Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup: Happy Thanksgiving!
November 27, 2008 | Filed Under Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once blog, Corn, Eggs, Fellow Bloggers, Green Onions, Scallions, Spring Onions, Holidays, Poultry, Soups/Chowders/Gumbos, Thanksgiving, Vegetables | 18 Comments
Yes, more soup. 
It’s still cold here and I’m still tired and stressed. So, I decided to make more soup, using a recipe I found on Hallo’s blog.
Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in the States. I never had Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup before as part of a Thanksgiving meal, but this is what I wanted to eat. It was definitely a good soup for a weary body and soul like mine. I felt much better after eating it.
What am I thankful for this holiday season? Many things. I’m especially thankful for all of you who stop by my blog with your very kind and encouraging comments. Without you, it would be no fun here.
Paz
Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup
1 litre chicken stock
4 slices ginger
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
4 chicken thigh fillets, skinless, sliced finely
420 grams canned creamed corn
2 cups corn kernels
salt and freshly ground pepper
sesame oil
2 tablespoons corn flour mixed with a little water, optional, to thicken soup
1 egg white, lightly whisked with 1 tablespoon water
Place the chicken stock and sliced ginger into a pot and bring to a simmer so to allow the ginger to infuse into the stock.
Separate the white from the green parts of the spring onions. Slice both finely.
Heat a little neutral oil in a large pot and when it’s come to temperature, add the sliced white part of the spring onion and the ginger. Let this gently sauté for a couple of minutes before adding the chicken pieces – just add a quarter of the chicken at a time. When the chicken has changed colour, add the creamed corn and corn kernels.
Turn the heat up a little and stir this well before adding the stock (strain off the ginger slices). Add half the sliced green parts of the spring onion and let the soup simmer until the corn has cooked through.
Taste and season with salt and freshly ground pepper and a few drops of sesame oil.
If you prefer a thicker soup, then at this stage, stir in the mix of corn flour and water.
Just before serving add in the remaining sliced spring onion greens and while stirring the soup, drizzle in the lightly whisked egg white – this sets as soon as you add it to the soup so it’s important to keep stirring to break it up and get a speckled finish.
LiveSTRONG with a Taste of Yellow 2008: Corn Salad
April 14, 2008 | Filed Under A Taste of Yellow, Corn, Food Blogging Events, Salad, Vegetables, Winos and Foodies blog, Yellow Foods | 21 Comments
The Lance Armstrong Foundation provides the practical tools and information that people with cancer need to to live strong.
May 13, 2008 is LIVESTRONG Day, where different events are held worldwide to raise awareness and funds for the fight against cancer.
Barbara of Winos and Foodies is hosting LIVESTRONG Day event again this year. It’s a way for food and wine bloggers to show support for those battling cancer. Last year she organized the event and 149 bloggers participated. Wow! Wow! Wow! This is what I made last year for the event. Here is the roundup of 2007 entries. Check it out when you can, there are a lot of creative and delicious dishes.
Participants are asked to prepare foods in the color yellow. This year, I put together a corn salad. I love corn and I love bright food colors. Needless to say, I like yellow. For this salad, I mixed corn kernels, red bell peppers, scallions, and cilantro (my favorite! but you can use parsely). Then I added olive oil, white pepper, Kosher salt and some red pepper flakes (gotta add a little heat!). Oh, and some fresh lemon juice, I added lemon juice, too. I love my corn salad — healthy, tasty and colorful yellow. LIVESTRONG Yellow!
If you’re interested in participating in this event, it’s not too late. Please join us. April 19 is the deadline to submit your entry to Barbara. Go here for the guidelines.
I have two extra LIVESTRONG wristbands, which I’d be happy to send to anyone who’d like one. E-mail me if you’re interested. You can find my addy in the ABOUT section.
Thanks, Barbara, for putting this wonderfully supportive event together. If you visit Winos and Foodies on May 13, you can see the list of fantastic enteries that Barbara will put together.
Paz
Ed. Note: Check out the roundup of those who participated:
LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow Round Up 2008 Part 1
LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow 2008 – Round Up Part 2
Roasted Corn
July 5, 2007 | Filed Under Corn, Vegetables | 7 Comments
In the months of June and July there are several birthdays in my family. So we get together at my cousin’s nice, big house to celebrate. As usual, this year, many different foods were prepared but my favorite was an unplanned and simple one — roasted corn. My cousin’s neighbor, who’s originally from India, decided that he wanted to prepare the corn the way they do it in the streets of his country. He roasted the corn, then rubbed salt, red hot African pepper (normally he’d use Indian spices but none were available) and lime over the corn. Delicious! When I eat corn, it’s usually boiled and covered with butter, so the roasted corn was a treat for me. My brother also grilled some chicken, which wasn’t bad at all. Good eating was had by all. 
