Corn is an amazing vegetable to cook. The best way to enjoy it’s full sweetness is by boiling a soup! This corn soup is deliciously sweet and the added chinese herbs will provide the perfect health boost and nourishment for you and your loved ones!
Nourishing Corn Soup
Ingredients:
*The list below is for a big pot of 5-6pax. If lesser 2-3pax, you might want to reduce the portions to half!
1. 3 corns. Preferably the ones that come in white and yellow kernels. I often find these kinds sweeter.
2. 1kg of pork ribs or chicken bones.
3. 4tbs of Nan Bei Xing, also known as Kernal Almonds. Sweet ones are neutral in nature. It is non-toxic and reliefs cough. Bitter ones are warm in nature. It carries slight trace of toxicity but heals cough and expels phlegm.
4. Some Brown dates
Instructions:
1. Pluck out all the corn leaves, leaving the corn hair fibres. Try to gather these hair fibres into a bunch leaving mostly clean corns.
2. Soak the hair fibres in water first. Then, i recommend putting the bunch into a tea bag which you can get it from supermarkets or household stores with kitchenware. (Japan Home or Cold Storage in Singapore).
Tip: Why boil the hair fibre? Because it is known to help clear the bladder. The goodness is there so try not to opt out of using it. The tea bag is the easiest way to prevent the hair from mixing with the soup causing some messiness while drinking.
3. Chop the corns into half or more depending on your preference. I usually use the pounder to assist me in hammering the knife through as the the corn is sometimes hard. Some may also prefer to use the chopper if they have the strength.
4. Boil a pot of hot water, then soak the pork ribs/chicken bones in it for around 15mins. This is to allow the blood to wash out. Then rinse and place the pork ribs/chicken bones aside. We will be adding them into the boiling pot later.
5.
Now for the actual soup, boil a 3/4 pot of water with big fire. Once it is boiling well, add in the 4tbs of Nan Bei Xing (Kernal Almonds), brown dates and the tea bag of corn hair fibre.
6. After awhile, add in all the other ingredients such as corn and pork ribs/chicken bones. Bring the pot down to a medium fire and let it boil for 3hrs.
7.
After that, simply add your desired seasoning of (saltiness or sweetness). It’s now done and ready to be served!
If you’re in luck, the base of the stock and corn will be already very sweet and you would only need to tweak the flavours a bit!