Share YOUR Hot & Sour Soup recipe!

Cafe Society
1

It’s cold outside again, and that means it’s time for Qadgop’s Hot & Sour Soup!

Ingredients:
6 cups (one 49 oz can) of chicken broth
1 tsp MSG (may be left out if you really don’t like it, but it’s not as good)
3 tbsp soy sauce (kikkoman is okay, avoid LaChoy!!)
6 oz lean pork, cut into julienne strips
8 oz firm or extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
1/2 to 1 cup bamboo shoots, julienned (or buy pre-julienned, a real time saver!!)
6 big shiitake mushrooms, (if using dried, rehydrate first), julienned.
6 cloud ear mushrooms, rehydrated, julienned. (adds texture but no flavor, may safely omit)
4 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1 tsp ground black pepper (more for hotter, I add a tablespoon in my house!)
1/3 cup rice vinegar (NOT seasoned rice vinegar, it has sugar added! The plain stuff) More for more sour, I add about a cup myself.
1 egg, beaten
1 or 2 green onions, including tops, thinly sliced.
Smoked sesame oil

Method:
Bring the chicken broth to a simmer. While it’s heating up, throw in the MSG, soy sauce, pork, tofu, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms. Simmer gently for 15-20 minutes, then add the cornstarch/water mix, and stir until it starts to thicken. Add the pepper and rice vinegar, simmer for another minute or two, then remove from heat and immediately add the beaten egg slowly, while stirring.

You may serve now, or later. I like to wait a few hours with the soup just below simmering on the stove, and let the tofu take on the flavor of the broth. But when you’re ready, ladle it into a bowl, and garnish with sliced green onions and several drops of smoked sesame oil.

Who else has hot & sour soup recipes?

2

Damn you, Qadgop! I now have drool running down my chin. The best I ever made came from a Martin Yan cookbook. Yours looks pretty darn good.

Must make Hot and Sour Soup soon.

3

Well, I’m not near as precise in my work, but I prefer Hot pepper sesame oil and lime juice to achieve the hot and sour effect.

base of chicken, fish or vegetable broth
cook “hard” veggies such as carrots or onion, plus fresh lemon grass stalks till mostly tender.

add protein: fish, chicken, tofu what have you, plus mushrooms, and simmer while adding pepper oil and lime juice to taste usually a tablespoon at a time, but I like it HOT.
A fun variation is to use half stock and half coconut milk, I usually tone down the hot and sour bit for that, hmmm

4
  1. Go to Szechwan Restaurant in Manhattan Beach.
  2. Order bowl of hot & sour soup. :wink:

Seriously, it’s the best H&S I can find in the entire Southern California area. If I didn’t live so far away, I’d go there all the time.

5

I try to stay out of these, but I really like this recipe:

Ingredients:

1 gal. vegetable stock (+ 2 quarts hot water handy on the stove to add as needed)
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 cup rice wine
1Tbl powdered lemon grass
1 Tbl chili paste (I like the kind that’s chili & water & nothing else)
1 Tbl coarse black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup molasses (brown sugar not quite but almost as good - use 1/3 cup)
1 bunch green onion, chopped
2 cups mushrooms (whatever I can get, even canned) thinly sliced
1 6oz. can bamboo shoots, julienned
1/2 pound tofu, sliced, grilled, and julienned (I like the texture better that way)
3 cups julienned carrots
1 pound bean sprouts
8 cups finely shredded/chopped green and red cabbage (I often just buy bags of cole slaw veggies to save time)
3 eggs

So far, this is acceptable to my mostly vegetarian daughter. For her, I might also add some canned chick-peas. If she’s not an issue, I use chicken rather than vegetable stock and one or more of the following:

2 cups cooked pork or ham, diced or julienned

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1 pound shrimp, any size.

Procedure:

Heat some oil in the soup pot. Add ginger, garlic, lemon grass powder and pepper, give them a few seconds to “bloom,” then add cabbage. Stir constantly until volume reduces by about two-thirds. Add chili paste, molasses, rice wine and vinegar. Keep stirring. Add tofu, green onion, carrots, bamboo shoots and if you’re using pork and/or chicken, add them too. Add the stock and 1 quart of hot water. From this point the total volume of the soup should stay pretty much constant. Keep the remaining water hot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add sliced mushrooms. Simmer up to an hour. Taste for seasoning: add either salt or soy sauce as needed. Additional pepper, chili paste and vinegar is also possible at this point, adding other seasonings may lengthen cooking time. Beat eggs in a glass or bowl. Temper the eggs by slowly adding some hot broth and then add the tempered egg mixture to the soup and stir to thicken (one of the things I like best about this soup is that nobody minds if you end up with some cooked egg bits in the bowl because they’re used to seeing that when they’ve had it elsewhere. But I try for smoothness). Five minutes before serving, add shrimp. Garnish with diced or thinly sliced cucumber sprinkled with vinegar and black pepper.

Oh, and if you want noodles, slice packaged won ton wrappers in 1/2-inch widths, and add them 10 minutes before serving. Plan on adding more water or stock.

6

How about a Thai Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup?

This is from Sundays at the Moosewood:

6 cups water
2 tablespoons dried lemon grass
2 large slices dried laos root
1/4 teaspoon whole peppercorns
4 makrut leaves (optional)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
10 oz. shelled shrimp
2 tablespoons nam pla (fish sauce)
1/4 cup lime juice
2 red chiles (dried or fresh)
4 scallions finely sliced
2 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro

In a large soup pot, bring to boil the water, lemon grass, laos root, peppercorns, and makrut. Simmer for 20 minutes.

In another large soup pot, heat the oil and stir fry the shrimp for a few minutes until they turn quite pink. Add the lemon grass broth directly from the other pot and return it to boil; simmer for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cilantro root and simmer for another 2 minutes, until the shrimp are done. Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice, scallions, and chopped chiles. Garnish with cilantro and serve piping hot.

