Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, finely shredded
• 1.2 litres chicken stock
• 1 large tin of sweetcorn
• 15 g ginger, sliced
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 1/2 tsp white pepper

Method

1. Build a sweeter stock

   Bring the stock to a simmer with the ginger and half the sweetcorn, then blend that half smooth and return it. Blended corn gives the body that this soup is usually faked into having with too much cornflour.

   10 min

2. Poach the chicken

   Drop in the shredded chicken and the remaining whole corn and simmer very gently until just cooked, about 4 minutes. Shredded thin it needs almost no time.

   4 min

3. Thicken

   Slake the cornflour in cold water and stir it in, letting the soup return to a simmer to thicken. Cornflour dropped in dry seizes into lumps that never dissolve.

4. Egg ribbons

   Take the pan almost off the heat, stir the soup into a slow whirlpool and pour the beaten egg in a thin stream around the edge. Stirring hard makes cloudy soup; a lazy swirl makes ribbons.

5. Season

   Finish with soy, sesame oil, white pepper and spring onions. White pepper rather than black — it is the flavour you actually recognise in this soup.