 was creamed corn soup. All I really needed was a bag of frozen corn, a can of creamed corn, a little milk, spring onion and an egg. Then I realised how affordable mielies are – that South African staple – and started using them instead of frozen corn. The difference was delightful. But on a rainy night when you’re craving a warm, creamy, filling soup, the bag of frozen corn is always handy. Warning: one person never has just one serving!
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Creamy corn soup with poached egg drop
Ingredients
1 tbsp butter
1 spring onion, finely sliced
½ cup milk
1 tin (415g) creamed corn
2 mielies, kernels cut off (or 1 cup frozen corn)
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp white pepper
2 eggs
coriander leaves
When I first moved away from home, one of the few things I could make without assistance (i.e. the phone call to my parents to ask the ‘how to’ questions) was creamed corn soup. All I really needed was a bag of frozen corn, a can of creamed corn, a little milk, spring onion and an egg. Then I realised how affordable mielies are – that South African staple – and started using them instead of frozen corn. The difference was delightful. But on a rainy night when you’re craving a warm, creamy, filling soup, the bag of frozen corn is always handy. Warning: one person never has just one serving!
Cooking Instructions
- Heat a soup pot, add the butter and fry half the spring onion until lightly golden.
- Add the milk and creamed corn, then the fresh mielie kernels (or frozen corn).
- Use the empty tin to add 1 tin of water to the pot.
- Allow the soup to simmer for 10 mins.
- Mix the cornflour with ½ tin water, and slowly add it to the soup, stirring to thicken the mixture.
- Add salt and white pepper.
- Lower the heat and crack the eggs directly into the soup. Give it a quick stir in one direction to break the yolk up – don’t mix too much, as you want wisps of egg white (not fluff).
- Turn the heat off.
- Serve hot, garnished with slices of spring onion, fresh coriander and a dusting of white pepper.
About the Author
Ming-Cheau Lin was born in Tainan, Taiwan and immigrated to South Africa when she was three years old in the early 90s, growing up in Bloemfontein. Now based in Cape Town, she is a freelance copywriter and runs a food blog butterfingers.co.za as a platform to share insights into Taiwanese culture through recipes and stories – her work has been featured in local food, lifestyle and opinion spaces, and won a Getaway Blog Award in 2012. She’s a social activist – offering talks on embracing empowerment as a woman of colour, being mindful in a multicultural environment with a focus on the harms of cultural appropriation and stereotyping.
“It is important to normalise our culture, our traditions of food, to stop exoticising (thus othering) our norms so we can stop being seen as foreigners in South Africa.”
She also has an international City & Guilds diploma in patisserie and worked for the late master of preserving Oded Schwartz at Oded’s Kitchen (in the kitchen, at food markets, admin and marketing).
Ming-Cheau has a BA in creative brand communications, specialising in copywriting and has worked in well-known advertising agencies as a copywriter for seven years. She also co-founded, volunteered and skated for the Cape Town Rollergirls NPO (a women’s roller derby league) as its Marketing and PR Chair for four years till early 2016.
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