Szechuan Hot & Sour Soup

Szechuan Hot & Sour Soup (15 Mar 2012)

 
I'd like to call this soup an Asian version of a minestrone. It provides all the nutrition you need in a meal, but still taste heavenly. If you have a very Asian kitchen like mine, you'd bound to have the basic ingredients for this recipe. I knew I had a packet of dried lily buds somewhere in my kitchen, but I gave up finding it as I was getting hungry!

What's more, you can choose to do the quickie 15 minutes soup or the 2 hours full recipe! As you already know, I love to cook from scratch but don't worry, for this recipe I've used both methods. I understand how demotivated it must feel if you have to boil chicken stock for a couple of hours just to serve yourself!

For a vegetarian version, omit the garlic and meat. You could use mushroom stock to replace the chicken stock.

Szechuan Hot & Sour Soup Recipe (for 4 rice bowl)

Ingredients:

100g pork,cut into 1 inch strips

4 Chinese mushrooms

1 piece of black fungus

A handful of lilybuds 

1/2 cup of bamboo shoots (optional)

1 box of silken tofu

2 slices of ginger

1 clove of garlic, minced
2-3 dried chilli

Pork Marinade:

1 tsp cornflour

1/2 tsp rice wine

A dash of salt & pepper

Seasoning:

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp of rice vinegar

1 tbsp of black vinegar

Cornstarch

1 Egg, lightly beaten

Stock:

Quick version - Mix well 2 tbsp of chicken stock powder to 1 rice bowl of water

 Normal version - Use 1 chicken carcass with 3 inch of white radish and boil for 1 1/2 hours.

Garnishing:

Scallions, sliced thinly

Chilli oil (optional)

Method:

1. Soak Chinese mushrooms, black fungus and lily buds into hot water until they turn soft.
2. Meanwhile, marinade pork until ready to cook.
3. Slice mushrooms and black fungus thinly. Wash lilybuds and cut off its hard tip. Wash & remove seeds from dried chilli.
4. Remove tofu from box and cut it into 1 inch strips.
5. Prepare chicken stock early if you are making your own stock. Otherwise, prepare the quick version. 
6. In a pot, add a tsp of oil and saute ginger & garlic. Add in pork and stirfry until half cook. Put in the rest of ingredients except tofu. Stir fry until fragrant. Add soy sauce and continue to fry for 1 minute.
7. Add 4 rice bowls of  chicken stock (quick - 1 bowl of stock + 3 bowls of water)
8. Add tofu and bring to boil. Pour in the rice & black vinegar. (You can use either one too)
9. Make sure that your cornstarch has a slightly thick consistency. Pour it in and stir well. Turn off the heat. Pour the egg in and stir with a chopstick. 
10. Ready to serve! Do add some la mien if you want a heartier meal!