One of my favorite soups is Hot & Sour Soup, and I was flabbergasted to discover that it's really quite easy - and cheap! - to make. Who woulda thunk it? Called suan la t'ang in Chinese, it gets its tang from the addition of white vinegar. Click through for the recipe.
Hot & Sour Soup
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 package of firm tofu
1/2 cup canned bamboo shoots
1/4 lb. boneless pork
1 quart chicken stock, fresh or canned
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper
3 tbsp white vinegar
3 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 4 TBSP. cold water
1 egg, lightly beaten
Sesame seed oil
1 scallion, finely chopped
Preparation:
Place the mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Meanwhile, add the chicken stock, salt, and soy sauce to a soup pot and bring to a boil. While waiting for the liquid to heat up, slice the bamboo in thin matchsticks and trim the fat off the pork and cut it in strips 1/2 inch long and 1/4 inch thick. Remove the mushrooms from the hot water; put the mushroom water in the soup pot. Slice the mushrooms thinly. Add the bamboo, mushrooms, and pork to the now-boiling soup. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 3 minutes.
Use about half the block of tofu - you want about 3/4 cup of tofu sliced in matchsticks. Add the tofu, pepper, and vinegar to the pot. Bring to a boil again. Add the cornstarch mixed with water to the pot, and stir until the mixture is thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the egg, stirring gently.
Ladle the hot soup in bowls and garnish with a teaspoon of sesame oil and some chopped scallions.
Adjustments:
This could easily be made vegetarian or vegan by substituting dashi or vegetable broth for the chicken stock and omitting the pork and/or the egg.
If you want more sourness, try another tablespoon of vinegar.
If you want it even thicker, try another tablespoon of corn starch mixed with water.
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cannot wait to make this!
I haven't had hot and sour soup in sooooo long. This looks like I might have it for dinner tonight! How convenient I have that pork tenderloin in the fridge.
The "base" version of this soup is even easier. You can literally make it from stock (cubes or fresh), vinegar, chili sauce, and cornstarch.
Whatever else you want to add to it - tofu, meat, egg - works with that base.
I personally prefer the dark Chinese style vinegar (I have no idea what it's called in English) because it has a very specific vinegar taste.
OK, I *never* follow recipes - they're usually "suggestions" for me... so, I decided to use your recipe this weekend since I had a leftover pork chop and some tofu in the fridge. FanTAStic! However, I noticed there's no "hot" in your "Hot & Sour" - I debated on whether to use my hot chili sesame oil in place of the regular toasted sesame oil, sriracha or to throw in some sambal oelek. Sambal it was & it turned out great. My nose is still running.
Some tweaks I made:
used rice wine vinegar (& greater quantity) vs. white
mushroom broth vs. chicken (because I like the flavor)
fresh shiitakes vs. dried (because I had them - I used an entire dry pint, so it was chock-full-o-mushrooms)
Overall, a really nice meal (um, 4 meals...) for a chilly weekend.
Gross fact: a lot of traditional Chinese sour soups have blood as one of its ingredients.
What's the difference? Chefs uses marrow and tomale all the time to make soups and sauces.
This turned out so good the night I made it and it was SO EASY. I also made some tweaks--added the hot (garlic chili paste), used half white vinegar and half rice; didn't put pork in it, used mixed wild dried mushies because that's what I had.
But leftovers did not survive on my way to work the next day at all! Something about the soup being jostled on my 1.5 mi walk to work made it totally disintegrate--the tofu was totally falling apart and the broth lost it's lovely silky thickened texture. To make matters worse, I put red cabbage in it and it turned a really unappetizing pinkish red the next day.
Lessons learned! I would definitely make this again, but maybe eat the leftovers at home. :)
This was delicious! I used dried porcini mushrooms since the grocery didn't have dried shiitake mushrooms and black pepper instead of white. Also added about a tbsp of sriracha to make it nice and hot. So easy and almost therapeutic to cook!