A good Hot & Sour Soup recipe?

[Dre_J]

Title says it all. I'm looking for a good Hot & Sour Soup recipe.

Anyone have one that they've made and can vouch for?

Thanks!
Dre

 

[Dre_J]

I'm still looking for a good recipe for Hot & Sour Soup if you have come across one.

Thanks,
Dre

 

[amirm]

My recipe is to go to a Chinese restaurant. We tried one out of one of our favorite books but it did not taste authentic. For one thing, it has a lot of odd ingredients in it. We have pretty large local asian stores. The problem is, we have no idea how to find these things there and getting help is often hard. We made ours with partial ingredients and hence lack of total success.

So I too would be interested as it is one of my favorite soups. Gary?

 

[WLVCA]

I am interested in a good recipe, too.

We moved from from Southern California to Tucson a few months ago and have yet to find a Chinese restaurant we like.

Too many "mature" midwestern snowbirds here and some Chinese restaurants here still serve chow mein and egg foo young believe it or not.

Perhaps we were spoiled in LA.

 

[amirm]

Definitely spoiled in LA . When we moved from California to Seattle, we found the same thing. It has taken us 10+ years to finally find good chinese food. I should say Chinese food that we were used to in California.

 

[Dre_J]

Hopefully someone will come through for us.

If not, I may have to be a little adventurous and try a few recipes on my own.

Maybe I'll start by seeing if I can actually get some of the main ingredients and go from there.

Disaster, Mediocrity, Moderate Success, or Eureka may be at hand!
Stay tuned...

Dre

 

[carolkoh]

Right... thing is that there are many different recipes. The two most common in the US is the chilli hot and sour soup - you find bits of red chilli in it and that's where the heat comes from, and the other is the short pepper hot and sour soup - the heat comes from Chinese white pepper. Although often black is used in the Americanized recipes.

The recipe differs depending on the Chinese restaurant you go to and so what one person may consider "good" - well... it differs. As it happens, I made myself hot and sour soup last week because I was hankering for some. I followed a recipe for the basic proportions of vinegar to water / stock and then adjusted to taste.

2 cups water
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup black vinegar
2 tbs white vinegar
2 tsp white pepper
2 tbs soy (I did not measure)
2 tsp sesame oil (again, I did not measure)

1 piece of meat or handful of shrimp (I used pork) - sliced & marinated in the soy, sesame & a tsp of corn starch

6 shitake mushroom - soaked & sliced thin
6 pieces of wood ear fungus - soaked & sliced thin
some bamboo shoots - sliced thin
1 package of tofu - firm or medium firm - cubed
1 small handful lily buds - soaked & pulled apart
a handful of sliced white mushroom (because I had it sitting in my veg bin)
2 eggs

Put the water & stock to boil - if you are using shrimp, throw the shells in then remove the shells after it reaches a rolling boil for a couple minutes.

Meanwhile, sautee the meat until almost cooked. Put meat and drippings into the soup, bring back to boil.
Add the ingredients one by one, then leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add HALF the vinegar. Taste. Add more vinegar.

Beat the eggs lightly and bring the heat up on the soup. once it is boiling again, stir it and drizzle the egg in so it makes ribbons. If you like a thick starchy soup, mix a tbs of corn starch in a bit of water and mix it in now. Add more until you get the thickness you like.

Add the pepper - preferably white. Taste. I love having lots of pepper in my Hot Sour soup and will add more when I serve it.

Let it simmer another ten minutes for the flavors to meld.

Voila! Hot and Sour soup.

 

[Dre_J]

Right... thing is that there are many different recipes. The two most common in the US is the chilli hot and sour soup - you find bits of red chilli in it and that's where the heat comes from, and the other is the short pepper hot and sour soup - the heat comes from Chinese white pepper. Although often black is used in the Americanized recipes.

The recipe differs depending on the Chinese restaurant you go to and so what one person may consider "good" - well... it differs. As it happens, I made myself hot and sour soup last week because I was hankering for some. I followed a recipe for the basic proportions of vinegar to water / stock and then adjusted to taste.

2 cups water
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup black vinegar
2 tbs white vinegar
2 tsp white pepper
2 tbs soy (I did not measure)
2 tsp sesame oil (again, I did not measure)

1 piece of meat or handful of shrimp (I used pork) - sliced & marinated in the soy, sesame & a tsp of corn starch

6 shitake mushroom - soaked & sliced thin
6 pieces of wood ear fungus - soaked & sliced thin
some bamboo shoots - sliced thin
1 package of tofu - firm or medium firm - cubed
1 small handful lily buds - soaked & pulled apart
a handful of sliced white mushroom (because I had it sitting in my veg bin)
2 eggs

Put the water & stock to boil - if you are using shrimp, throw the shells in then remove the shells after it reaches a rolling boil for a couple minutes.

Meanwhile, sautee the meat until almost cooked. Put meat and drippings into the soup, bring back to boil.
Add the ingredients one by one, then leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add HALF the vinegar. Taste. Add more vinegar.

Beat the eggs lightly and bring the heat up on the soup. once it is boiling again, stir it and drizzle the egg in so it makes ribbons. If you like a thick starchy soup, mix a tbs of corn starch in a bit of water and mix it in now. Add more until you get the thickness you like.

Add the pepper - preferably white. Taste. I love having lots of pepper in my Hot Sour soup and will add more when I serve it.

Let it simmer another ten minutes for the flavors to meld.

Voila! Hot and Sour soup.

Thanks Carolyn! 90% of research is now over, 90% of procedure is now over.

The remaining 10% of both are now in my (un-chef'd) hands.

