CookBook Home Page Soups List

Hot and Sour Soup

 


INGREDIENTS

  • 12 tiger lily buds
  • 1 dried tree mushroom [black fungus]
  • 1/4 pound pork butt, julienned. Can easily omit if feeding vegetarians.

    MARINADE
  • 1 tsp. soy sauce
  • 1/4 tsp. cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
  • 3 to 4 Tbs. cornstarch paste. Prepared by mixing equal parts cold water
  • 2 quarts of chicken broth
  • 2 Tbs. canned julienne bamboo shoots
  • 1/2 pound firm tofu, julienne
  • 1 Tbs. Shao Hsing wine
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 Tbs. soy sauce
  • 2 Tbs. oil
  • 6 Tbs. red rice vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tsp. white pepper
  • Chopped green onion
  • Dash sesame oil

DIRECTIONS

Soak tiger lilies and tree mushroom in warm water for 20 minutes. Cut tiger lilies in half. Julienne tree mushroom and cut out the woody stem.

Combine pork with MARINADE ingredients in the order listed; mix well and set aside.

To cook, bring chicken broth to a boil. Add pork, tiger lilies, mushroom, and bamboo shoots. Return to a boil. Add bean curd, wine, and salt. Stir in 3 to 4 Tbs. cornstarch paste; continue cooking until soup reaches the consistency of creamed soup. Slowly drizzle eggs into the broth in a thin stream. Gentle stir in soy sauce and vegetable oil. [If you wish, you may set soup aside at this point.]

To serve, mix rice vinegar and white pepper in a large soup bowl or tureen. Pour in soup and stir. Sprinkle with chopped onion and sesame oil; serve immediately.

NOTES:
  1. Rice vinegar produces the sour aroma. NEVER cook the vinegar, just mix it in. If red rice vinegar is not available, substitute white distilled or cider vinegar. The white pepper provides the hot "kick" in the soup. You can adjust the flavor to suit your taste by increasing or decreasing the amount of vinegar or pepper used.
  2. For a vegetarian version, leave out the pork and marinade and substitute vegetable bouillon for broth.
  3. I sometimes get carried away and add fresh baby shrimp.


* Chef Chu’s Distinctive Cuisine of China, Page 53.