Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes Path: nuchat!menudo.uh.edu!uuneo!sugar!taronga!arielle From: Mike Bowers Subject: COLLECTION: Hot and Sour soup Message-ID: <00974B41.20B688E0.28757@radonc.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu> Followup-To: poster Sender: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) Reply-To: Mike Bowers Organization: Taronga Park BBS Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 17:34:17 PST Approved: arielle@taronga.com Lines: 456 jenrieto@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jennifer Enrietto) writes: > I'm sure that everyone has tried Hot and Sour soup at their favorite Chinese > restaurant, but does anyone have a recipe for it? previously posted to the net... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOT and SOUR RICE SOUP: (Serves 6) 6 dried black mushrooms (soaked, drained and sliced thin) 5.5 C broth 1/4 lb boneless pork (cut into matchsticks) 1/2 C slivered Bamboo shoots 1/2 small carrot (cut into matchsticks) 1.5 C rice, cooked 1/4 C rice or white vinegar 2 T cornstarch 2 T soy sauce 2 T water 1/2 t white pepper 1 egg, beaten 1 t sesame oil 2 green onions, thinly sliced 1/2 t hot pepper sauce In 4-quart Dutch oven, heat broth to boiling on medium heat. Add pork, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and carrots. Cook 3 minutes. Add rice, vinegar, soy sauce, white pepper, sesame oil and hot pepper sauce. Return to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes. In a cup, stir together cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir it into the soup. Cook until slightly thickened. Remove from heat. Gradually add egg in a steady stream, stirring constantly. Garnish with green onion. HOT AND SOUR SOUP ================= If you want a real, authentic Hot & Sour Chinese soup, go look it up in a cookbook. This is my version, distilled from several recipies, but missing several ingredients that I'm sure some would say were absolutely esential. The quantities below are approximate, and you should vary them to suit you. I had this last night, and my wife was surprised that the kids each ate three bowls, instead of the stuff *she* made (I liked the stuff she made, but I had three bowls of the soup in addition to her stuff). 2 T oil 2-3 oz. fresh mushrooms 6-8 c. stock fresh ginger (size of US quarter, 3/4 inch round, 1/8 inch thick) small can of sliced bamboo shoots (3 oz?), cut lengthwise into three, drained 8 oz. tofu (or a package), sliced 2" X 1/4" X 1/4", drained 2 T vinegar 2 T soy sauce 1/4 t white pepper Tabasco sauce or chili oil (optional) 3 T corn starch 3 T water 1 egg, beaten (eliminate for vegans) 2 green onions, cut into thin circles 1 T chinese-style dark sesame oil Slice the mushrooms and saute with oil in the soup pot (you can eliminate fat by just tossing the mushrooms in the stock without sauteing them, but they shrink something awful!). Add the stock (I used ch****n, which is traditional, but this is cross-posted to rec.food.veg, so I can't say that). Most people will want the stock to have salt, but remember that the soy sauce is salty. Add the ginger, heat to a boil, and simmer gently for 20 minutes. At some point you may wish to discard the ginger so some unsuspecting soul doesn't bite into it and get a mouthful of heat. You may wish to do the rest differently, but my wife is always in the kitchen preparing another last-minute dish, so I like to get all my ingredients together and ready. Get five small bowls. Put the vinegar, soy sauce, ground white pepper and (optional) hot sauce in one and mix. Put the corn starch and water in the next and mix. Put the (optional) egg in the next and beat lightly. Put the green onion in the next, and the tofu and matchstick-cut bamboo shoots in the last. A few minutes before you are ready to eat, turn the heat to medium. Add the tofu and bamboo shoots and wait until heated. Add the soy sauce mixture, heat until boiling. Stir corn starch mixture and add to rapidly boiling soup. Boil for a long minute until it thickens. Reduce heat. If using egg, stir the soup in one direction until it's moving pretty well. Dribble the egg in, forming long strands. Let the strands firm (20 seconds). Add sesame oil and stir. You can float the green onions on top, or stir them in. Serve, with chili oil available for those who like it hotter. FROM: Terri Huggett Saved from the net. Don't know if all the ingredients are easy to find. Hope it helps. Terri Huggett huggett@sequent.com ---------------------------- From: harkins@iraq.crd.ge.com (Cynthia K. Harkins) Path: iraq!harkins Hot & Sour Soup Ingredients: . 7 1/2 cups chicken broth - use canned over cubes . 1/4 - 1/2 lb. pork - shredded Marinade: 1/2 tsp. cornstarch 1 tsp. sesame oil 1/2 tsp. sherry . 3 cups hot water . 20 small dried tree ears . 20-30 dried tiger lily buds . 8-12 dried Chinese (black) mushrooms . 6-12 oz. fresh mushrooms - sliced . 1-2 cans water chestnuts - sliced . 1 carrot - shredded . 1 can bamboo shoots - shredded (optional) . 1/2 - 3/4 lb. tofu - shredded . 