INGREDIENTS
2 sticks celery, diced
1 onion, peeled and diced
600 g corn kernels, fresh, frozen or canned
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp mustard powder
Murray River Salt Flakes, to taste
60 ml olive oil
1kg free range chicken
1 bunch thyme or lemon thyme
4 sprigs rosemary
1½ litres water
Baby corn, optional
To serve
Sour cream
Chives, finely sliced
Crusty bread
Miele accessories
METHOD
- Place the celery, onion, corn, spices, salt and olive oil into a 4 litre capacity unperforated steam container and Steam at 100°C for 30 minutes.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the chicken into four pieces. Keeping the meat on the bone with skin intact, cut into 2 supremes and 2 marylands.
- Tie the base of the thyme and rosemary with kitchen twine to hold it together during cooking.
- Add the chicken pieces, herbs and water to the steam container and Steam at 100°C for 1 hour 30 minutes.
- Carefully remove the herb stems and discard. Remove the chicken pieces, ensuring that there are no bones left in the soup and set aside for 5-10 minutes to cool in a bowl.
- When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the bones and skin, then shred the chicken meat into small pieces.
- Return half of the chicken to the soup and blend into a puree using an immersion blender. A high speed blender can be used to gain a finer texture if desired.
- Place the remaining chicken into a separate unperforated steam container and place in the steam oven along with the puréed soup. Steam at 100°C for 10 minutes.
To serve
- Ladle the soup into bowls and top with pieces of shredded chicken and baby corn.
- Add a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of chives before serving with crusty bread.
Hints and tips
- Corn can be replaced with other vegetables such as pumpkin, diced potato and mushroom.
- For a vegetarian soup, omit chicken at step 3 and increase vegetable quantity. Reduce cooking time by 10 minutes.
- For a flavoursome chicken stock, replace the corn with 1 carrot and the chicken pieces with chicken bones. Strain the liquid after cooking without blending through a sieve and discard the solids.