Crab and Sweetcorn Soup

by Rick Stein
Star 4.3
    15m prep time
    45m total time
    Easy level
    11 ingredients

My reason for including this recipe in the book is that apart from the fact that it’s the first dish I ever ate at a Chinese restaurant – in Peterborough, in 1964 as it happens – it’s also a world classic but is so often ruined by tasteless crab and gloopy cornflour. I thought it would be interesting to restore the dish to its simplicity and reliance on good fresh ingredients. Paradoxically, when you first taste it you’ll probably find it a bit under-flavoured, but I hope its subtlety will appeal to you. The one ingredient missing is MSG. It’s now understood that MSG is not an instigator of headaches, trembling, sweating and whatever else has been ascribed to it. It’s about as dangerous as salt and is mostly produced by bacterial fermentation like vinegar. I’ve never owned up to having a tub of Aromat in my store cupboard, but I’ve always had one and can now admit to sprinkling it on my crab and sweetcorn soup. The choice is yours.

Method

Based on 4 servings, adjust as needed.

Step 1

Put the chicken stock in a pan with the 6 slices of root ginger, 25 spring onions and the peppercorns. Bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes for the flavours to infuse, then strain (quantities are to serve 4).

Step 2

Meanwhile, stand the sweetcorn cobs up on a board and slice off the kernels with a large sharp knife. Add the sweetcorn to the strained stock and simmer for 5 minutes.

Step 3

Check over the crab meat for any little pieces of shell, keeping the meat in the largest pieces possible.

Step 4

Mix the cornflour to a smooth paste with a little cold water, stir it into the soup and simmer for 2 minutes. Stir in the crab meat, 1 tsp finely chopped ginger, 2 thinly sliced spring onions, soy sauce and the rice wine or sherry, then season with salt and some pepper to taste. Simmer for 1 minute.

Step 5

Now give the soup a good stir, remove the spoon and slowly trickle in the beaten egg white so that it forms long, thin strands in the soup. Simmer for about 30 seconds and then serve at once.
  • Ingredients
  • Based on 4 servings
  • 0.5 tsp Whole Peppercorn 1 x Sainsbury's Whole Black Peppercorns 100g
  • 1 tbsp Chinese Rice Wine, or dry sherry 1 x Yutaka Shaoxing Rice Wine 15cl
  • 6 thin slices Root Ginger, sliced, plus a little chopped 1 x Sainsbury's Ginger 100g
  • 1.2 L Chicken Stock, good quality 3 x Sainsbury's Chicken Stock, Taste the Difference 450g
  • 30 Spring Onions, roughly chopped, plus some sliced for garnish 3 x Sainsbury's Spring Onions Bunch 100g
  • 5 tsp Cornflour 1 x Sainsbury's Cornflour 500g
  • 1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce 1 x Sainsbury's Light Soy Sauce 150ml
  • 1 Egg White, lightly beaten 1 x Sainsbury's British Free Range Eggs Medium x6
  • Malson Salt to taste, 1 x Maldon Sea Salt Flakes 250g
  • 2 Sweetcorn Cobs, kernels removed 1 x Sainsbury's Sweetcorn x2
  • 225g Fresh White Crab Meat, picked 2 x Ocean Isle Select Super Premium White Crab Meat 100g
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