My love of food didn’t come from the stomach but from a place of lack. As a child, I never felt like I was very good at anything and I really wanted to have people take notice, to have them say, “Wow, look what she did,” to be admired. So I cleaned the kitchen, did some dishes, danced in the living room (belly dancing!) and even tried to sing – I apologize to whoever was around during the singing phase.
Among these attempts, one day I decided to make a chocolate cake from Hanna Saulov’s Oogot L’kol Chag (Cakes for Every Holiday). When my parents came home, they were amazed by what I had made and couldn’t stop praising it, and I knew I had found my place.
The second recipe I learned to make was corn soup. I found it in Aharoni’s book HaBishul HaSini (Chinese Cooking), and even back then I didn’t stick to the recipe, omitting the white wine and adding another egg after I realized that it was the tastiest part of the soup. Since then, I’ve been making corn soup almost every month, in summer and winter, and it is still my favorite dish to get at the Chinese food stand in the mall – yes, I eat there occasionally when I need something quick.
This soup is everything I need and love: it’s a little sweet and a bit creamy, very, very easy to make, ready in half an hour, and it functions like a meal even though I don’t usually add chicken (the original recipe calls for thin strips of chicken).
And on this optimistic and wintry note, I now send you to go make the fastest and most delicious soup there is. Just don’t forget to send me the picture of how it turned out.
- Don’t miss: all my recipes for excellent soups.