This yr, Ku and Brown revealed “Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook,” written with Cathy Erway. It’s a fabulous dive into Taiwanese American delicacies, and stuffed with recipes served on the restaurant. However the dish that stood out to me, the one I couldn’t wait to make? It’s known as Auntie Leah’s Corn Soup.
Get the recipe: Taiwanese-Type Corn and Rooster Soup
“Leah is Josh’s mother, however she’s recognized to a lot of her prolonged household, together with the Win Son household, as auntie Leah,” the headnote explains. “She would usually make a big pot of this soup to hold Josh and his sister by a number of days’ value of fast meals and snacks. Mild but filling, kid-tested, mom-approved.”
“Way back to I can keep in mind, from after I was little or no, my mother made massive pots of this soup,” Ku says. It begins with skinny strips of rooster — although you too can make it vegetarian, see the substitutions part, under — which can be gently marinated in a rice wine, cornstarch and salt combination. Whereas these flavors mingle, you begin on a easy corn base with rooster broth, freshly shucked corn and a can of creamed corn. When that reaches a energetic simmer, drop the items of rooster in, one after the other, stirring as you add them in order that they don’t stick to at least one one other. As soon as they’re in, whisk a few eggs till they’re clean. Stir the broth in a single course, making a small whirlpool, as you drizzle within the eggs. This may create lengthy, skinny strands of cooked egg, noodle-like and silky. Lastly, style the soup and season it with salt and pepper, to your liking.
When he was a child, Ku would add numerous scallions and black pepper to every bowl. “It’s good scorching, heat and even chilly,” he says.
If it appears like a mash-up between corn chowder, rooster soup and egg drop soup, that’s as a result of it type of is.
In “A Culinary History of Taipei,” Katy Hui-wen Hung and Steven Criminal clarify that Inexperienced Large started a large advertising and marketing marketing campaign in Taiwan within the Nineties. Amongst different issues, the model slapped soup recipes like this one on cans of corn. “It was created in Taiwan to be American-fashioned, utilizing these new U.S. imports that had been being marketed to mothers,” says Erway. “It was novel again within the early ‘90s, nevertheless it caught.”
That’s how Ku’s grandmother was launched to American-style corn soup in Taiwan. Years later, when Ku’s mom began making it for her children in Queens, she tailored it to her personal tastes. Then, a few a long time after that, whereas Ku was in school and feeling a little bit homesick, he known as his mother to ask her for the recipe.
“I used to be 20 or 21, dwelling in Harlem with a roommate, and typically we cooked collectively. After I requested my mother for the recipe, she gave me some tough directions — she hadn’t made it a lot since her children had left the nest,” Ku says. “My roommate beloved it, I beloved it. After that, I began making it each time I moved into a brand new residence.”
When Ku, Brown and Erway began engaged on the guide, Ku occurred to say the soup offhandedly, considering it wouldn’t be fascinating sufficient for a cookbook. However Brown and Erway instantly agreed that it wanted to be in there.
“It’s a part of Taiwanese culinary historical past,” Erway says. “I believe Taiwanese meals, Taiwanese American meals is at all times evolving, right here and on the opposite aspect of the world. It’s thrilling to see private takes on it, loving takes on it. This mom-style soup won’t be glamorous, nevertheless it’s totally scrumptious.”
Get the recipe: Taiwanese-Type Corn and Rooster Soup
