Lemongrass and sweetcorn soup with crème fraîche

Fresh, seasonal corn is best for this, but you can always use frozen or tinned if none is available. Cauliflower and lemongrass is also a wonderful combination – simply cut a small cauliflower into florets and follow the recipe as below. Then try roasting some thinly sliced florets in a hot oven and adding to the remaining relish ingredients.

SERVES 4

For the Soup:

3 corn cobs

50g of butter

1 small white onion, finely chopped

3cm of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

25g of plain flour

1.5 litres of milk

5 sticks of lemongrass, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

4 tbsps of crème fraîche For Sweetcorn relish:

1 corn on the cob, leaves removed

5 tbsps of olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped 10g of chopped coriander

1 stick of lemongrass, finely chopped

1 Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the corn kernels for the soup from the three cobs. Set cobs and kernels aside.

2 Gently heat the butter. Add the onion, ginger and chilli and sauté until softened but not browned (about 5 minutes). Add the flour, stir and cook for one minute. Add the milk, lemongrass, corn and the cobs and stir, bringing to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

3 For the sweetcorn relish, roll the cob in a little of the olive oil, season with salt and pepper and cook on a pre-heated griddle pan or barbecue until tender. When cool enough to handle, remove the corn kernels from the cob, place in a bowl and mix with the remaining ingredients. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

4 Discard the corn cobs from the soup and blend the liquid in a food processor until smooth, then pass through a sieve and season. Serve with a swirl of crème fraîche and the sweetcorn relish.