Sunday, March 15, 2009

Hot and Sour Soup

I've been super swamped with school and the blog has been incredibly neglected. I hope to remedy this over spring break, but for the time being, here is a recipe for hot and sour soup that I modified and made for dinner tonight. I had tried making the original recipe a while back, which was considerably more complicated and called for some really hard to find ingredients. It also called for dried mushrooms, which it turns out I am not a very big fan of. I decided hot and sour could be done better and easier with fresh mushrooms and ingredients you can find at any supermarket. So here is my recipe, which I think is easy, delicious and it's vegetarian!

Ingredients:
  • 6 cups water
  • 1 small can of bamboo shoots, sliced thinly
  • 1 and 1/2 cup sliced small mushrooms (white button or crimini)
  • tofu (amount is up to you, 1/2 of a block should be enough), cubed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp white vinegar
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 Tbsp corn starch dissolved in about 1/3 cup water
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • White pepper and chili oil to taste
Bring the water to a boil in a medium sized sauce pan. Add bamboo shoots and mushrooms. Stir, and add tofu. Return to a boil. Add salt, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and oil. Let simmer for a minute, and adjust seasonings to taste.

Stir the cornstarch and water, then add to pan, stirring constantly. Return to a boil, then remove from heat. Slowly pour beaten egg while stirring in one direction. Add white pepper and chili oil to taste.