Corn and Crab Soup Recipe

This crab soup , simply called súp cua in Vietnamese, was my attempt to finish the leftover crab from last night's dinner. We bought six crabs for the two people who actually eat seafood in our house, so there was a fair amount unfinished. I prepared cua rang me (Vietnamese tamarind crab) and that's basically all we ate with a little salad on the side. We were so full by the end of the meal that we could not finish the dish. It was our Mount Everest and we didn't conquer it!  

I didn't want to waste the delicious crab, so I cracked the rest and gathered the crab meat. I had chicken stock in the freezer and I thickened it with a little corn starch. I added frozen corn and green onions to the soup and the result was just as I expected: mildly sweet, velvety and wonderfully soothing. Simply perfect!

Grilled Corn on the Cob (Chili Lime Corn Recipe)

We grilled a lot of meat and vegetables yesterday, but the star of the show was grilled corn. It was so sweet! We had several with salt and just a touch of butter, but I also made a rub of lime zest, lime juice, red chili flakes, garlic and caramelized onions to balance and enhance the sweetness. 

We're not very good about making use of our grill during the summer, but after today the whole family has been inspired to prepare barbecues more regularly. Hope everyone had a great 4th!

Sour Cream Cornbread Muffin Recipe

Today, I made cream of tomato soup and decided I would replicate the same flavors in cornbread muffins. I find that cornbread muffins are a great accompaniment when teamed up with a nice bowl of warm soup. I added chopped sun-dried tomatoes and sour cream to the batter as well as small chunks of Comté cheese. The cheese gave a fruity and salty note to the muffins.

I think the addition of sour cream makes for super moist cornbread muffins. Of course, they taste best piping hot right from the oven, but they still taste great the following day.

Olive Cornbread Recipe

I recently saw on my Facebook page that one of PhamFatale's readers made my jalapeno cornbread, which reminded me that I hadn't made any in a long time. I created a new version using oil-cured black olives and an exquisite extra virgin olive oil from Cloud 9 Orchard.

May Chevallier is a true expert on olive oil and is the owner of a 140-acre ranch in southern Monterey County, where she planted 10, 000 olive trees. She's passionate about her Cloud 9 Orchard EVOO, which has won many prestigious awards. I recently met with May and she educated me about how to discern the quality of olive oil. I learned that too often olive oil is artificially enhanced with chlorophyll for color and synthetic olive flavor. Cloud 9 Orchard is free from any of these adulterations. You can order May's extra virgin olive oil directly from her. You won't be disappointed.

Che Bap Recipe (Vietnamese Sweet Corn Pudding)

Chè is difficult to describe. It's a sweet, soupy pudding served in a small bowl. As I've mentioned before, Vietnamese desserts are mildly sweet and don't always have the most appealing presentation. Chè definitely fits this description. As a child, Maman used to make it very often, especially for the Buddhist prayer rituals (cúng). This version of chè is made with corn and coconut milk; it's called chè bắp in Vietnamese. It can be eaten warm or cold. This dessert can be made all year round; during the summer, I use fresh corn off the cob. When the weather gets cold, as it has over the past few days, canned corn kernels work just fine.

Chè bắp is generally topped witt a thick, syrupy coconut sauce and slightly toasted white sesame seeds. This is probably one of my favorite Asian sweets.