Crab and Asparagus Soup

After my decomposing strawberry cake disaster, it's nice to meet with a little success. I made this last night:

Crab and Asparagus Soup
Ingredients
½ pound fresh asparagus
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp finely chopped shallots or onions
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
4 cups chicken broth
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water
1 egg, well beaten
¼ pound cooked lump crabmeat, or one 6 oz can, drained
2 tbsp thinly slice green onion
1 tsp cilantro (optional but good)
½ tsp ginger (optional but good)
1 tbsp soy sauce (optional but good)
Directions
Trim asparagus, cutting each stalk crosswise diagonally into 1 inch pieces, leaving tips intact (you should have about 2 cups).
Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat for 1 minute, and then add asparagus, shallots, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook until the shallots and garlic are fragrant and the asparagus shiny and bright green, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil.
In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water, stirring to make a thin, smooth, paste. Add it to the soup. Stir the soup well and drizzle in the beaten egg, letting it swirl to form lacy shreds in the hot broth. Add the crabmeat and stir well. Add optional ingredients if using. Sprinkle in the green onion, remove the soup from the heat, and serve hot or warm.

This recipe is from Quick & Easy Vietnamese. The optional ingredients are ones I found in OTHER recipes for Crab & Asparagus soup that sounded like they would be good in THIS recipe...and they were! This tasted like something you could get as take-out which to me, means good.