Hot and Sour Soup
Intro
Hot & Sour soup was one of my favorite dishes to order every time we used to go to a Chinese restaurant. I love this soup because it is full of so much depth, complexity and flavor. I mostly enjoy this soup during colder months because it brings the feeling of warmth and coziness. I always thought that making this soup at home was impossible and very difficult, but boy was I wrong. As long as you have all the ingredients chopped and prepared, the process of making this soup is actually very straight forward and takes very little time and effort. In my humble opinion this soup tastes just as good as at restaurants. Enjoy!
Ingredients
8 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
30 grams (1 oz) of dried shitake mushrooms, sliced
15 grams (0.5 oz) of dried wood ear mushrooms, sliced
100 grams (3.5 oz) of bamboo shoots
2 tablespoons of white vinegar or Chinese black vinegar
about 200 grams (7 oz) of tofu (I prefer silken), sliced
4 teaspoons of soy sauce
1/2 teaspoons of white pepper
2 tablespoons of corn starch
1 egg, beaten
1/8 teaspoons of sesame oil
some chopped green onions for garnish
Instructions
Soak dried shitake and wood ear mushrooms in water for about an hour or two, according to your package instructions.
Bring broth to a boil and then let it simmer. Take about half of cup of broth and mix it with your cornstarch. This will be your slurry that you will use later to thicken your soup base.
To the simmering broth add the following: shitake mushrooms; wood ear mushrooms; bamboo shoots; tofu.
Then add soy sauce, white pepper, vinegar and cornstarch slurry. Mix gently.
Add the egg and stir immediately. Give the soup a taste. If you feel like it can use more heat, add more white pepper. If you feel like it can add more acidity, add few more drops of vinegar but do not overdo it!
Turn off the heat, add few drops of sesame oil and chopped green onion. Enjoy!