Jono & Jules do food & wine

We have been using Lambay Island Crab at every opportunity and who doesn’t love a crab & sweetcorn soup. Perfect for a starter or light lunch.

Wine Suggestion: This is rich and deeply flavoured so we chose an oaked Chardonnay from Burgundy, Javillier’s Cuvée des Forgets. A Burgogne Cote d’Or blanc made from clay soils in vineyards next to Meursault and has the same kind of richness and flinty minerality of it’s big neighbour. Super expressive and wonderfully balanced it was a real treat, just like the soup.

Crab & Sweetcorn Soup – serves 4

FOR THE STOCK:

• 1.2 litres good chicken stock
• 6 thin slices of root ginger
• 3 bunches of scallions, roughly chopped
• ½ tsp whole white peppercorns

FOR THE SOUP:

• 2 fresh sweetcorn cobs (or 250g frozen sweetcorn)
• 225g fresh white crab meat
• 5 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp very finely chopped root ginger
• 2 scallions, cut into 2½ cm pieces and shredded lengthways
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten

Put the chicken stock in a pan with the ginger, scallions and peppercorns. Bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes, then strain.

Meanwhile, remove the corn kernels from the cobs with a sharp knife (if using fresh corn). Add the sweetcorn to the stock and simmer for 5 minutes.

Mix the cornflour to a smooth paste with a little cold water, stir into the soup and simmer for 2 minutes. Str in the crab meat, ginger, scallions, soy sauce and rice wine or sherry, then season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 1 minute.

Give the soup a good stir, then remove the spoon and slowly trickle in the beaten egg white so it form long, thin strands in the soup. Simmer for 30 seconds and serve immediately.

(Original recipe from Rick Stein’s Food Stories, BBC Books, 2024.)