Warming Chinese Hot and Sour Soup
Hot and sour soup has long been one of my favourite comfort foods. This version is easy enough for a weeknight, packed with bright flavours, and short on exotic ingredients.
I have an outsized collection of cookbooks. Personally, I blame my cookbook collection on my nocturnal reading habits, because I love to wind down after a busy day by lazing in bed with a good cookbook. Nonetheless, my cookbook wish list grows constantly, along with my search for ever more interesting books and recipes.
For me, what makes this book unique and special is the accessibility of its recipes. This beautiful book does not present the reader with classic versions Chinese food. Rather, it celebrates the best of Taiwanese home cooking, American innovation, and East Asian flavours. Thus, the recipes tend to be short on exotic ingredients. However, they’re still big on flavour.
About the Recipe
Ironically, the first recipe I prepared from Myers+Chang at Home: Recipes from the Beloved Boston Eatery
Most standard recipes call for lily buds, black vinegar, bamboo shoots, and other exotica. However, the Myers+Chang recipe relies on regular rice wine vinegar and ingredients available at most well-stocked supermarkets. Nonetheless, it hits all the right flavour notes and is easy enough to be prepared on a busy weeknight.
As someone who craves hot and sour soup each an every time my immune system is weak, this recipe is my new standard. I hope your family will appreciate it as much as mine does. Bon appétit!
Warming Chinese Hot and Sour Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 500 g ground pork
- 2 bunches green onions (about 12), finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 kg tofu (soft or firm), cut into 2 cm cubes
- 10 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water until soft and thinly sliced
- 4 tablespoons dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked in hot water until pliable and thinly sliced
- 1 cup rice vinegar, plus more to taste
- 6 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, plus more for garnish
- 4 teaspoons sugar
- 4 teaspoons sriracha, plus more to taste
- 2 teaspoons ground white pepper, plus more for garnish
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
Instructions
- In a large flat-bottomed saucepan, heat the canola oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add all the pork, all but 1/4 cup of scallions, the ginger, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, for about a minute. Break up the pork into smaller peaces with your spoon, as you go.
- Add the stock and bring the mixture to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to maintain a simmer.
- Add the tofu, shiitake, and wood ear mushrooms to the broth. Give it a gentle stir.
- Then, add the vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, sriracha, and the white pepper. Return the soup to a simmer.
- Taste, and adjust the soy sauce, sriracha, and vinegar as needed.
- Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and, with the soup at a steady simmer, whisk them slowly and gently into the broth.
- Return the broth to a simmer. Then, serve immediately, garnished with scallions, a dash of sesame oil and a pinch of white pepper.
Notes
I've doubled the original recipe in order to feed my family of 6. However, even if you have a smaller family, I think it would be worthwhile doubling up, as you will be dying to have seconds the following day. Moreover, you could easily freeze half for use on a day when you're sick or too busy to cook!