Quick Hot and Sour Soup
MEH!!! Winter is here, with inches of snow and ice in the last week, and now, a forecast for 8-10 inches of snow and up to .75 inches of ice. Just THINKING ABOUT IT MAKES ME SHIVER.
There is only one solution for this: SOUP!
And given my rather miserly bend of mind lately, we shall do this less extravagantly. First, I’ll use chicken broth made from the carcass of a rotisserie chicken (they are always cheap at Costco); if I have any meat left from the chicken, I’ll add that at the end and stir through to heat. Rather than some pricey exotic mushrooms, I’ll use just plain button mushrooms. As for the hot component, I have Sambal, but one can use any hot sauce to kick up the heat, ditto for sour. I have rice vinegar, but white vinegar will work as well. I have, in a pinch, used just fresh cracked black pepper in this, white pepper is not a requirement. It’s not like you are serving this in a five-star restaurant.
For variations, one can lengthen the soup by adding more broth and swirling in some ramen noodles or leftover cooked rice.
From Wikipedia:
Hot and sour soup is a popular example of Chinese cuisine. Although it is said to be originated in Sichuan, this is actually a variant of hulatang or “pepper hot soup” (胡辣汤) with added vinegar to enhance the sourness. This variation is found in Henan province, and in Henan cuisine itself. Also popular in Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan and the United States, it is a flexible soup which allows ingredients to be substituted or added depending on availability. For example, the American-Chinese version can be thicker as it commonly includes corn starch, while in Japan, sake is often added.
There are myths surrounding the origin of “hot and sour soup,” with the most popular one claiming it is from Sichuan. There is a similarly named dish made from glass noodles called “hot and sour noodles” (Chinese: 酸辣粉), but it is quite different from “hot and sour soup”(Chinese: 酸辣汤). It is vastly different in ingredients, cooking and consuming. For instance, the spiciness in this noodle dish mainly comes from chilli and Sichuan pepper, rather than black pepper, which is not very common in Sichuan cuisine. In fact, the form of “hot and sour soup” can barely be found in Sichuan.
“Hot and sour soup” is claimed by the cuisine of Beijing. The Chinese hot and sour soup is usually meat-based, and often contains ingredients such as day lily buds, wood ear fungus, bamboo shoots, and tofu, in a broth that is sometimes flavored with pork blood. Sometimes, the soup would also have carrots and pieces of pork. It is typically made hot (spicy) by white pepper, and sour by Zhenjiang vinegar.
Quick Hot and Sour Soup
Ingredients
- 3 cups Broth Chicken or Veggie
- 3 oz Cremini Mushrooms Cleaned, thin sliced
- 3 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 3 tbsp Soy Sauce Low Sodium
- 1 tsp Grated Ginger
- 1 tbsp Sambal Oelek
- 3 tbsp Cornstarch
- 1 ea Egg Jumbo Whisked
- 3 oz Tofu Firm, pressed, cubed to 1/2"
- 4 ea Scallions Washed, sliced thin
- 2 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil
- Salt / Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Whisk 1/4 cup broth, with corn starch, set aside
- In a large pot over medium-high heat, add broth, mushrooms, ginger, sambal, vinegar, and soy
- Whence soup begins to simmer, rewhisk cornstatch and whisk into soup, simmeerfor 1-2 minutes until slighly thickened
- Stir soup with a clockwise motion and drizzle in eggs in a thin drizzle.
- Add the tofu, sesame oil, and scallions
- Taste, season, balance flavor. Add Sambal for spice, vinegar for sour
- Serve hot
Notes
Nutrition
Filed
under: American, Asian, Autumn, Cheap, Cultural-Misappropriation, Soup, Winter
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