Caz

Today is a perfect day for chicken soup.. it's rainy and overcast and sorta chilly.  Does that just scream out for chicken soup or what??   So this morning my beloved put a chook on to boil with celery, onion & carrot (plus a bullion cube for good measure) and we made my Asian chicken & sweet corn soup.   There's no real 'recipe' for this soup, I cook by smell :D    But I digress...

Into the crock pot goes the skimmed chicken stock, minus the veggies, and the bird itself is cooling. Cut the kernels off three or so fresh cobs of corn, slice up a bunch of green onions and toss into a skillet with vegetable oil.  Add some grated ginger & garlic (I keep mine in jars in the fridge, I'm lazy ;) and lemongrass if you have some.. and cook until it's aromatic.  When your mouth waters, you're there.   Grab ye olde hand/stick blender and blend until it's about half or so unrecognizable, then dump into the stock in the crock pot.  Add a splash of sesame oil and soy sauce... probably about a tablespoon of the former and a couple of the latter.  Obviously if you taste it & it needs more, go for it!  

When the chicken is cool enough that you won't lose the skin from your fingers touching it, pick it to shreds and put into the crock pot as well.  Lid on and cook all day, stirring occasionally (read: find any excuse to taste that you can)   Sometimes just at the end of cooking, I'll crack an egg and separate it, then lightly beat the white with a dribble of water and drizzle into the pot while stirring the soup in a circular manner (witch way you stir depends on your hemisphere.. northern deosil and southern widdershins ;) lol).  This makes those very cool little strings of egg like chinese soups from restaurants have ...  not terribly necessary, but hubby likes it so if I remember I try to add it.  

Serve with big crusty rolls to dip and maybe sprinkle a few bits of sliced green onion on top for ... well for absolutely no reason at all except to make it look fancy ;)

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