The winter sun-light, reflected by new white snow, makes harsh shadows on our grey and brown landscape. This amplification of the brightness is false. It’s neither warmer nor cheerier, a vision without substance.I want the pleasant consolation of color! This pale yellow Japanese soup, with bright red and green accents and the tang of a summer sea, is a perfect recipe for this season.
Corn is also a reminder of summer. Its cheerful yellow brings memories of my father’s large garden with tall rows of sprightly cool green and exotic leaves. They were the closest to palm fronds I saw when I was growing up in Northern Michigan. We kids enjoyed hiding among them, and when Mum said she’d cook corn we’d eagerly run to pick, shuck, and pull the soft silk from the cobs. At the end of the summer she’d scrape the kernels and corn milk to freeze for winter eating.
Sweet corn is popular on ramen, as corn ice cream, corn kit kats and other snacks, or part of a Mc Donald’s Happy Meal. Corn is sprinkled on almost any Western-influenced dish, especially Italian foods: spaghetti and pizza. At bakeries and convenience stores, you can buy corn korokke, or corn buns which cradle a generous bed of mayonnaise studded with corn. And don’t forget corn cream, a childhood comfort food.
Japanese Corn Cream Soup with Crab
Tomorokoshi No Kani-jiru
recipe developed by Tess
INGREDIENTS
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- ¼ cup chopped sweet red pepper
- ½ cup chopped green onions, white separated from green
- ¼ cup minced fresh thyme and rosemary leaves
- 4 slices of white bread
- 8 Tablespoons butter
- 5 Tablespoons flour
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 1½ cups unsweetened soy milk
- 2 cups corn (be generous if you like a thicker soup)
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 6 ounces crab meat (I bought 2 containers, but used only one)
In a frying pan melt the butter, and lightly sauté chopped garlic, and the chopped red pepper. Tilt the pan and use a spatula to move the red pepper out of the butter. Reserve the red pepper in a small bowl to garnish the soup. Don’t worry if you cannot recover all of the pepper.
Pour about half of the butter into a saucepan large enough to contain the soup. Heat until almost simmering, then add flour. Whisk gently to blend; do not brown or burn it. Stir in the white part of the onion. Gradually add the half-and-half, water, and soy milk. Use a firm spatula to continually scrape the soup which splashes on the sides of the pot.
When the soup begins to thicken, add the corn and cook for a few minutes until tender. Use an immersion blender to pureé the mixture until smooth. (or use a food processor or a blender) Add the soy sauce, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep warm, but do not allow the soup to boil or it will curdle.
Put the sliced onion greens in a small bowl. Place the crab meat into another bowl and garnish with the red pepper.
Add the minced herbs to the other half of the butter and warm gently. Toast the bread lightly and brush the toast on both sides with the herb-butter. Tear the toast into rough “cubes” and arrange on a small plate.
Serve the soup hot, garnished with the onion greens, crab, and croutons. Enjoy.
This polar vortex—the cold and cutting Arctic air moving southward—has returned to the U.S.
with more snow,
wind,
and
below-zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures.
Winter is not a fun season! with this particular winter,
“We are not amused.”
The fellow in the video
shows an admirable
constraint.
Don’t you agree?
Tess's Japanese Kitchen 