spleen and the digestion.
In Chinese and East Asian medicine there is a long understanding that the prepared food of choice is a nutritious rice porridge known as "congee" in Mandarin or "jook" in Cantonese. I have discussed these in past blog updates.Today I want to discuss a congee for very chronically ill people, and in this case cancer patients.  But note that Five Phase Congee is good for any sick person and makes a very nutritious breakfast for anybody.
I call this Five Phase Congee and it is a congee that I use to impart nutrition, strengthen the Qi of the five organs and stop weight loss. 
The Chinese character for "qi" depicts a man eating a bowl of rice in his house and there are vapors of life sustaining essence rising from the rice. White rice is easier to ingest and digest than brown rice. It will also help arrest diarrhea, a common side effect of chemotherapy. 
The basic congee recipe is 1 cup of Japanese or Chinese white rice to 5 cups of liquid.This is easiest when cooked in a crockpot rather than a traditional pot on the stove. Its much simpler to cook, not requiring constant attention and stirring to prevent burning. The congee will require at least 4 hours of cooking for the rice to properly dissolve into a thick soupy gruel.
Basic Congee recipe:
2 cups of white rice 10 cups of homemade chicken stock 4 cloves of garlic, 2 ginger roots (size of your thumb) sliced
Put all ingredients in the crockpot and cook for 4 hours, stirring ocassionally.Start with high heat and turn down to low heat after 2 hours.
This will be your base and you can then use this for several days. Keep it refrigerated, then reheat portions as necessary.
Chicken Stock: Yellow GoldLet me discuss here the chicken stock as it is prepared by a dear friend of mine, Deborah Todd.
I call this Yellow Gold. It is the most powerfully delicious and nutritious chicken stock I've ever come across and it is like essence of chicken. This is powerful medicine.
In a large soup stock pot, put the skin and bones (the carcass) of a large organic chicken. Fill the pot with double filtered water (about 3 quarts). Add a whole head of garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced. Add a cup of thinly sliced ginger (use a mandolin). I should mention here that chicken is considered a powerful tonic for the Spleen and digestion. When the digestion is very weakened, making a stock is the best way to gain the benefits for your patient. The two aromatics will warm the digestion and the internal organs and strengthen the Spleen as well. Ginger will also help settle an upset stomach if the patient is having nausea. You can also add other cooking herbs/vegetables if you like: celery, carrot, rosemary, thyme, etc.
Add 3 quarts of water and 2 TBSP of sea salt.
Sea salt has more minerals in it and an enhanced flavor that is easier to taste and more palatable to chemotherapy patients who often lose sense of taste. You can always add more salt later, but start off conservatively.
I have altered this recipe slightly by adding 5 dried shiitake mushrooms. Mushrooms enhance the immune system and I use enoki and shiitake a lot in my decoctions.Cook this pot with the lid ajar for at least 6 hours over the course of 3 days. Add water whenever necessary. All of the connective tissue should dissolve and the bones should separate and sink to the bottom.
Chill this pot of soup whenever you are not cooking it and let the fat congeal on the top. Skim off and save this fat in a separate container and store it in the refrigerator.
After three days of cooking and skimming the fat there are two last steps to clean your broth.
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