Herbal soup to rid pimples...

I dunno why I've been having little pimples lately - my hubby says those aren't considered pimples coz they're too small, but I hardly have pimples so it really upsets me to see those little spots on my face.

I happened to chance upon this recipe from a cookbook my mil bought and it says the soup helps to rid pimples so I thought oh well, might as well give it a try. What have I got to lose? Hehe. Anyway, the ingredients are rather similar to my ginseng root chicken soup just that the emphasis found in this soup is the Solomon's seal.

See the overwhelming presence of the Solomon's seal? :P

The clear soup after removing most of the herbs which can't be eaten and get in the way!

Solomon's seal (herbal) chicken soup

I didn't follow the recipe exactly - I just used my own estimation... :P

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, visible fats removed) - the recipe used black chicken
• 4 large seedless red dates
• 4 dried longan (this wasn't added in the original recipe)
• 40-50g Solomon's seal (yu zhu)
• 10-15g ginseng root
• 1 slice ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon hua diao jiu
• salt to taste
• 500ml water

Method:

1. Blanch the chicken thighs. Remove and place in the bowl for double-boiling.
2. Rinse the herbs and place them in the bowl as well.
3. Add the ginger, water and the hua diao jiu (Note: the hua diao jiu was added only at the point of serving in the original recipe but since I'm still nursing, I decided to add in the wine in the early stage of cooking so that the alcohol content would have evaporated by the end of the cooking).
4. Double-boil the soup for about 1.5h to 2h. (The original recipe cooked the soup on the stove for 1.5h but I decided to double-boil instead).
5. Add salt to taste.
6. Remove herbs before serving for easy access to chicken meat and soup. :)

Alicia loved the chicken meat from the soup as it was sooo tender and sweet. She took a bit of soup too but wasn't so keen - probably due to the slight hint of bitterness caused by the ginseng root.

For toddler's consumption:

• Tear off the soft chicken meat from the chicken bones for the tot.
• Do not serve too much of the soup as ginseng root is considered to be quite 'cooling'.