Corn and Crab Soup

I used to eat this soup at one of the Chinese restaurants in Saipan—China House or Diamond Chinese, I can’t remember which. I fell in love with the soup and figured out a pretty close version of it. It’s essentially an egg drop soup with corn and chunks of crab. The restaurant always used imitation crab meat, and I don’t think that it detracts from the flavor of the soup. You can find imitation crab mixed with king crab meat in many grocery stores now, and that works great. You can also use lump crab meat, just make sure you clean out any extra bits of shell.

My three year old enjoys this soup and declares it “good eats.” Guess who likes Alton Brown, too?

Equipment

4 quart pot
sharp knife or kitchen scissors

Ingredients

42 oz chicken stock or low sodium chicken broth (three 14 oz cans)
1/4 teaspoon salt (I go very light on the salt, but you can add more to taste)
dash white pepper
10 oz box frozen whole kernel corn
8 oz chunk style imitation crab meat and king crab meat (Crab Classic in my grocery store)
2 tablespoons corn starch
4 tablespoons cold water
2 green onions, sliced into small rings
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Preparation

1. Put broth, pepper, and corn in the pot and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the corn is tender. Add the crab meat and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes until meat is hot.

2. Stir together corn starch and cold water, and drizzle into the soup while stirring. You want the cornstarch mixture to be incorporated throughout the soup and not form lumps with the corn. Increase heat to high and cook for just 2 to 3 minutes, until the soup thickens. Remove soup from heat.

3. Combine eggs and onions; slowly pour into soup, stirring constantly with fork until eggs form shreds. Pour into bowls and serve immediately.

Variations

If you leave out the corn and crab, you’ll have a nice simple egg drop soup.