What to do when one gets the cold

Well, its that time of the year when the cold and flu viruses are out in the open and trying to migrate form one body to another. And we build our forts by taking in lots of vitamins and sometimes they are just not enough because that damned virus finds a way to break it year after year. So how do we deal with the virus? Here is an idea: -

Take your hardcore meat-eating friends (vegetarians will work too) and eat a lot of chicken in your favorite restaurant. Check out my typical menu when I fall sick –

1. Chicken clear soup / Chicken Manchow Soup with extra pepper
2. Pepper chicken masala
3. Spicy fried Chicken
4. Chicken friend rice or briyani
5. Chilli chicken

And after reaching home, if my head is still not clear, I take milk with a pinch of turmeric powder in it. Turmeric powder is a very effective antibiotic. The only other thing that may beat this above feast of food is the home made chicken soup (Tamil Nadu village style). And here is the recipe for that … do try it in case you get sick. It helps !

Chicken Soup from the village

1. Preparing the magic paste

• 50 grams shallots (small onions - around 10)
• 2 cloves of garlic
  
• Small piece of ginger (around ½ inch)
• Curry Leaves – around 10
• Cumin seeds (Jeera) – ½ teaspoon
• Whole Pepper – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder– ¼ teaspoon
• Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon

Grind all the above ingredients in a Mixer/Blender with a little water.





2. Making the soup

Use a small pressure cooker and add some cut pieces of Chicken. (Around 100 to 150 grams of bone pieces rather than flesh pieces). Add the paste prepared already, 2 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tomato cut into medium sized pieces. Stir the mixture, place the lid and let the chicken cook. After the first whistle comes, simmer the flame and let the chicken cook on the reduced flame for another 5 minutes. Remove the cooker from the stove, filter the soup and add additional salt and pepper according to taste.

Bon appetite and lets show the virus that we can throw it out our system ...