Chinese Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup
Sweet corn, a vegetable that I love to eat. Be it boiled, steamed, grilled, or cooked in a soup, I love them all. When I see sweet corn, it reminds me of having it steamed, in the afternoon, as a snack. I love the natural sweetness of it and the crunch that you get when you set your teeth on it. Sweet corn, as much as I found out it to be a variety of maize with a high sugar content. It is the result of a naturally occurring recessive mutation in the genes which control conversion of sugar to starch inside the endosperm of the corn kernel.
The first thing that I learnt since living in the UK is that sweet corn is such a favourite that it has always been on the menu of most of the Chinese restaurants or takeaways. It appears to be a very popular soup dish, one of the classic Chinese soups, that never fails to deliver on flavour and texture.
Chinese sweet corn soup, as sweet as it may sound, is a combination of saltiness and sweetness. Saltiness of the chicken stock and use of soya sauce. A touch of sweetness of the sweet corn used as one of the main ingredients.
It may be a soup that is born to cater to the Western taste, but it does have a unique flavour that makes you like it as soon as you have it. Compared to a lot of other Chinese soup, sweet corn soup is really easy to prepare at home. Most of the ingredients can easily be obtained and everything can be done within 30 minutes, which is great to be served as a starter.
So, making Chinese sweet corn soup is one way how I use sweet corn. I will post another recipe soon, stay tuned!
Chinese Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup
Prep Time:
20 minutes
Cook Time:
30 minutes
Yield:
2 persons
Ingredients:
For the Chinese Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup:
600ml chicken stock
1.5 tbsp light soya sauce
100g chicken breast, cut into strips
2 Chinese mushroom, soaked until softened and cut into strips
300g sweet corn kernels
10g cornflour
1 egg, beaten
1 spring onion, chopped
a pinch of ground white pepper
Method:
1. In a saucepan, bring the chicken stock to the boil, add the light soya sauce, add the chicken breast and cook for 2-3 minutes until it turns opaque. Skim the scum as and when necessary.
2. Then, add the Chinese mushrooms and sweet corn. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Blend the cornflour with about 2 tbsp of water, stir into the sauce until the required thickness.
3. Using a fork, stir in circles constantly as pouring in the beaten egg to the soup. Keep stirring until the egg is cooked through and become little strands in the soup. Sprinkle the chopped spring onion. Serve warm.
