Hot and Sour Soup

Name: Hot and Sour Soup
Yield: Makes 6 Servings
Cuisine: China
Ingredients: 4 scallions, both white and green parts, finely chopped; 6 tablespoons excellent wine vinegar, preferably Chinese rice vinegar or sherry vinegar, or more to taste; 5 cups chicken broth, preferably flavored with ginger and garlic; 3 tablespoons cold water; ½ teaspoon dark sesame oil; 1 tablespoon freshly ground white or black pepper or more to taste; ½ teaspoon sugar; 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce; 2 skinless and boneless chicken breast halves or 2 6- to 8-ounce rib pork chops or 10 ounces round or chuck steak; 1 tablespoon cornstarch; 6 large or 12 small dried black Chinese mushrooms or 6 medium-size cultivated mushrooms, cut into quarters; ¼ cup dried tree ears; 20 dried tiger lily stems; 1 egg, beaten; salt; 1 small cake of Japanese tofu, cut into ¼-inch cubes

Preparation info

Makes
6
Servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Splendid Soups

By James Peterson

Published 2000

About

A word of warning: once you’ve tasted this soup, you’ll never be satisfied with restaurant versions again. And your friends—even Chinese food aficionados—will be amazed by it.

What makes this version of hot and sour soup so wonderful is the quality of the ingredients and the use of much less cornstarch than usually encountered in restaurants. Other than the obvious hot and sour tastes, most of the flavor comes from the Chinese mushrooms. Don’t panic at the list of ingredients. First

Ingredients

Asia
China
Soup
Spicy

Ingredients

Method