I stopped of at the market up the street to get some of the ingredients for the cold and flue soup.
Wont be making it till Friday night or Saturday.

Look at the prices compared to a regular grocery store.
Habanero is over 5 dollars a pound at the locale HEB and garlic is a dollar a head.
Cant get manzano.

It's Beautiful.
Ajo Rojo.

I has taken me some time to decide what base to make the soup.
Beef, chicken or fish/seafood.
Decided on beef meatballs with minced habanero in them and a few other wild spices not normally used.
Totally new to me never done it before.
One habanero chopped.
Pinch of salt.
Allspice about 1/2 teaspoon.
Black pepper 1/2 teaspoon.
Nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon.
Cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon.
3 cloves fresh crushed chopped garlic.
One egg.
About five crushed soda crackers.
One pound ground meat.
Dash of corn starch about 1/2 or so teaspoon.
Mix up let sit for awhile mix again and make meatballs.
Cook in beef broth and water at very low below boiling temperature around 170 degrees F.
Pull out and set aside.

Here you will see the meatballs cooking in the broth.
Next you will see the other ingredients in the bowl.
They are.
Two big mushrooms chopped.
One whole hot onion.
One whole giant manzano chili chopped.
Four whole garlic cloves crushed.
About a tablespoon of sriracha sauce.
About a tablespoon or so of dark soy sauce.
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves.

Now that the meatballs are cooked.
You can tell if you pinch one and it springs back.
I dumped the broth into a larger kettle with 32 ounces of water.
The broth was 32 ounces also and I may have added 16 ounces to it when I cooked the meatballs cant remember.
Doesn't matter anyway.
If I would have had more broth I would have used it but I didn't.
Now I will put in two handfuls of the garden bow tie pasta AKA Garden Farfalle because that is what I have.
You know the colored stuff orange green and so on.
Cook it till almost desired and add the stuff in the bowl.
Dont forget to add a little oil to help with boil over.
I used sesame oil.
The object is to not over cook the pepper onion garlic and mushroom.
You want them a wee bit crunchy or at least not cooked all the way.
Taste test, add spices dont add spices or toss the stuff out.
Your choice.
If you decide not to toss it to the poor unsuspecting dogs.........
Then drop the meatballs back in when everything is ready.
You dont want to cook them anymore either.
I just tasted the juices from the meatballs and so far so good.
Same with the stuff in a bowl.

I added a wee bit of corn starch to the soup to give the liquid a little body not thicken it.
Next I went out and cut some onion and garlic leaves for a green topping.
The soup is fantastic the meatballs are fantastic.
You can't tell what I put in it but it is good.
A wee bit hot but not over powering.
You can barely pick up any clove taste in the broth.
The meatballs I cant say enough good about seriously.
Just enough of everything to make your nose run and your head to get a heat rush.
I chose the herbs peppers and spices for their so called medicinal properties.
If there are any at all.
Your call.

Looks really good Worth.

I'm sitting over here with a head cold; that stuff looks awesome.

Thanks for the replies.
I have to say if you dont have dark soy sauce get some.
The salty table stuff is not a replacement.
Next if I would have had fresh ginger I would have used it but I dont.
That will be remedied tomorrow.
I have soup left and I will just put fresh thin slices in it (skin and all) to crunch on.

Nice job, Worth! Anyone with a flu or cold would be stoked to sit down to a bowl of that!

I have never told this before but a co-worker a little older than me and I were as sick as a dog.
No replacement for us and we had a job to do in Alaska.
Not like we could call in sick.
I had fresh garlic and we sliced it and put it between our toes and on the bottoms of our feet.
We worked all day like this and the next day we wouldn't have known we were ever sick.
I thought the guy was nuts to come up with the idea but no way could it hurt you so I did it too.
So it isn't like I thought it would work, 'The so called placebo effect wasn't in play with me.
Take it for what it is worth but it is a true story.
No I'm not a doctor but my great grandfather was in the 19th and 20th century and I read all his reference books from the 1800's .

What, no dash of snake oil in that recipe?

I bet it would clear your sinuses! Tell me, though, when you were forming those meatballs with chopped habanero in them, did you wear gloves? I swear I can't get chilis off my hands even with a good soap and water wash or two. I can run stainless steel over them and takes out some odor, at least for a while, but I can't touch my eyes until the next day no matter how well I wash, even using a scrub brush on my hands.

Sue_CT wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:07 pm I bet it would clear your sinuses! Tell me, though, when you were forming those meatballs with chopped habanero in them, did you wear gloves? I swear I can't get chilis off my hands even with a good soap and water wash or two. I can run stainless steel over them and takes out some odor, at least for a while, but I can't touch my eyes until the next day no matter how well I wash, even using a scrub brush on my hands.

I work the peppers with oil on my hands it helps a lot.
I still get bit ever now and then as I did yesterday.
Could have easily gotten away with another habanero or two in the meatballs.
At least it wasn't a hot pepper in every bite.

I thickened up the soup some more and added cinnamon to it.
Cooked some Jasmine rice and molded it in a glass.
I used roasted sesame oil for a releasing agent in the glass.
Placed 5 thin slices of garlic on top with the end of a habanero pepper in the middle.
A few squirts of Sriracha sauce to top it off.
Chopped the rest of the raw garlic and put it on top of the soup with some chopped onion tops.

Here it is.
Too pretty to eat.

There is an authintic Thia restaurant in down town Austin called Mai Thia.
I have eaten there just one time.
I ordered something on the menu that the waitress was astounded I ordered.
It was so hot she said she had never seen anyone eat all of it of my ethnicity and was reluctant to serve it to me.
She said I didn't have to eat it and wouldn't charge me for it if I didn't.
I cant remember what it was but it was the hottest thing I have ever gotten from an Asian restaurant in my life by about 1000 times hotter.
It was so flavorful but so hot I couldn't stop eating it.
The lady was flabbergasted I ate it all and said even she couldn't eat it.
Some of those flavors are in this soup sort of and it is now, 'after over night, almost as hot.
There is a lot more to some of these spices than pumpkin pie and eggnog.

Here is a link to the place.
Well worth going to if you can afford the parking or even find parking.
I got to park for free at the Four Seasons hotel close to it becuase I was working there.
Cant say enough good about the staff at that place.
http://www.maithaiaustin.com/

[mention]Sue_CT[/mention] the best method I could find is to clean your fingers with the inside of a rind of a lemon or lime. Rinse in cold water. Test with the tip of your tongue. If you taste hot, lemon scrub again, cold rinse and repeat.
I do this every time I chop a hot pepper, until there is no more pepper to taste on my hands.

I made the mistake once of collecting seeds out of a hot pepper with my fingers. Washed with soap and hot water (like always, right?). Well it turns out, I got pepper under my fingernails. And it turns out that hot water opens your pores, and the capsaicin gets inside. After that, there is no washing will get to it, no remedy except to wait until the pain stops. I honestly didn't sleep much that night as the pain kept waking me up.

I also got pepper in my eyes by washing then drying my hands on a towel.... got pepper on towel! Got pepper on phone! Everywhere I touched I left pepper to pick up and stick in my eye.

So I had to try every method on the internet, and find one that works or give up hot peppers entirely.

[mention]worth1[/mention] the Thai-over is a beaut.

PhilaGardener wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:54 pm What, no dash of snake oil in that recipe?

I was thinking about putting the can of Comet cleanser next to it.