Yummy Toddler Foods: Cream of Corn Soup

I love corn! IMO, the best way to enjoy corn is eating it freshly cooked on a cob with butter slithered all over. Ahh! Memories of my dad stacking steaming cobs of corn onto a plate in the kitchen for everybody to help themselves to. :)

Anyway, I’ve been searching for a recipe that makes yummy cream of corn soup for sometime. I came across a recipe which yields a rich tasting soup and at the same time packed with nutrients for toddlers. This is especially a useful dish to increase milk intake for toddlers who refuse drinking milk on its own.

This recipe takes about 1.5 hr to prepare and serves about 1 adult and 1 toddler.

Ingredients

• Corn on cob – 1 (Try to get the bi-colour variety, sweeter, chop 1/3 off, slice off the kernels from the remaining 2/3 cob)
• Carrot – 1 stick, peeled and chopped into chunks
• Ginger – 1 slice, peeled
• Onion – ½ small, diced finely
• Garlic – 1 clove, peeled, diced finely
• Olive oil – 1 tbsp
• Corn flour – 1 to 2 tsp (up to personal preference for thickness)
• Milk – 150 ml
• Chicken broth – 200 ml (to be prepared using the ingredients stated here)
• Skinless chicken thigh – 1 piece, cut away fats with a pair of scissors
• Salt – dash (~1/8 tsp)
• Ground white/black pepper – dash
• Water – 200 ml
• Spring onion – 2 stalks, green portion, sliced thinly (optional garnishing)

Method

Chicken Broth*:

1)     Place skinless chicken thigh, 1/3 corn cob, carrot chunks and a piece of ginger into a small pot and add 200 ml of water.

2)     Bring it to boil. Let it boil for a few minutes and reduce the heat to the lowest (老火) for gentle simmering for 45 minutes.

3)     In the meantime, cut the veggies for cooking the cream of corn soup.

4)     Once the broth is ready, pick out the chicken thigh and all the vegetables onto a small plate and set aside.

Cream of Corn Soup:

1)     In a deep saucepan, heat olive oil to saute onion and garlic until the onion is opaque.

2)     Pour in milk and chicken broth. Add corn kernels (sliced from the 2/3 cob) and cook in medium heat (gentle boiling), uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the milky surface from forming a film.

3)     In the meantime, slice the kernels off the 1/3 cob used in the chicken broth and shred the chicken meat from the thigh. Set aside.

4)     When 10 minutes is up, add a dash of salt to the soup.

5)     Carefully transfer the soup into a blender and blitz until very smooth. Pour the blended soup through a sieve** back into the pot. Heat it up again.

6)     Dissolve corn flour in a few spoonfuls of tap water and add to the pot. Stir well. Add*** the corn kernels and chicken shreds from step 3 and stir well until the soup boils. Flame off.

7)     Serve warm with a dash of pepper and chopped spring onion (optional). A soft bread roll would go nicely with the soup too.

Notes:

*Believe me, home-made chicken broth tastes best. Canned version will not do – too much salt for toddlers! Even the low sodium version is still salty.

**It is okay not to filter the blended soup. I prefer to do this for the velvety texture and it is nicer to drink the soup without all the mashed up bits of corn here and there. :)

***You might want to add other ingredients at this point. I’ve tried fresh shiitake mushrooms (sliced thinly) and it was good. Just let use 2-3 mushrooms and let it cook in the soup for 5 minutes tops.