I’ve been meaning to start blogging about my foray into the world of meatless meals.  During my youth I was a vegetarian for about three years and truth be told one part of me would have liked to drift back into that way of eating, but the other part finds meat is yummy and fish in particular seems to make me feel better when my world is spinning around.  But what I have been doing is just dropping the odd meaty meal for one filled with beans and rice – or potatoes and cheese –  it depends on what the day has been like. It’s the August bank holiday today and of course it has rained heavily all day, more so than on an average bank holiday, where one can be certain that it will rain between the hours of 11a.m. and 4 p.m., just enough to take the shine off whatever one had planned.  Today has been a Noah’s Ark sort of rainy day, I am sure I could hear wood being sawn and nails being hammered in the distance as the rain drops grew heavier and heavier from morning until night. And it has grown colder, and as I gazed into my fridge full of lovely locally grown produce my eyes settled on these, which ordinarily would have been cooked and eaten with lots of butter in the sunshine.  But that wasn’t going to happen today.  Then my eyes settled on a nice big piece of ginger perched in the door of my fridge and an idea sprang into my mind. I prepared a generous two inch piece of ginger into julienes and started to saute that in a pan, then added about a pint of water and let it come to the boil whilst I slid my sharp knife down the corn to release the kernels. Then dropped the juicy kernals into the water, whilst popping a few raw escapees into my mouth, they were lovely and sweet.  I added a tablespoon of sugar, a scant level teaspoon of salt, a good shake of white pepper and half a pint of milk.  I let it cook for just a few minutes and then whizzed with with my hand food processor (the type that you pop into the pan to break the soup up)   I cracked a couple of eggs and added a little soy to it, I would have added sesame oil but I didn’t have any and stirred the egg mixture into the hot soup and watched as it formed that lovely eggy mixture so beloved of Chinese soups.  I found this recipe through Ken Hom many years ago, I haven’t read the original for years, so I don’t know how true it is, I just know it is delicious and I make it regularly.  I normally make it with chicken stock, but it is such a good soup that one can make it with water and not suffer unduly. And just within the space of ten minutes, you have this. A bowl of comforting, hearty, delicious soup, the perfect companion on a rainy bank holiday.