Sweet Corn Chicken Soup may be the most popular dish in the Indo-Chinese genre. For those who don't know, Indo-Chinese cooking is an assimilation of Chinese cooking with Indian spices. Most of the dishes won't resemble the original Chinese versions but are much better suited to the Indian palatte that is used to spicy food.
My husband orders a bowl of sweet corn chicken soup at every restaurant that offers it with out fail. Usually though he laments at how poor the soup is and how he has had better. I have also tried different versions at home and this recipe from Tarla Dalal comes closest to the idealized version that he remembers.
Difficulty level: Easy
Preparation time: 5min
Cooking time: 20 min
Ingredients:
Chicken stock (or vegetable stock, for the vegetarian version) - 4 cups
Whole sweet corn kernels- 2/3 cup
Whole sweet corn kernels, crushed or grated- 2/3 cup
Chicken- 1/2 cup, cooked and shredded
Egg- 1, beaten slightly
Cornflour (cornstarch,as it is called in this part of the world)- 2 tbsp dissolved in 1/4 cup water
Sugar- 1 tsp(optional)
Salt to taste
Add the stock to a saucepan and add the whole sweet corn kernels. Cook on medium flame until the corn is cooked and tender (about 10 min). Add the crushed or grated corn and chicken and simmer for another 5 minutes. Make sure your cornflour paste has no lumps and add that in, stirring continuously until it is mixed uniformly. Allow to simmer for some time. On a high flame, add the slightly beaten egg as a steady thin stream (the thinner the stream, the more lacy you get it in the soup) while stirring continuously. Switch off the flame and keep stirring for about 2-3 min, just to make sure the egg laces are cooked through. Add the salt and sugar and serve.
You can serve it with chillies in vinegar (if you can make this a few hours ahead of time, it would taste nice and spicy), soy sauce, chilli sauce etc,.
My husband orders a bowl of sweet corn chicken soup at every restaurant that offers it with out fail. Usually though he laments at how poor the soup is and how he has had better. I have also tried different versions at home and this recipe from Tarla Dalal comes closest to the idealized version that he remembers.
Difficulty level: Easy
Preparation time: 5min
Cooking time: 20 min
Ingredients:
Chicken stock (or vegetable stock, for the vegetarian version) - 4 cups
Whole sweet corn kernels- 2/3 cup
Whole sweet corn kernels, crushed or grated- 2/3 cup
Chicken- 1/2 cup, cooked and shredded
Egg- 1, beaten slightly
Cornflour (cornstarch,as it is called in this part of the world)- 2 tbsp dissolved in 1/4 cup water
Sugar- 1 tsp(optional)
Salt to taste
Add the stock to a saucepan and add the whole sweet corn kernels. Cook on medium flame until the corn is cooked and tender (about 10 min). Add the crushed or grated corn and chicken and simmer for another 5 minutes. Make sure your cornflour paste has no lumps and add that in, stirring continuously until it is mixed uniformly. Allow to simmer for some time. On a high flame, add the slightly beaten egg as a steady thin stream (the thinner the stream, the more lacy you get it in the soup) while stirring continuously. Switch off the flame and keep stirring for about 2-3 min, just to make sure the egg laces are cooked through. Add the salt and sugar and serve.
You can serve it with chillies in vinegar (if you can make this a few hours ahead of time, it would taste nice and spicy), soy sauce, chilli sauce etc,.
You can just skip the chicken and egg, and you have the vegetarian version. Also, if you want the colourless/ almost creamish colour (like what you get in restaurants), you have to start with clear stock (I have used Swanson's organic chicken broth here).