I never have Laos root on hand, so I sub a lesser amount of ginger.

7

Boy howdy, I hate to admit this (after having done time with Nathalie Dupree in her cooking school) but I short-cut this dish with Knorr’s H&S mix. I add in a touch more vinegar, cubed tofu and some paperthin sliced mushrooms.

Works well enough for a quick lunch.

8

That sounds like a wonderful recipe. I’m definitely going to give it a try.

And, now that I have the ear of an expert on both Hot and Sour Soup and medicine, can I ask you for a WAG on a medical/Hot & Sour Soup curiosity?

There was a particular Chinese restaurant near campus when I was in grad school where I ate lunch a few times. Their hot and sour soup was very tasty, and I always had that as part of my luncheon combination.

As is typical, I would start my lunch with the soup, and then proceed to the entree and the egg roll (if it wasn’t horribly greasy.) About the time I finished my meal, I noted that my feet felt as if they were on fire. Picture the old-style cartoons where they have someone giving someone a hot foot by holding a flame under their foot; that’s what it felt like. Just a really hot sensation. My feet were flat on the floor, so it wasn’t involved with any “foot falling asleep” sensation from crossing my legs or sitting on one of my feet.

Any clue what in the soup could have caused this? It happened every time I ate hot and sour soup at this restaurant (which was probably about 3 times, as that was about how long it took for me to figure this out.) I always have hot and sour soup when I have soup with a Chinese food meal, and it has never happened with any other restaurant’s soup, or any other hot/spicy food I eat. I don’t think I’m msg sensitive, as my Mom cooked with it all the time when I was growing up.

9

To set your H&S soup standard level, visit this restaurant if you are in the Seattle area. It has the finest H&S soup on the planet. Sweet and tangy, with just enough heat to raise beads of sweat on your brow. It really is the best you will ever have. Seriously. When you sit down, you will remember this post and raise your skepticism and fault-detection to unheard of precision. Surely, Gargoyle must be exaggerating?

You raise the spoon like so :dubious:

…and sip…the following expressions will pass over your face… :confused: :dubious: :slight_smile: :cool: :smiley:

Then you’ll raise a toast to your good friend Gargoyle with tears of joy in your eyes. You might even name a future child after me.

T&T Restaurant

10

Your recipe looks great, Doc.

But shouldn’t the pepper be that whitish Szechwan pepper? It has a very distinct horsiness that I always associate with great hot and sour soup. When I order H&S soup at a restaurant, I usually add some more from the shaker if they haven’t been generous enough.

11

I really like the Chinese restaurant style hot & sour soup but I LOVE Thai hot & sour soup and around here it’s usually a seafood H&S soup.

I’m a regular at a local place and I asked the waitress for the recipe one time. Well, she wouldn’t give it up exactly, but she wrote down the ingredients for me:

Chile Paste
Lime
Red Onion
Lemon Grass
Lemon Leaf – Kaffir Lime Leaf
Cilantro
Mint
Hot Pepper
Swordfish
Sugar

If you’re already familiar with making H&S soup you can experiment with the amounts to get the results you want. The essence from the Kaffir Lime leaf, lemon grass & mint seem to be the secret ingredients that make this one good. The key seems to be “essence” of things, so go easy.

In place of swordfish I go with a bag of frozen assorted seafood which includes shrimp, octopus, squid, scallops etc. The waitress wrote down swordfish, but their soup usually includes a variety of interesting seafood items.

12

I’ve made it that way, but after trying it with black pepper one time, I found the amount of white pepper needed to deliver the heat altered the flavor in a slightly less pleasing way. Not bad, but not as happy. Then I ran out of white szechwan pepper, and never got around to replacing it.

Lotsa nifty tips in this thread! I need to experiment with my next batch!!

I’ve done the hot sesame oil too, and it’s yummy. I’ve also made it with chicken, but we just like the pork more here.

13

YWalker, if your meal contained no fugu (and its neurotoxin) then I have no clue!

14

I recall an old cartoon from National Lampoon: A Chinese chef is standing outside the back door to the kitchen holding a pot under the chin of a wino slumped down in the alley. He says to a waiter who is leaning out the door: “You tell roundeye faggot Yankee he just have to wait for his hot and sour soup!”

15

Here’s my kick at the can:

1/4 lb BBQ pork (or shrimp)(or both)
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp sherry
1/2 cup water
1/2 a brick of firm tofu, cubed small
4 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp chili oil (or less if a wuss like me)
2 tsp sesame oil
2 green onions, sliced
1 litre chicken stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 beaten egg
a few sliced mushrooms
1 julienned carrot

Prep the veggies and tofu. Combine vinegar, chili oil,sesame oil in wee bowl and set aside. In another bowl,stir cornstarch and water together. Add stock,sherry and soy sauce to pot and bring to simmer.Add mushrooms,tofu,carrots and pork/shrimp-simmer 10 minutes. Add cornstarch mixture to broth, lower heat and stir to thicken. Add vinegar/oil mix and stir.Slowly stir in beaten egg, then top with green onion. Make sure the egg cooks-about 1 minute. Eat like a god.

The coconut milk variations sound damn fine.

16

I just want to say that I actually prefer La Choy soy sauce to Kikkomans.

Of course I usually use the stuff from the asian store that’s written in Chinese so I dont’ know what it’s called.

17

I love hot and sour soup. I know this isn’t so much sharing a recipe, but the Kikkoman Chinese Egg Flower Hot and Sour Soup Mix does the trick in a pinch. And all you need is hot water and an egg!

I really need to try some of these recipes, though.

18

I was going to mention that cartoon.

19

I’m all over this this weekend, thanks!