Hot and Sour soup is the best take out soup. I, especially, love the crunchiness of the wood ear mushrooms and bamboo shoots. They add so much depth to the already scrumptious classic soup.
Ingredients:
- 2 medium tomatoes (diced into small cubes)
- 3 oz carrot (cut into strips)
- 1/2 king oyster mushroom (cut into strips)
- 3 pieces of shiitake mushrooms (cut into thin slices)
- 0.3 oz dried wood ear mushrooms (rehydrate according to package instructions and cut into thin slices)
- 2 eggs ( beaten)
- 2 stalks of scallions (chopped into small pieces)
- 2 dried chili peppers
- 450 ml firm tofu (cut into thin strips)
- 3 oz bamboo shoots (cut into strips, if dried then rehydrated according to package instructions)
Others:
- 5 cups of chicken stock
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce ( to add the deeper color)
- Cornstarch slurry (2 tbsp cornstarch and 3 tbsp water)
- 1-2 tsp sesame oil or to taste
- 1 tbsp of oil
Instructions:
- Heat up the soup pot, add oil and dried chili peppers. Toss peppers for 1 min. then discard the chili. The purpose is to add subtle spicy flavor to the soup but not too much.
- Secret Ingredient: add diced tomatoes for that extra layer of tartness. Cook for 1 min. then add chicken stock.
- Pro-tip: now add white pepper and stir for 30 seconds because adding it before the cornstarch slurry will allow white pepper to mix evenly across the soup base.
- Add salt, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and stir for 30 seconds.
- Then add tofu, king oyster mushroom, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, carrot and bamboo shoots. Stir for 10 seconds.
- Cover soup pot with a lid, once it is boiling in 5-6 min., add cornstarch slurry slowly (over 20 seconds) and stir at the same time constantly.
- Then add beaten eggs slowly over 30 seconds, no stirring needed.
- Add vinegar and sesame oil. Pro-tip: adding vinegar at the end so its pungency will not be wasted by boiling it away.
- Garnish with scallions.
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