Saturday, February 8, 2014

Chinese Corn Velvet Soup



I'm not sure how authentically Asian this soup recipe is, but if you were served this in a Chinese restaurant with your dinner, I think you would be very pleased!  
It's sweet, savory egg drop soup with corn, ham and green onions with a hint of sesame oil.
Very comforting on a cold winter's day, like today.
It's an easy soup that comes together quickly, I finished this for lunch in under 20 minutes.

The soup will appeal to kids too, as I have great childhood memories of my Mom's version of this soup.  This recipe is loosely based on this Food Network recipe from Martin Yan.
However, memories of my Mom's version have made me add a couple of suggestions
This soup was delicious as written below, but next time I will reduce the amount of broth to 4 cups in order to make a thicker, richer sweet corn taste with the soup.  
It's up to you.

If you want to make this soup vegetarian, then omit the ham and replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth.  You could add tofu instead of ham, I bet that's good too.

One other note, if you wanted to avoid using canned creamed corn, I think you could blend cooked corn to make two cups substitute.  If using fresh sweet corn, I bet it's a fantastic alternative.

Serves about 6
Ingredients
4- 6 cups chicken broth (see note above...)
1/2 cup cooked ham, cut into thin strips
1 can (16 ounce) cream style corn
3 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/3 cup water
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1-2 green onions, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1-2 tsp Siracha hot sauce (optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste


Place chicken broth in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add sliced ham and creamed corn. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring frequently. Add cornstarch solution and cook, stirring, until soup boils and thickens slightly. Turn off heat. Add egg whites, stirring until they form long threads.

Stir in green onions, sesame oil, pepper and salt, to taste.
Top with additional green onions and slivered ham, if desired.

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