Papaya soup with american ginseng & black chicken

Traditional low fat and healthy herbal soup recipe which offers excellent medicinal virtues, is brothed with papaya, black chicken and american ginseng, also a great confinement recipe for breatfeeding mums.

I like to broth traditional Chinese-styled soups especially when I feel the body is in need of some replenishment in one area or another.

Papaya Soup with American Ginseng and Black Chicken nourishes kidneys, replenishes blood, enhances digestion system and strengthens bones and tendons. This traditional low fat and healthy herbal soup is also a great confinement recipe for breatfeeding mums.

The selected papaya should not be too ripe (1/3 ripen, with slightly greenish-yellow colored on papaya's skin)

Beyond being evil-smelling or bitter-tasting for black chicken, the soup is tinged with sweetness from sweet dates and papaya.

After imbibing a bowl of this soup, overall physical well-being and balancing out the yin and yang within seems to be compromised.

(Philosophy of Yin and Yang in the sphere of food : Yang foods are believed to increase the body's heat (eg. raise the metabolism), while Yin foods are believed to decrease the body's heat (eg. lower the metabolism). The Chinese ideal is to eat both types of food to keep the body in balance.)

Several Asian cuisines consider black chicken(or Silkie) meat a gourmet food. Traditional Chinese medicine has held that chicken soup made with black chicken meat is a curative food. The usual methods of cooking include using black chicken to make broth and braising.

Black chicken enriched in protein, calcium, phosphorus,vitamin A, B1, B2, C, E, and it help to replenish blood and Qi (boosting), liver and kidneys, expel body heat and regulate menstrual ailments.

American ginseng is root of a plant similar to Korean ginseng, but it has the Yin properties. It help to clean excessive Yang in the body, aphrodisiac.

Indication for sweet almonds (sweet apricot kernels) target the lungs, while sweet dates target the stomach & spleen.

Method :

1. Scald the black chicken into boiling water. Drain up for use.

2. Bring the water to boil into a boiling pot. Put in all ingredients and bring to boil. Simmer for 2 hours with mild flame.

3. Season with salt. Stir well and ready to serve.