Hot and Sour soup.

[jeff]

This recipe is for two small bowls.

This is a very easy to make dish, at least, if you have an asian market handy.
thankfully the rare to us items come dried so once you buy them they can be stored for years.

What you need.

2 cups water
1TBS corn starch made into a slurry (mix with water to form slurry)
1 part tofu sliced however you like
1 part dried lilly flower http://grocerythai.com/images/51021.jpg
1 part dried fungi http://www.wildaboutmushrooms.co.uk/...trip_large.jpg (look for a bag that has strips of black stuff) there's no name on the bag, just chinese writing.
1 part bamboo
about 1 and 1/2 TBS of white vinegar or better yet chinkiang vinegar.
about 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 egg beaten
salt to taste
ground white pepper to taste
green onion for topping

Start off by heating some water in a pan, add the dried items (fungi/lilly flower) to the water for 1-2 minutes or until soft. remove from heat and drain. place on a plate next to the sliced tofu, and sliced bamboo.

put your soy and vinegar in a little dish, as with corn starch. the idea is to have everything ready to go.

Get out a bowl and beat one egg.

place everything next to your cooking pot. don't forget the salt and ground white pepper.

Heat up cups of water just to a boil.
add in the soy/vinegar and corn start slurry, make sure you mix the corn starch slurry right before using it! Keep an eye on the thickness of the soup, if needed add more corn starch to thicken it more, or add more water if it's too thick. As soon as it's at the thickness you would like, add the egg, pour the egg as if you were making a ring, just pour it around in a circle,don't mix it in right away or it will mix into the soup changing the color and texture, let it firm up and then mix it in so it mixes in as chunks of egg. As soon as that's mixed in add the bamboo, fungi, flower, and tofu. Add a dash of salt, and a good bit of white pepper, give it a taste, if you want it more spicy add more pepper. Also if needed add more vinegar and soy.

pour soup into a bowl and top with some green onions.

a few notes.

When ever you're cooking anything, try to get out everything you need a head of time and have everything setup and ready to go, you'll noticed in the pictures I... forgot the egg. DOH! if i checked off my list before cooking I would have caught the fact that I was missing a beaten egg. There for... no egg in the pictures =) my bad....

Also, If using white vinegar, the dark soy sauce is used more so for color then anything else. If using white vinegar you might have to bump up the amount used. Chinkiang vinegar has a better flavor but is dark. If using Chinkiang vinegar (found in asian markets) you wont need as much soy sauce. just use your eyes and taste buds to get the soup to the color, and taste you want.

Again these pictures do not have egg in them. yay me....

[jeff]

././.