As I find my ingredients and start mixing, like I said before, Disaster, Mediocrity, Moderate Success, or Eureka may be at hand!

Dre

 

[JackD201]

Break a leg Dre!

We're blessed living in an area which is predominantly chinese-filipino. As such we are surrounded by various regional Chinese restaurants all within a 5 to 10 min drive. Hot and Sour soup is definitely a go to for us especially when one of us is under the weather. I would have said perfect for a cold day or night but we don't get those.

 

[WLVCA]

Carolyn, thanks very much for the recipe. I'll give it a try.

 

[carolkoh]

There are dozens of black vinegar, by the way... Chinese black vinegar is like Italian balsamic. Every region / house has its own recipe. I use a simple (and cheap) Xin Kiang. For white vinegar, go for a rice vinegar. For authentic peppery taste, use White pepper, not black, and Gary reminded me of the Szechuan spicy pepper berries which imparts yet a different kind of heat.

Enjoy the experimentation!

Oh, and if you seem to have more ingredients than soup, just add a little more water.

 

[garylkoh]

Carol told me about this thread on the way home. Sorry I haven't been checking in as I'm in the midst of laying out PCB's and that task isn't very conducive to interruptions.

I'm not a huge fan of hot and sour soup, but my wife is. Last time I made it, she pronounced it yummy. Here's what I can remember of what I did. Soup is usually a "fly by the seat of my pants" thing.......

1/4 lb pork tenderloin - sliced across the grain and then julienne. Toss in 2 heaped tsp of cornstarch and about a tbsp sesame oil to marinate.

1/4 lb prawns (large shrimp) with shells and heads. Remove and keep shells and heads. Halve the prawns sideways right through the body and de-vein. Toss in 2 heaped tsp of cornstarch and about a tbsp sesame oil to marinate.

Julienne 1 large old carrot

Slice 6 to 8 Napa cabbage leaves (about 1/2 inch wide slices)

Cube 1 piece (about 1lb) medium-soft tofu

In a large copper-bottomed pot, heat peanut oil till nearly smoking. Throw in the prawn shells and heads and stir fry until crispy and shells are bright red in color. Slowly add in 4 cups Chicken Stock - making sure that the stock keeps boiling vigorously. Once all the stock is in the pot, use a sieve to fish out all the prawn shells and heads and discard. Turn the fire down to simmer.

For the sour - add
1/2 cup Sinkiang black vinegar
2 tbsp Lau Chew black vinegar
2 tbsp sweet Chinese wine (I used Fa Cheow - in the Chinese groceries around here, it comes in a light green Chinese gourd shaped bottle - looks like the figure 8)

For the hot - add
1 tsp finely crushed Szechuan prickly pepper (the time my wife made it, she used a tbsp and we couldn't feel our tongues for the next couple of hours)
2 - 3 tsp finely ground Chinese white pepper
2 - 2 tsp finely ground Chinese hot chilli powder (Korean is also good)

Let the stock simmer for a bit - at least 40 mins for the flavors to meld.

Turn the fire up to boil.

Whip up 2 eggs in 1/2 cup of water. Pour slowly into the boiling stock, stirring slowly.

Add in slowly in the following order:
Napa cabbage
Pork slices
Prawn halves
Carrot
Tofu

Salt to taste.

If desired, you can dissolve some cornstarch or tapioca starch in water and add to thicken, but I usually skip this. The egg is usually enough thickening.

Enjoy.

 

[carolkoh]

Ahh.. Gary's provided the "Not your usual American Chinese restaurant Hot and Sour soup" recipe.

 

[amirm]

He did indeed. Thanks to both of you. Will have to try them as my mouth is watering thinking about it .

 

[garylkoh]

Amir,

there's the Asian Food Mart in Redmond right next to the Goodwill store where I dig for LPs. They have may be 10 different types of Chinese black vinegar there. Pick a couple that look good. I think that one of the "secrets" of good hot sour soup is using a mix of different vinegars. You can get the prickly peppers there too. I think some of that is essential for the authentic taste of the Szechuan Basin.

 

[amirm]

Thanks Gary. Just found that store a couple of weeks ago. Been buying fish and meat for the dogs of all things . I was impressed by the amount of stuff they stock and convenience of it being so close to us.

 

[Dre_J]

Amir,

there's the Asian Food Mart in Redmond right next to the Goodwill store where I dig for LPs. They have may be 10 different types of Chinese black vinegar there. Pick a couple that look good. I think that one of the "secrets" of good hot sour soup is using a mix of different vinegars. You can get the prickly peppers there too. I think some of that is essential for the authentic taste of the Szechuan Basin.

Thanks Gary. I think I'll try Carolyn's recipe first before I venture off the deep end to your more exclusive recipe. Unfortunately, I'm not in your neck of the woods for the ingredients but we do have Jungle Jim's! So, I should be able to find everything I need...

Dre

 

[garylkoh]

Dre,

even we buy rare and hard-to-get ingredients from http://www.asiansupermarket365.com/Default.asp

 

[Ronm1]

Amir,

there's the Asian Food Mart .

We have a similar Mart in our area.
Size of a super Walmart. Hundreds of mirin, soy, chili paste, etc choices and I'm on the short end. One interesting dept is an Asian/French bakery. Never mind the noodle choices. Bags of rice that require a tripod and chain fall to move. I didn't know a beef rib could be cut that many different ways.

 

[jtinn]

Definitely spoiled in LA . When we moved from California to Seattle, we found the same thing. It has taken us 10+ years to finally find good chinese food. I should say Chinese food that we were used to in California.

There was a really good chinese restaurant in Bellevue that Winston Ma tool me to. I am pretty sure it was in a mall in downtown Bellevue.