Hot and sour soup? Advice please.

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Breezy

I really don't use a recipe any more, but that's basically how I do it too. Tho I usually use tree ear/cloud ear and straw mushrooms, and not black ones. And white pepper. And I hold the sugar.

IMO it wouldn't be real hot and sour without "golden needles" (aka lily buds) but those can be somewhat hard to find.

Question: how to measure a T of dry tree ear mushrooms?
 
pdswife said:
This is the recipe I used tonight... it tasted fine but...wasn't HOT and wasn't sour. What would you do to make it better? Or better yet..what is your favorite recipe?

Thanks, Trish

Hot-and-Sour Soup with Shrimp

Ingredients
8 ounces fresh peeled and deveined shrimp ( I had a little more)
3-1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 of a 15-ounce jar whole straw mushrooms, drained, or one 6-ounce jar sliced mushrooms, drained ( I love mushrooms so used both)
1/4 cup rice vinegar or white vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 ounces firm, silken-style tofu cut into small size pieces
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold water
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup shredded carrot
3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
1 egg, beaten



In a large saucepan
mix chicken broth, mushrooms, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, carrots and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer, covered for 2 minutes. Stir in the shrimp and the tofu. Return to boiling, reduce the heat. Simmer covered, for 1 minute more.

2. Stir together cornstarch and cold water; stir into the chicken broth mixture. Cook and stir until slightly thickened . Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Stir in peas, and green onion. Pour egg into the soup in a steady stream, stirring a few times to create shreds.

let me consult Chef or my Chef's cookbook.
 
Verablue - what do you mean by "hot pepper sauce"? What type of Chinese "hot pepper sauce" do you mean? Every single recipe I have for Hot & Sour Soup calls for amounts of ground pepper (either black, white, or Szechuan, depending on the province the recipe is from) for the "hot" (with possibly a garnish of hot sesame oil), & vinegar for the "sour". I'm confused by what you mean by pepper "sauce". While the Chinese do use chili paste & chili/garlic paste, neither one is an ingredient in Hot & Sour Soup - either the Northern Chinese or Southern Chinese versions. You don't mean Tabasco, do you?:)

Jennyema - the dry cloud ear mushrooms I buy come in small pieces. It's easy to measure them by the spoonful. After soaking they quadruple in size. As for the tiger lily buds (aka "golden needles"), while my mom usually sends them to me from her local Asian grocery store in NY, they're also available at Asian grocers here in VA as well as Asian suppliers online. They last virtually forever in an airtight container in the pantry.
 
My tree/cloud ears come in pieces the size of a quarter or larger. I hydrate them and then chop if they are too big.

The Whole Foods nearby sometimes has them fresh for a gazillion dollars.

I also admit to using a lot more tree ears and "golden needles" than you do because I love them so much:-p
 
I know it's kind of old, but I've been wanting to make it for a long time. I wish we had chineese stores here. We do have some asian markets, but they are just not as good as ones in NY or San Francisko.
 
Hi Breezy, your recipe sounds really good and close to the one I saw published in Epicurous. Can you or Jennyema explain what the tiger lily pods/buds add to the soup. What are they?

Also do you need to use all types of mushrooms (tree ears and dried shitake) or can you just use dried shitake, it seems they are much easier to find.

Chopstix,

Thanks for the black vinegar tip. I actually found it at a farmer market that a lot of Asians, Indians and Europeans shop at (it has all sorts of amazing stuff that is hard to find) but I did not know what to use it for. Now I will buy some and use it in this soup.
 
The "Golden Needles" - aka tiger or daylily buds - are just what their name says - they're the dried buds of tiger or daylilies. Soaked to rehydrate, they're added to many soups & stirfries for textural interest more than anything else. If you can't locate them (although they're readily available online - just do a search on "dried lily buds"), you can easily omit them.

You can also just use fresh or dried rehydrated shitake mushrooms if you can't find woodears (another easy item found online).

To be honest, the seasonings are more important than the individual ingredients. When I have a hankering for this soup, I just use whatever I happen to have on hand. Luckily, dried shitakes, dried tiger lily buds, & woodears last virtually forever in the pantry, so I nearly always have those around.
 
I went to asian market today and actually bought all of the above ingredients, not the vinegar. Now I have to find out if any of them are kosher. That could be a chalange, o well.
 
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