I made a Vietnamese chicken soup for Christmas Eve, using a recipe which manages to out-Iowa the Iowans by making a broth out of corn. I started out boiling chicken thighs in stock and then shredding the chicken with my fingers, which is how it’s done. Add two cans of corn, puréed in the food processor, with some corn starch to thicken the broth. The recipe says to add another can of whole corn kernels, but the corn flavor already dominates the soup so much that it seems unnecessary. To prepare the flavors you cook shallots, garlic, carrots, and nước mắm on the stove, then pour them into the broth. (The recipe calls for spring onions instead of carrots; I made it into more of a winter soup.) Then you add an egg, first mixing it up separately with a fork unless you want to accidentally poach it, as I did. You can add cilantro for garnish. We had a Virginia wine that combined gewürztraminer and riesling for a sweet blend to complement the mildness of the chicken soup.
(Photo: Central plaza, Puebla, Mexico. Recipe is from The Foods of Vietnam by Nicole Routhier.)
365 Days of Food 