Japanese Corn Potage Soup

 One thing I miss about my stay in Japan is its warm corn potage soup/ "Konpotaaj" and onigiri from the bento box. If you are thinking these are exotic dishes only available in Japanese restaurants (in Japan), then you are mistaken. In Japan, Corn potage soup is available in most vending machine and onigiri with crispy nori/sea weeds and Umeboshi /pickled plums is available at 7 Eleven convenient store. Someday I would not be in a mood to cook anything, and while coming back from the work, I would stop at 7 Eleven and grab an onigiri. I would also stop my bicycle at a vending machine near my apartment and get a warm corn potage soup; and enjoy it as my dinner once I am back in my apartment.  If you have some time watch this YouTube video you will be amazed to see what are things you  can get from Japanese vending machines.

During weekend I will shop and buy corn portage soup in milk cartons and stuffed croissants to have as snack. On coming back from shopping I will pour the corn potage in a cup and microwave it for 40 seconds. I miss that at times.

Nowadays whenever I see fresh corn I always dream about that soup. My hubby on other hand, dreams about the clear corn soup, available in restaurants in India. Trust me I didn’t like that version, during my   last visit to Mumbai I had a chance to taste them, and I am not fond of them. Then I was in quest for recipe of Japanese corn portage for long time. Finally Google came to rescue and I got a recipe from this site. She lives in Australia, and needed a corn potage for her hubby who grew up in Japan.   

Japanese cuisine is diverse; and they have their own traditional soba noodles, rice, Takoyaki (octopus balls) udon, sushi, miso- soup, green tea, sake etc. They are also fond of converting other cuisine delights into their menu, just like curry rice become karē raisu/Japanese curry rice. I have seen in my research institute cafeteria, a huge vessel of curry sauce, and if you tell them you want chicken, veggie, or beef curry rice, the server will pour cooked chicken, veggie or beef from one pot and sauce from other pot.  You can get butter croissants with chocolate in the center. Then there is curry buns. Similarly they adapted French potage soup into their own version. It is made with butter, onion and milk, with All-purpose flour as thickener and off course star of the show is the fresh corn cob.

I made this soup twice; and both the times it turned out to be delicious. It is easy and delicious and my hubby and princess told me it is great. I have already made them fans of miso soup too. This is an easy soup to make, onion and corn cob are sautéed in butter and then cooked with little water and vegetable stock, finally the cooked mix is grinded with milk, and the final mix is warmed to almost a boil point, with the final addition of small amount of black pepper. The sweetness of the soup depends upon how sweet is your corn cob.

I heard in the news that there is  to snow storm blasting  in northeast so friends take care and stay warm. If you can make this soup it is really delectable to enjoy when it is snowing outside.  Here comes easy recipe.

Try it and let me know how it turned out. I am sure you are going to gaga over this simple soup. 

                                                                         Print Recipe from here

                             Japanese Corn Potage  

Adapted from Little Japan Mama

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cook time : 25 minutes
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 Tbsp flour
2 ¼ cup  corn kernels ( I used fresh, you can use  frozen, creamed)
3/4 cup  vegetable stock ( I used homemade vegetable stock)
1 1/2 cups milk ( I used  2 %  milk)
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper.
1 1/4 cup water

How I made

• Melt butter in a med/large saucepan.  Fry the onion in the butter until translucent.  
•  Add corn. fry for  2 minutes, to this add flour and fry for another 2 minutes
• To this add water and vegetable stock and cook the corn until it is cooked well, it take about 5-6 minutes.
• Blend it well milk until smooth consistency. (If you want you can keep it grainy)
• Strain to remove the corn husk and other residue and heat once again and, bring to boil and simmer 5 min.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy with any bread or as such.

Linking this to Favorite recipes Non Indian Food guest hosted at Ghar ka Khana