Level 5 · Minced & Moist: soft, moist food with tiny pieces (no bigger than 4 mm, about the gap between fork prongs), held together in a thick sauce. Very little chewing needed. What do the levels mean?
Serves: 2 · Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients: Ground chicken, soy sauce, mirin, fresh ginger, kabocha, a little butter.
Steps
Steam and mash 2 cups peeled kabocha with the butter until smooth.
Cook 8 oz ground chicken with 1 tsp grated ginger, stirring with chopsticks or a whisk so it stays very fine.
Add 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin and 1/4 cup water, simmer 3 minutes, then thicken lightly with cornstarch so it is moist, not runny.
Spoon over the kabocha.
Check the texture: press with a fork and the pieces separate easily and pass between the prongs. It slides off a tilted spoon with no thin liquid pooling on the plate.
Use the food level recommended by your speech-language pathologist or doctor. Textures change with cooking time, cooling and reheating, so check the food each time before serving, using the simple fork and spoon tests in our swallowing guide. Sit upright to eat, take small bites, and stay upright for 30 minutes after.