Hot and Sour Soup

A thickened soup where the heat is white pepper rather than chilli, and the vinegar goes in after the pan has left the stove.

Chicken, Pork, Egg, Tofu. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, pork, pork stock.

Ingredients

• 1.2 litres chicken or pork stock
• 15 g dried wood ear mushrooms
• 6 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 200 g firm tofu, in 5 mm batons
• 150 g pork loin, in fine shreds
• 100 g bamboo shoots, in fine shreds
• 3 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 5 tablespoons cold water
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 tablespoons black vinegar
• 2 teaspoons ground white pepper
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. THE VINEGAR GOES IN OFF THE HEAT, and so does most of the pepper. Both are volatile: held at a simmer they turn flat within a minute or two and the soup tastes of neither in particular. A soup that needs more vinegar at the table was boiled with it in.
2. THE HEAT HERE IS WHITE PEPPER, NOT CHILLI, and the quantity looks wrong written down. Two teaspoons in a litre is right. It builds at the back of the throat rather than on the tongue, which is a different sensation from chilli heat and the reason chilli does not substitute for it.
3. Wood ears and shiitake soaked in hot water 30 minutes. Keep the shiitake water and strain it into the stock; throw the wood ear water away, which is gritty.
4. Wood ears sliced with the hard stems off, shiitake stems discarded and the caps sliced thin.
5. Stock to a simmer with the mushrooms, bamboo and soy, 10 minutes.
6. Pork shreds in, stirred apart at once, 2 minutes. They go in late because a shred of loin is tough within five.
7. Tofu in, 2 minutes, barely stirred. It breaks easily and broken tofu clouds the soup.
8. Cornflour slurry stirred again and poured in while stirring. Brought back to a simmer for 1 minute so the starch loses its raw edge; it should now coat a spoon lightly.
9. Beaten egg poured in a thin thread from a height while the soup is stirred slowly in one direction. Thin threads need a thin stream and a moving soup; tipped in, it lumps.
10. OFF THE HEAT NOW. Vinegar, white pepper and sesame oil in, stirred through once.
11. Tasted. It should be sour first and hot second, with the two about level. Adjusted with vinegar or pepper rather than with salt.
12. Spring onion over the top, served immediately.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes