Indo Vegetable and Chicken Soup

I got really sick after pigging out at the Night Market... Haha I might've eaten too much, or may be I've got some sort of stomach bug or something.

When I'm sick, for some reason I always feel like cooking something that reminds me of home. I guess the thought of home-food gives me some kind of comfort and so I get to sleep and rest well. I normally cook this tangy Indonesian beef soup when I'm sick, but I feel like something simpler, and cheaper. So, I made this Indo vegetable and chicken soup. It might not be different to the normal vegetable and chicken soup, but I added some cloves in the chicken broth and that subtle spicy aroma always brings me back to my childhood memory.

A quick stop at Coles on the way home, and I was ready with all the ingredients;
- about 6 celery stalks (love them soooo much)
- 1 tomato (or more, I'm only using them for the soup base)
- 2 carrots
- 1 really small onion (again, for the base only)
- 1 shallot
- 2 brushed potatoes
- 500gr chicken thigh fillet (the Indonesians use chicken wings and drumsticks with the bone as well, but I didn't feel like it)

Also:
- 5 cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- about 1 teaspoon of garlic paste (again, only because I'm really lazy.)
(I already have them at home, so I didn't need to buy more)
All of them cost me about $8 and that makes around 4 serves.

And this is how I cooked it;
1. cut the carrots, potatoes, celery stalks and chicken into bite size.
2. chop the shallot finely, and brown them with the garlic paste and vegetable oil until you can smell the aroma.
3. Add the chicken, and brown it.
4. Add about 1500 ml of water and wait until it boils.
5. Stick the cloves into the whole onion (just to make it easier to find them so you won't end up eating them). Add into the soup.
6. Add in the whole tomato and bay leaves, and cook for about 15 minutes.
7. Add the potatoes, and then carrots and cook for another 10 minutes.
8. And then in the celery, cook for another 5 minutes.
9. Salt, pepper and sugar to taste. (We add a bit of sugar to almost everything.)

And that's it.

I love the smell of cloves, really love it. When I was little my dad had a clove farm, and he used to bring home a lot of them, and then we used them for cooking. That's why I love the warm aroma and the feeling of being home, they made me feel better already.