Hot & Sour Soup
This is a Chinese soup and comes from a friend who is Chinese Malay, and it comes touted as the best and easiest, and it certainly is! I made this on 5 Sep 2022, and the family absolutely loved this! Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons corn starch, for the slurry
- 3 tablespoons cold water, for the slurry
- 2 cups chicken broth, fresh or from powder, Shortcut
- 1½ cups water
- 250 grams soft tofu, cut into strips, (8 oz)
- 250 grams fresh white button mushrooms, (8 oz)
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2½ tablespoons rice vinegar, or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce, mainly for color
- 3 dashes white pepper powder, or to taste
- 1 egg, beaten
- chili oil, for spiciness, optional, to taste
- red pepper flakes, for spiciness, optional, to taste
Instructions
- Prep the mushrooms by cutting off the stems and quarter the caps.
- Next, we need to make the thickening slurry, mix the corn starch with the 3 tablespoons of cold water until well blended and no lumps. In another bowl, beat the egg. Set both of these aside.
- Next, in a small bowl, add the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and rice vinegar, stir to mix. Set this aside.
- In a large sauce pan, add the broth and 1½ cups water, bring to a boil then add the mushrooms and tofu and let boil for 2 minutes. (I did not have tofu on hand and simply omitted that, still worked perfectly.)
- Stir the soy sauce mixture into the soup, and season with a few dashes of white pepper or to taste. Give the slurry another stir then stir that into the soup, continue stirring until just slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat but leave on the same burner.
- Now gently stir the soup in one direction, and pour the beaten egg into soup in a gently stir and count to 10. Then using the handle end of a spoon or fork, or a pair of chop sticks, stir the soup in the same direction for 3 complete circular motions, this makes the nice egg threads in the soup. Season to taste with chili oil or flakes if desired.
- Now the soup is done, ladle into bowls and serve.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcut: Chicken Broth.
Variant: 1. No tofu? No worries, substitute some cooked white beans or chickpeas, or add more mushrooms, or simply omit.