When I'm in the mood, it's fun to try and work out how Indian and Chinese restaurants make their time honoured favourite dishes. I'm not talking here about authentic regional cuisine, but more about those bastardised dishes we're used to back here in Blighty. You know the sort of things I'm talking about: Chicken Korma, Won Ton Soup, Meat Madras, Sweet and Sour Pork Balls. It's comfort food of a sort, and I think there's a place for it.
I've come up with a way to make Crab and Sweetcorn Soup. It tastes almost exactly like the stuff you get in Chinatown, so I'm pleased with the results. Talking of which, I once caught a waiter hiding behind a curtain sprinkling on some MSG straight from the packet before he served it- my version, I stress, does not include this.
Here's how you do it: Flake up some white crabmeat into chunks. I bet my bottom dollar the Chinatown establishments use the tinned variety; tinned crabmeat ain't that bad, in my opinion, but obviously, if you can get hold of the realy McCoy, so much the better. Chop up some root ginger into fine pieces, and mix it in with the crabmeat. Beat up two egg whites until they are frothy, and then add a tablespoon or so of cornflour, and some milk. Beat until smooth, so that you end up with a creamy liquid. Mix this in with the crabmeat and the ginger.
In a reasonably sized pan, bring some stock to the boil. I reckon that the Chinese restaurants make an Oriental style stock out of ginger, spring onions and the like; but for my version I used a light chicken stock. Add a tin of sweetcorn. Again, I've worked out that they probably use creamed sweetcorn, which is not readily available in British supermarkets (I could rant all day about how understocked our supermarkets are compared to other countries), so I just "crushed" the sweetcorn in the Magimix.
Stir in the crabmeat and ginger mixture, and simmer briefly. The cornflour will act as a thickening agent. Check the seasoning, and add a dash of sherry, or rice wine. Make sure the alcohol is burnt off, and finish off the dish with a a garnish of chopped spring onions.
