Hot and Sour Soup

I love a good bowl of Hot and Sour Soup. I used to work at a place beside a Chinese restaurant that had the best soups. At least 2-3 times a week I would go there and eat soup for lunch. Then they changed owners and the soup was never the same. I still ordered it at other restaurants but it was either bland or so hot that all could could taste was the pepper. All that pepper would do was mask the other flavors in the soup and make my nose start running.

I have been looking for a recipe that I like for quite a while. I attempted a bunch of different recipes that I found online and they were all pretty much good, but not what I was looking for to recreate my favorite version of it. After many, many pots of soup, I finally came up with this recipe that I really like a lot.  

Hot and Sour Soup

8 cups of chicken broth (or veggie broth)

1/3 cup  soy sauce

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

2-3 tablespoons garlic chili sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper(start with the 1/2 tsp, but for extra heat add 1/4 tsp at a time--I will usually wait until the end of cooking before adding more)

1/2-3/4 cup white vinegar (again to taste)

1/2 cup canned bamboo shoots, julienned

 1/2 block of tofu, cut into 1/4 inch dice

4 tablespoons cornstarch and 4 tablespoons cold water

2 eggs, beaten

3 green onion stalks, diced (including tops)

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Bring chicken broth to a simmer in a 2-quart saucepan.

. Add soy sauce, mushrooms and garlic red chili paste, simmer 5 minutes

 Add white pepper, white vinegar, bamboo shoots, tofu, simmer 5 minutes

 Combine two tablespoons of cornstarch with two tablespoons of cold water in a cup. Stir until mixture is smooth. Add cornstarch mixture to soup and stir well.

 Simmer for five minutes until soup is thickened.

 Beat egg in a cup until yolk and white are combined. Pour beaten egg slowly, in a fine stream into soup. Stir soup several times.

 Wait 30 seconds.

 Add green onions and sesame oil to soup. Stir well. Remove from heat.

NOTES:

***This makes a pretty good size pot of soup, but it can easily be halved. I like the extras for our lunches.

(If you want to add some shredded chicken or pork, add the cooked meat at the same time as the tofu. I prefer it without the meat)

YUM!!