Chicken Soup for the Swine Flu

I'm sick. More than a week ago I got a bit of a cough. I started sneezing like crazy, lots of yucky phlegm, headache, tiredness, aches, and generally feeling crap. After googling my symptoms, it became clear that I must have swine flu.

Being that there's a global pandemic - after all, something like 46 people have already died in the whole world, which is a lot, especially compared with the thousands who die each year from the regular seasonal flu. Especially considering the terrible avian flu pandemic that caused havoc around the world just a couple of years ago. Not to mention the 1976 swine flu pandemic that only one person died from, yet, many died from the US government's vaccine.

The government's recommendations were all basically related to buying stuff (go out and stockpile canned foods, buy flu treatments, buy face masks, and keep buying pork).

So I did what any sensible person would do - I started taking echinacea tincture, drinking ginger lemon tea, I made elderflower tea, onion and honey cough syrup, and loads of vitamin C. I went out and bought some fresh veggies and an organic, free-range, local chicken. (incidentally, the veggies I bought made a beautiful rainbow in the shopping trolley)

Thus armed, I made chicken soup. Starting with a whole chicken

Chopped it up a bit

Took my yummy veggies

Chopped them up too

and put it all into my pressure cooker with a splash of vinegar and a few litres of filtered water.

Let sit for an hour, then bring to a boil. Scoop of any foam that rises to the top, and then close the cooker, and simmer for 20 hours. Add in a bunch of chopped parsley at the end.

The final result was a wonderful, rich chicken stock. I made myself bowls of yummy chicken soup, we cooked brown rice in chicken stock, I made a yummy quiche with all the chicken and veggie bits I strained out. And froze all the rest, so now we have a freezer full of stock :)