6 tbsp. cornstarch . 6 tbsp. COLD water . 1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce . 1/4 cup Vinegar . 1 egg - beaten . 1/2 - 1 tsp. black pepper . 1/2 - 1 tsp. white pepper . 2 - 4 tbsp. brown sugar (optional) . 1 tbsp. sesame oil . Tabasco sauce (to taste) Directions: Preparation: 1. Start heating chicken broth on low heat. 2. Mix marinade ingredients and add shredded pork. Let stand at least 20 minutes. 3. Add tree ears, tiger lily buds, and Chinese mushrooms to hot water and let soak for 20 minutes. 4. While the meat is marinating and the dried ingredients are rehydrating, slice and shred the vegetables and tofu. 5. When the dried ingredients are done soaking, remove the stems from the Chinese mushrooms and slice them. Remove the stems from the tiger lily buds and remove any hard spots from the tree ears. If the tree ears are too large to fit on a soup spoon cut them. 6. Mix 6 tbsp. cornstarch with 6 tbsp. COLD water. Making the soup: 1. Bring the chicken broth to a full boil and reduce heat to medium. 2. Add all of the vegetables (tree ears, tiger lily buds, Chinese mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, water chestnuts, carrot, and bamboo) and simmer for 3-4 minutes. 3. Add pork (with marinade) and tofu and wait until soup is boiling. 4. Add Worcestershire sauce and vinegar. 5. Stir cornstarch/water paste and SLOWLY stir into soup. Wait until soup thickens slightly. 6. Stir beaten egg into soup. 7. Add black pepper, white pepper, brown sugar, sesame oil, and Tabasco. --------------------------- From: gallen@apollo.HP.COM (Gary Allen) HOTSOUR-SOUP-2(SP) USENET Cookbook HOTSOUR-SOUP-2(SP) HOT AND SOUR SOUP HOTSOUR-SOUP-2 - Popular Szechuan Chinese soup I learned this recipe while taking Szechuan cooking classes. This soup is very popular in this country. It comes in a great many varieties, and can range from very mild to very spicy, and from a soup to almost a stew. This particular recipe is a medium spicy soup that should be within most peoples' tolerance range. INGREDIENTS (serves 6-8) 1 cup bean curd, cut into small cubes. 1/4 cup bamboo shoot, shredded 1/4 cup golden needles (tiger lily pods) 2 Tbsp wood ear fungus shredded 1/4 cup black mushroom 1 egg, well beaten 4 oz very lean pork, shredded MIXTURE A 1 tsp light soy sauce 1 tsp cornstarch MIXTURE B 6 cups chicken stock 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp MSG (optional) 1 tsp sugar MIXTURE C 3 Tbsp cornstarch 3 Tbsp water MIXTURE D 2 Tbsp light soy sauce 2 Tbsp vinegar 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tsp chili oil 1/2 tsp black pepper (fresh ground) 1/2 tsp white pepper (fresh ground) 3 Tbsp scallion, or green onion, chopped 1 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped (Do not use powdered ginger). PROCEDURE (1) Put the golden needles, wood ear, and black mush- room to soak in separate bowls of water. It takes 30 to 60 minutes for them to be ready. After soak- ing, the wood ear should be a flexible and flat material. It may have a few hard lumps; cut these off and discard them. Discard the soaking liquids. (2) Meanwhile, prepare mixtures A,C, and D. Place their ingredients in bowls, and mix well. When mixing with cornstarch, add the liquid slowly to the cornstarch. This avoids getting undissolved cornstarch balls. (3) Shred the pork. This pork must be very lean. The meat portion of pork cutlets or the center of pork chops are good sources. Shredding means cutting the pork into pieces about the size of wooden matches. (1/4 inch square by 1-2 inches) This is most easily done by slicing the pork, then laying the slices overlapping each other at an angle and cutting these at a reverse angle. (4) Marinate the pork in mixture A for 15 minutes. Then use 2 Tbsp oil to stir-fry the meat until the color changes. Set the meat aside. (5) Shred and cube the other ingredients. (6) Bring mixture B to a boil and add the black mush- room, bamboo shoots, wood ear, bean curd, and gol- den noodles. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the meat, then add mixture C. Add the beaten egg while stirring to disperse the egg in sheets and fila- ments. Add mixture D, and cook another minute. (7) Serve hot. NOTES Bean curd must be fresh. If you cannot get it fresh, omit it. You will need at least 6 bowls (soup bowls are OK), 1 large bowl, and either a two-handled wok or a large sauce pan. Don't attempt this with a one-handled wok because it will be filled with boiling soup and is almost certain to spill. Hot and sour soup is a generic soup type, so you can make many variations on this soup. To control the spiciness, adjust the ratio between mixture D and mixture B. Changing the ratios inside mixture D changes the nature of the soup. Finally, you can add a lot more ingredients if you want. The critical ingredients are the golden needles, bamboo (although almost any variety can be good), mushrooms (or fungus of some sort), and pork shreds. Experiment with dif- ferent kinds of fungus and bamboo. Adding other mild veget- ables is usually a