This soup is ideal for colds, flus and cough. If you’ve got a sore or scratchy throat, achy body, tiredness and/or headache – this soup is for you!  From an Eastern perspective, the Chinese don’t recommend drinking chicken soup when you’re sick, which to me, sounds off, but you can’t argue thousands years of tradition through Chinese medicine.  My herbalist recommended this relatively “neutral” soup for me and is considered 滋陰 (zī yīn), which means treating yin deficiency by reinforcing body fluid and nourishing the blood.  If you look at the herb base, it’s pretty basic and ideal for most soups – the kicker is to add sea whelk (or conch or sea snail). You don’t need to add fresh sea snail (they can get pretty expensive if you buy them live from the wet mart), but definitely add pork. This soup ended up tasting delicious and sets a great base for adding vegetables of your choice – like corn, onions, or chayotes – all neutral vegetables.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of pork shank (or pork marrows and bones for confinement)
• Fresh sea snails, shelled and halved
• 5 pieces of dried sea snail
• 20 g of dried longans
• 3 dried large dates
• 10 g dried red dates
• 20 g of dried Chinese Yam
• 10 g of dried yuzhu
• 10 g of dried wolfberries
• 3 L of water
• salt (for taste)

Cooking Instructions

1. In a separate pot, blanch both the sea snails and pork in a pot of boiling hot water for at least 5 minute (to remove impurities, fat and scum), remove and set aside
   2. Soak all the herbs in warm water for at least 10 minutes and rinse in warm water
   3. Boil your soup water
   4. When you soup water boils, add all the ingredients together
   5. Boil on high for 30 minute and then reduce boil to a medium boil for another 1.5 hours
   6. Serve and enjoy!