Name: West Lake Beef Soup
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon salt; 4 cups unseasoned chicken stock; 1½ teaspoons Shaoxing wine or medium-dry sherry; ½ teaspoon sugar; 1 tablespoon water; 6 ounces beef, rump or fillet, trimmed and cut across the grain into rectangular slices about ½x 1¼ inches and ¼ inch thick; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 1 teaspoon sesame oil; 1 bunch, about 4 ounces, watercress, trimmed, washed, and well drained; ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste; 1 small egg white; 2 teaspoons cornstarch; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; 2 teaspoons thin soy sauce

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Homestyle Chinese Cooking

By Yan-Kit So

Published 1997

About

This soup purports to celebrate the picturesque and most famous lake in China, the West Lake, not too far away from Shanghai. To be absolutely correct, a small amount of only the leaves of watercress should float on the soup’s misty surface, which is caused by the use of egg white. But I have used the stalk of the watercress as well because I don’t see any point in wasting such a precious and delicious vegetable. If there is no watercress, just use some individual leaves of cilantro, good f