The Soup Queen

I got this recipe from somewhere but I cannot remember where but it was given as Maryann's recipe. So Maryann, thanks to you, I am sharing this soup recipe with everyone here. It's good for breastfeeding moms as papaya seems to increase lactation. Maryann’s Papaya Soup Ingredients 4 skinless chicken thighs 1 unripe hard papaya (about 400g) 4 shallots (sliced) 4 cloves garlic (sliced) 10 white peppercorns 1 piece of ginger (about 5cm long) 2 ½ litres of boiling water ½ Tbsp oil Salt to taste 1 Tbsp chopped Chinese parsley or spring onion (optional) Method 1. Clean and cut each chicken thighs into two. 2. Peel the papaya, take out the seeds and cut the fruit into big chunks. 3. Do not cut the ginger, but pound it slightly. 4. Heat the pot with oil, add ginger, fry for 3 minutes. Add shallots and garlic, fry for another minute, then add the chicken pieces and fry for 3 minutes. Add the boiling water. 5. Add the papaya and whole white peppercorns to the soup and boil it over low he...

The best part about blogging about soups is that I attract a lot of similar minded people and we become friends and then we start exchanging soup recipes and before you know it, we're diehard soup-lovers and soup recipe exchangers! Maybe SoupQueen should start a Soup Club! Any takers? Anyway, last week, I got a wonderful email from Grace Poon who lives in Australia. She was so kind to send me a soup recipe - a kidney tonic soup - to share with everyone here. It's taken from www.asiaone.com.sg (I believe it's always honest to credit back the source) and it's a soup for those suffering from backaches. According to the article accompanying the soup recipe, lower back pain is a result of not having enough Qi in the kidney and liver. Lower back pain could also result from stagnation of Qi in the blood. The kidney tonic soup suggested contains a main ingredient of Eucommia Bark or Duzhong. Duzhong, I read in a TCM book, is actually the name of the man who ate the herb and go...