by Thanh Rasico

This is the kind of soup that feeds your eyes before it fills your stomach, usually hand crafted over stovetops by some of the best Vietnamese home cooks, over many years handed down and around, scooped and shared for all to have a bowl to sip and slurp.  The Crab and Asparagus soup is a specialty soup that has been a constant, just a little off the center – piece of our greater Vietnamese family gatherings, especially during milestones and celebrations such as engagements, newborn introductions, and over holidays.

This soup came from the French, who occupied Vietnam for many years.  You many not know that many other Vietnamese dishes have a French history or influence as well.  But the ingredients here are probably used universally in many different cuisines.  Lately, the more I explore food of other cultures, the more I find that many of the ingredients are often the same.

So I wanted to share this crab, corn, and asparagus soup that I love.  I can eat soup all year round.  Even today as the temperature reached the mid – eighties, my husband stared at me in awe as he entered our home to see me under a blanket in my velour tracksuit.  Eating soup.

This soup has both corn and asparagus because I spared no expense.  In Vietnamese Home Cooking, a book by a James Beard Foundation award winner, Charles Phan (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vietnamese-home-cooking-charles-phan/1108307676) said that typically the soup is made with whatever is in season.  If it’s asparagus in season, you use asparagus.  If it’s corn, then corn.  I love Arkansas, and I have much gratitude for having been placed here when our family immigrated from Vietnam, because here we can have both corn and asparagus!

So if you love spring vegetables, if you love soup, and if you love to try new things, here is a simple Vietnamese soup to try in your home.  It doesn’t even have to be a special occasion!  You can serve the crab and asparagus soup up in a large bowl as a meal on its own, or in smaller bowls as a precursor to your meal.  Be sure to top it with plenty of fresh chopped green onions and cilantro.

I was really happy to find fresh corn in the husk at Kroger.  It’s very economical, and just 2 cobs yielded plenty of kernels for the soup.  It’s a little addictive, too.  Once you get on a roll, it’s hard to stop.  I really wanted more corn to shuck!  Do it yourself, and let me know if you feel the same, will you??

Ingredients: 

• 4 Cups of seafood stock, or chicken stock
• 2 Fresh cobs of corn
• 8 oz. Lump crab meat
• 1 Bunch of asparagus, trimmed and chopped
• Chopped green onions and cilantro for garnish
• 1 tsp. Cornstarch
• 2 tbsp. Water
• 1 Egg, beaten

Directions:

1. Shuck the corn and slice the kernels off with a knife, reserving the cobs.
2. Heat the seafood stock in a small Dutch oven until boiling.  Add the cobs and reduce heat to a low simmer, covered for 20 minutes.
3. Add the asparagus and corn and continue to simmer about 5 more minutes.
4. Add the crabmeat.
5. Combine the cornstarch and water, then add the mixture to the Dutch oven.
6. Stir the beaten egg into the soup while stirring with a spoon, then allow the soup to set and thicken slightly before serving.

Thanh Rasico is the author of  www.redkitchenrecipes.com, where she shares recipes ranging from the classsics to the classics with a twist, originating anywhere from Vietnam to Arkansas and beyond.  She is a Southern girl who speaks Le Creuset, as well as Vietnamese with a Southern accent!