Hot-Sour Soup
By: Anonymous
Published: Friday, February 12, 2010 - 2:43pm

Ingredients




3 Or
4 Dried black mushrooms
pound Lean pork
2 Bean curd cubes
1 Scallion
1 Egg
2 tablespoons Cornstarch
cup Water
5 cups Stock (see recipe)
1 cup Mushroom soaking liquid
1 tablespoon Sherry
2 tablespoons White vinegar
-(up to)
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Soy sauce
teaspoon Pepper
3 dshs Sesame oil, more or less

Preparation

1 Soak dried mushrooms. Reserve soaking liquid. 2 Sliver mushrooms, pork and bean curd. Mince scallion. Beat egg lightly. Blend cornstarch and cold water to a paste. 3 Bring stock and mushroom-soaking liquid to a boil. Add pork and mushrooms and simmer, covered, 10 minutes. 4 Add bean curd and simmer, covered, 3 minutes more. 5 Stir in sherry, vinegar, salt, soy sauce and pepper. Thicken with cornstarch paste. 6 Slowly add beaten egg, stirring gently once or twice. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with sesame oil and minced scallion. 7 VARIATIONS: For the pork, use half white-meat chicken and half pork. 8 For the white vinegar, substitute wine or cider vinegar, or lemon juice. 9 For the sesame oil, substitute Tabasco Sauce. 10 In step 3, add with pork and mushrooms, 1/2 cup bamboo shoots, slivered; or 4 cloud-ear mushrooms and 1/4 cup lily buds (both soaked and cut in half). 11 Omit vinegar and pepper. (It's then called "Mandarin Soup.")