Let me tell you about soup......

For some years now I have been making my own chicken broth, actually most of the time I use turkey. If I use the turkey bones from Christmas and Easter dinner I usually have enough for the year. I had a pretty easy method that I thought was working for me. I just put the bones in a large stock pot and added some carrots, potato peel, a few onions and a lot of garlic, some parsley or/and oregano and maybe a bay leaf or 6. I let this concoction simmer for about 4 hours and then pour it through a sieve and put in container and freeze. I always thought I was so clever by using my broth instead of the store stuff with all it's sodium and preservatives in it, it even made me feel healthy when I was eating it in my soups, stews, and stir frys........and then I find out I did it all wrong. Just before I had my surgery I researched (goggled) on how to prepare my body so that it would heal quicker....because you know I am always in a hurry and have no time for slow healing....things to do and places to go. So, I read that chicken broth is the amazing healer but.....here is where I was wrong. The chicken needs to simmer for at least 12 hours to get the nutrients out of the bone, the bone has every nutrient under the sun in it. Seriously you can read about it here. http://nourishedkitchen.com/the-benefits-of-bone-broth/ and here http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_259-260/ai_n10299306/?tag=content;col1
And, you need to add some vinegar to extract the stuff from the bones, didn't do that either. Turns out I was missing all the goodness of homemade broth all these years. But, I know better now and will put up a new batch right after Easter when I get back, a healing batch that will protect me from any germ, bacteria, virus or any ailment on earth.....by the sounds of it. This is why chicken noodles soup was always said to be the healing soup for a cold, and it used to be, way back when, when women had time to tend to a pot on the stove for 12 hours, but then life changed, it got faster or maybe we got faster...something got faster and then the soup lost it;s integrity all together and it became just a filler, like most of our other fast food.
Now let me tell you about the Caldo sauce here in Mexico. Caldo is served with Tostadas and is more of a broth than sauce, it is a tomato base and I love it so much,  I could drink it by the cupfuls. I have over the last few years tried to recreate it at home and here and have not been successful. I have gotten recipes from a few different people and they have varied from one person to the next. A week ago I ordered Tostadas again and I asked the cook again for his recipe, the man told me chicken, carrots, salt, garlic, onion and oregano, this is what I have tried over and over again. The as I am talking to him his wife comes and says "not chicken, just the bones" Cook the bones for 12 hours and, here is the secret ingredient that I have missed all these years, Tomato Consume cubes. Now adding these cubes make my soup what I call "unclean" meaning they have loads of sodium and other stuff that is not "real food" stuff that I am trying to avoid.....but I tell you it adds that missing flavor that I have been missing and it is so good....drink it by the cupfuls good. Seriously, it's amazing. Then I made tortilla soup with that broth and oh my.....spoon lickin good it was. I ate it so fast I didn't even take a picture for you. My suitcase will be full of Tomato Consume cubes coming home. A friend of mine told me that she just puts a cube in a cup and adds hot water and drinks it just like that, I won't go that far but I will be brewing up batches and batches of broth.....save your chicken bones people, save the bones and it will save you..haha  just made that up. Seriously do not buy chicken broth from the store anymore ....ever. And if you are really nice to me I might share my Tomato Consume cubes with me, I wonder how many customs will let me bring until they start thinking I'm a dealer and start charging me duty.

These are Tostadas and that little cup is Caldo, you pour it on your tostada and pick it up and eat it with the sauce dripping through your fingers and running all the way down your arm and dripping of your elbows.....it's so good. The Mexican napkin is just not designed to deal with this you have to lick your fingers and elbows...kidding about the elbows. It is a sloppy mess and as you can see it doesn't photograph very well either.

These are the tomato consume cubes