HOT AND SOUR SOUP

 

Winter is here. I like to warm myself up during this cold night with a bowl of hot and sour soup. I used to work in a Chinese restaurant while going to grad school. It’s been ages ago but I still remember my favorite hot and sour soup there. In the first picture, I used Tea Tree mushrooms. They have long stem and small caps. If you can’t find them, any mushrooms will do just fine.

The other two key ingredients that I like to use are Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce and Sambal Oelek chili paste. If you do not have Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce, you can use light soy sauce instead. Speaking of chili paste, I like spicy food, you can opt-out or use less. After all, one should be able to enjoy the food without torturing themselves.

Let’s get cooking! Start with grating ginger 101. Freeze the ginger root. When you need it, pull it out of the freezer, scrape away the peel of the area you want to grate with a knife or the back of a spoon and grate it with a microplane grater.

Heat up the oil in a medium pot, use medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add ginger, stir for a few minutes.

Add sliced pork or chicken, stir occasionally until cooked (4-5 minutes).

Add chili paste. Stir for 10-15 seconds.

Add 2 tablespoons of Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce (or light soy sauce), 2 tablespoons of vinegar and the whole box of chicken broth (32 oz.) or stock. Bring it to a boil.

Scoop a couple of tablespoons of the hot broth into a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of corn starch. Stir until dissolved.

Drain and add bamboo shoots.

Add mushrooms. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes. In this picture, I used sliced Baby Bella mushrooms.

Add corn starch. Stir and let it cook for 1 minute.

Beat the egg in a small bowl (you can reuse the corn starch bowl).
Stir soup in circle and slowly drop the egg into the pot. Let it cook for 1 minute.

Turn off the heat. Sprinkle green onions before serving.

The recipe for this Hot and Sour soup is below. I also have the recipe for Egg Drop Soup, too. Hope you try both. Enjoy!