Cooking: How to Make Corn Soup

Hi, today I’ll share another recipe. It’s called Corn Soup. For the previous recipe, you can read it here.

Ok, so, first I knew about Corn Soup from my sister. There was this food stall near her boarding house that sold various kinds of food and she told me that her favorite was their corn soup. I tried it once when I stayed there when I went back to Indonesia. And yes, it’s delicious. Well, I’ve never really made corn soup before. Usually, we used corn to make something else. That is to say I actually don’t know the recipe so I kinda made it up. LoL But, oh, it tastes good, so no worries. (Disclaimer: At least it’s good in my tongues, not sure about yours 😝)

So, well, what you need are: Frying oil/butter, corn, (sweet pea), (tofu), salt, sugar, white pepper (powder), onion, garlic, shallots, chicken broth, eggs, (chili/chili flakes), (shredded chicken), (fried onion). And, a bit of starch flour to make the soup to thicken the soup, you can use tapioka starch or corn starch, I can’t tell the difference but it’s starch; in Indonesian, we call it tepung kanji. Also, if you have either ginger, kaempferia galanga, or finger root, you can also give a little of it too. Not sure what it’s called in English, my English fails me when it comes to naming spices I use back at home, but well, in Indonesian what I mean by kaempferia galanga is kencur, and what I mean by finger root is kunci. So best of luck understanding this post. (Sorry, really T_T). In addition, for the ones that I put in brackets, they are actually optional, so if you don’t have them that’s fine. Especially chilly, if you don’t like spicy food, then don’t use it. But this time I had a can of sweet corn and a can of sweet peas from the pantry so I just decided to mix the two. Also, I just went shopping to the Asian store and bought some tofu the other day, so I added that too. About how much salt, sugar, etc. I can’t say because basically cooking is an experiment, a trial-and-error thing for me. So I just approximate the amount from experience. I mean, it isn’t always perfect from the beginning. Sometimes it tastes bland, so you just add more salt. Sometimes you feel like you need more sugar or pepper, etc. My suggestion, however, it’s better to start with a little salt so later you can add more because if you use a lot of salt since the beginning, and it gets too salty, it’s harder to fix. So, well, try to keep this advice from someone who actually claims to not like cooking 😌

Alright, now how to make the corn soup:

  • If you don’t have white pepper powder, you might want to grind it altogether with salt, sugar, onion, garlic, shallots, (and ginger/kaempferia galanga/finger root) and stir fry it before you add water, but if you have white pepper powder, start with the step below.
  • Cut small or mince the shallots, onion, and garlic. You can slice them thin too if you want. As for me, I usually press the garlic with my knife onto the cutting board, and then slice/cut them small. And if you have ginger/kaempferia galanga/finger root, you can also do the same with them.
  • Stir fry everything in the previous step. Don’t forget to heat the oil/butter first to stir fry the spices.
  • Add water or chicken broth (or just mix it if you don’t have enough chicken broth). Again, just approximate/estimate based on how much you have the corn etc. You don’t want to have too much water or too little. Or, if you have chicken broth cube or powder, you can also use it. Also, if you use a frying pan to stir fry, you’d need to move it to a bigger pan later so you can add some water. Or, you can boil the water in a separate pan and then add the stir-fried items into it.
  • Cut small the tofu. I love to have it cut small because it looks cute and easy to eat^^
  • Once the water boils, add tofu, sweet corn, and sweet pea.
  • Add salt, sugar, chilli pepper/flakes, white pepper powder.
  • Beat the eggs in a bowl.
  • Try to taste the soup in the pan. This is your chance to add more salt, sugar, pepper, etc. if it doesn’t feel right. LoL
  • Once it boils again, add the beaten eggs little by little while slowly stirring the soup.
  • Mix a little water with the starch flour. Add to the soup little by little and stir slowly.
  • Reduce the heat. How do I say this in English? LoL I mean, if you used medium or high heat before, now use low heat. Am I making any sense? Gosh, I really have no right to teach English. I myself am struggling writing this. LoL But anyway, you know what I mean. Let it boil a bit more with low heat.
  • Then turn off the stove. Your corn soup is ready to serve. When you serve it in a bowl, you can add shredded chicken and/or fried onions/shallots.

PS: If you’re not anti-MSG, umami, or what we call “micin” in Indonesian (or flavor enhancers such as Ajinomoto, Sasa, Royco, Masako, etc. you can add a little of it too. But if you have a health condition or allergy which doesn’t allow you to consume such things, then don’t.)

And by the way, did any of you make Onigiri using what I wrote in the other post? How was it? ^^

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