Paz
Preparing the chicken
Grilling the chicken
Quick French-Style Fish Stew/Broth
September 27, 2006 | Filed Under Clams, Corn, Mussels, Potatoes, Salmon, Seafood, Soups/Chowders/Gumbos, Vegetables | Leave a Comment
Click on photo for larger image
I got this recipe while watching Jamie Oliver’s show, some time ago, on the FoodNetwork channel. The recipe wasn’t posted on the food site. Luckily, I’d scribbled notes as I watched the show.
Jamie’s ingredients included clams, mussels, snapper, red mullet, brine (you can use any shellfish and fish). I used salmon, clams, and mussels. The recipe called for potatoes but I decided to add corn, as well.
Loose instructions:
Heat olive oil and add red onions (chopped); add garlic (chopped) and chili (chopped) for taste; let fry for a while; add mussels and clams – when they cook they’ll open up and give flavor; add French white wine (Chardonnay) – about 1 wine glass; add the fish on top – fish will slowly steam; add ½ tin Italian whole tomatoes (or fresh); add chopped parsley – finely sliced; add olive oil; add sliced potatoes (spring/baby potatoes) and let slow simmer for about 5 minutes until the wine evaporates.
Serve and garnish with parsley and top with the aioli. Drizzle evoo on top.
Make aioli:
Mayo; add lemon zest of 1 lemon; add some lemon juice; add one clove garlic grated; mix the mayo mixture.
All I can say that this was simple and good. I liked it a lot!
Paz
Click on photo for larger image
Crab and Corn Chowder
February 8, 2006 | Filed Under Basil, Cilantro, Corn, Crabs, Fellow Bloggers, Food Blogging Events, Herbs, Parsley, Saltshaker blog, Seafood, Soups/Chowders/Gumbos, Stephen Cooks blog, Tarragon, Vegetables, Weekend Herb Blogging | Leave a Comment
I’ve never been much of a chowder fan, although recently I saw an enticing clam chowder recipe that made me interested in trying it.
Then, the other day, I stopped by Saltshaker and found another recipe that immediately caught my attention: Crab and Corn Chowder. I’d never heard of this before. I like corn and crabmeat, so, those two ingredients were the deal breaker for me. I made a mental note to try the recipe sometime in the near future, preferably on a very cold day.
However, the next morning with unseasonably warm weather, I woke up with the recipe in mind and like a person hypnotized, found my way to the store to buy the ingredients needed to prepare it – corn, potatoes, red bell pepper, crabmeat and herbs. Oh, so many wonderful herbs! By the way I would have used this recipe for my Weekend Herb Blogging post but I was too late.
The herbs involved a mix of cilantro (coriander), basil, tarragon and parsley. How exciting for me (cilantro being one of my favorites!)!
I returned home and started preparing the ingredients to cook. First, I boiled the corn and then made a corn stock. Yes, that’s right. Corn stock. Me. Actually, it was quite easy – boil the corncob and use the results in the recipe.
Call me weird, I’ve become excited about the idea of making stock out of different food products. Initially, I only knew of chicken, beef, and later fish stock. Then from Stephen, I learned about lamb and red shrimp broth and some of its uses. Really cool! So, now I can add corn stock to my list. That’s okay, you can laugh at me. 
My cooking momentum was interrupted when I had to walk the dogs and then found out I forgot to buy half and half milk. I had to run back to the store. I almost used canned evaporated milk but didn’t have enough. It’s probably better that I didn’t use the can milk since I’m sure it may have altered the taste of my first time chowder. Can anyone tell me if there’s a difference?
The meal is not hard to make and once I returned from the store, I continued cooking. My favorite part of preparing the meal was chopping the aromatic herbs to add to the chowder. As their combined scents wafted up, making me happy, I started to do my happy dance (See #9 of my culinary confessions.).
Soon, my crab and corn chowder was ready and I served it with crusty bread as the recipe suggested. Everything tasted fresh and delicious, from the potatoes to the crab to the vegetables. The mixed herbs especially gave it that added special flavor.
I’m glad I didn’t wait a day longer to try this crab and corn chowder.
Paz
The corn kernels removed from the cob
Making my corn stock
Most of the ingredients together in a pot
Cilantro, basil, tarragon and parsley ready to be chopped
The finished product
Ed. Note: I’m submitting this post for Weekend Herb Blogging #19. The herbs for this week are cilantro, basil, tarragon, and parsley, pictured above. Thanks, Kalyn!
*One can blog about herbs, plants, vegetables, or flowers for Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB). To see the list of other interesting WHB posts, go to Kalyn’s Kitchen, Sunday.
