Corn Days

The next time you shuck a corn-on-the-cob, take one second to admire the fragile and beautiful corn-silk, those silky threads between the husks and the corn!

Whenever I find myself in the fresh produce aisles at the supermarket, I find it hard to resist the attraction and invariably cart home at least a pair of sweetcorn ears. Removing the husks and the corn-silk to reveal rows upon rows of plump kernels ranging from light straw yellow to deep golden yellow, I'm already anticipating the sweetness of the kernels in whichever form the cooked corn ends up in.


For a quick mid-week meal, the following corn soup requires no more than 15 minutes to prepare.

• After shucking the corn, cut the kernels from the cobs (about 1 cup and slightly more for 2 persons, generally I just estimate one cob per person).
• Thinly slice about half an inch of ginger, and some spring onions.
• In a deep saucepan, stir-fry the ginger with a teaspoon of oil before adding the corn kernels.
• Add 1 cup of chicken stock and half a cup of water (depending on the thickness of your stock, you can omit or increase the water - I prefer my soup to be a little more diluted so that the chicken stock does not overwhelm the taste of the corn), and bring to a boil.
• Add salt and pepper to season. Sometimes, I also add a touch of chinese 'huatiao' cooking wine which goes quite well with the ginger in the soup.
• Simmer soup on medium heat for a few minutes before adding the sliced spring onions and serve.
  

Of course, the fastest way to cook corn is to just dump them (shucked or otherwise) into boiling water for between 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how soft you want your corn to be and how fresh they are (less cooking time required for really fresh corn). Remove the corn from the pot with tongs (believe me, they are seriously hot and not to be handled with bare hands) and generously slather with dollops of butter. Watch the butter melt as the steam rises from the corn! Hmmmmmmm!

Sometimes, I flavour my butter with finely chopped chilli and coriander and a dash of ground black pepper. When the butter melts, the bits of red and green left behind on the corn add also to the aesthetics!


And how do you eat your corn-on-the-cob? My style : I chomp on them one row at a time, slowly and steadily moving from right to left and back again (just like an old manual typewriter)!