success. RATING Difficulty: easy but tedious. Time: 1-2 hours (lots of preparation, little cooking) Precision: measure the ingredients. HOT AND SOUR SOUP HOTSOUR-SOUP-1 - Szechuan hot and sour soup I have seldom been to a Chinese restaurant without having hot and sour soup, and it was pleasant to discover how easy it is to make it at home. We have fixed this by itself as a dinner for two with enough left over for lunch. Particu- larly when we add extra meat and vegetables, we find it a very hearty soup which is surprisingly easy to make. INGREDIENTS (Serves 4-6) 1 Tbsp peanut oil (or other vegetable oil) 1 garlic clove 1 tsp ginger root (aboutr 2 slices) 1/2 cup boneless pork loin, shredded 1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce or tamari 1/2 cup bamboo shoots, shredded 6 dried shiitake mushrooms 10 dried lily buds (also called golden needles) 12 dried tree ear fungus (also called cloud ears) 4 cups chicken broth (canned or homemade; I usually use canned) 1 Tbsp dry sherry 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar 1 Tbsp cornstarch 1/4 cup water 1 tofu pad (a package generally contains 2 pads) 1/4 cup green onions 2 eggs 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil 1/4-1 tsp chili oil 1/4 tsp white pepper salt and more pepper PROCEDURE (1) Rehydrate the dried ingredients (15 minutes: in lukewarm water for the shiitakes, and in boiling water for the lily buds and tree ears). Heat the chicken broth (if it's canned, prepare it). (2) Mince the garlic and ginger root and combine them. Shred the pork loin. Shred the bamboo shoots. Combine the cornstarch and the water. Chop the green onions. Lightly beat the eggs. (3) Heat oil in wok (medium), add the garlic and ginger, stirring 30 seconds. (4) Add the pork, cooking until it loses its pink color (5) Add the soy sauce, cook for 1 minute more. (6) Add bamboo shoots, shiitakes, lily buds, tree ear fungi, stir quickly for 1 minute. (7) Stir in chicken broth, sherry, and vinegar. (8) Stir cornstarch/water mix one last time and add it to the soup. (9) Add the tofu and bring the soup to a boil. (10) Turn the heat to low, add the green onions. (11) Add the beaten eggs in a slow stream, stirring several times. (12) Turn off the heat and add the sesame oil, chili oil, white pepper. Season to taste and serve immediately. NOTES Like many Chinese recipes, it takes longer to prepare the ingredients than it does to cook the soup. As I understand it, hot and sour soup, traditionally, is a Northern Chinese way of using leftovers. Therefore, there are many, many variations possible, particularly in the dried ingredients. We never make it exactly the same way twice. I recommend using the shiitakes at least; most any grocery store has them. You may find tree ears and lily buds in an oriental food store. RATING Difficulty: easy to moderate Time: about an hour Precision: no need to measure. Hot and Sour soup Ingredients o 1-2cm fresh root ginger o 1 medium sized hot green chilli (cored and seeded) o 2 cloves garlic o 2 1/2 cups water o 1 vegetable stock cube (2 cup size) o Juice of one lemon o 1 tbsp vinegar o 3 tbsp dark soy sauce o 1/3 tsp dried ginger o 1 tsp five spice powder o 4 spring onions o 1 medium sized red sweet bell pepper o 1 medium sized yellow sweet bell pepper o 225g tin water chestnuts o 225g tin bamboo shoots Method Chop the ginger, chilli pepper and garlic finely. Simmer for ten minutes in 2 1/2 cups of water. Core, seed and chop the red and yellow peppers into strips. Slice the water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. Add these and the other remaining ingredients. Cook until the vegetables are cooked, but still crisp. Adjust the seasoning to sour and spicy, and make the liquid up to 7-8 cups (around 3 pints). Serves 4 as a starter to a chinese meal. Units All units and measures are metric American. A UK imperial measure version is available from foster@jumbly.enet.dec.com HOT & SOUR SOUP This is a recipe from a good chinese restaurant in Cincinnati. 1 Qt chicken broth 2 oz shredded pork tenderloin 2 oz shredded bean curd 2 Tblsp shredded bamboo shoots 2 Tblsp shredded cloud ears 2 Tblsp dry lily buds 1 Tblsp fresh ground black pepper 1 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp dark soy sauce 3 Tblsp cider or rice wine vinegar 2-3 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tblsp water 1 egg, beaten few drops sesame oil 2 Tblsp minced scallions or green onions In a heavy kettle, bring the broth to a boil. Meanwhile soften the shredded cloud ears and dry lily buds in water to cover. Drain well Add the pork, bean curd, bamboo shoots, cloud ears and lily buds to the boiling stock. Bring again to a boil and stir in the pepper, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Slowly stir in the dissolved cornstarch until desired thickness. Slowly pour the egg into the soup, whisking constantly to form thin strands of egg. Remove from heat and add oil. Ladle into bowls and garnish with minced scallions. Serves 4. Preperation time: ~20min Cooking time: ~20 min --