Published:  15:27 Friday - August 05, 2016

In Hoi An, sweet soup is cooked in a precise way and sold everywhere, from the center city to the countryside. There are many kinds of sweet soups in Hoi An as: black bean sweet soup, green bean sweet soup, corn sweet soup, etc. And the most popular sweet soup in Hoi An is corn sweet soup.

This sweetened porridge is special because it is made from famous Cam Nam corns. The sweetness of this food comes from the natural and light taste of the corn.

Unlike other sweetened porridges of the South, Hoi An corn sweetened porridge doesn’t have coconut milk as the sweet soup, so the only flavor is from the corn. The best time to enjoy Hoi An corn sweetened porridge is between March and September, as the harvest season of Cam Nam corn.

Ingredients

2 ears glutinous corn on the cob, thinly sliced

4 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup surgar

1 pinch salt

3-4 tbsp tapioca starch (or glutinous rice/ tapioca pearls)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Step 1: Use a large peeler to slice the corns along cobs into thin slices

Step 2: In a medium saucepan, add 1 liter water and boil the cobs for 15 minutes to release its sweetness. Then remove and discard the cobs. Add sugar, salt and the sliced corn. Cook on medium heat until soft (about 5 minutes).

Step 3: In a bowl, dissolve the tapioca starch with water. Slowly pour this slurry into the soup while stirring in one direction on medium heat. The hot soup will cook the starch and make it translucent. Turn off the heat. The soup gets thicker when chilled.

Step 4: Note: Tapioca starch acts as a thickener. You can replace it with glutinous rice or tapioca pearls. In that case make sure you soak the glutinous rice/ tapioca pearls in water for 1 hour before adding to the soup together with the corn.