Hot and Sour Soup
Hot and sour soup is a very common dish in both Taiwan and China. People usually have fried or plain dumplings with hot and sour soup. The sourness of this soup is very good for one’s appetite and my mother use to tell me when I got flu that it will go away quicker if I drink a lot of this soup when I was young.
I don’t know if it’s true or not but I think drinking a lot of hot fluid is good for your body when you catch the flu, right? But please go to doctor if you catch flu or don’t feel well.
The Eastern way to cook soup and western way to cook soup are so different. Most of the western ways to cook this soup are to puree the soup to make it really smooth and soft but in eastern people usually like chunks of meat, fish and vegetables in their soup that they actually can see it. I have to cook a few different kinds of “western soup” when I work and it’s a precious experience for me because I can learn western cooking during work and learn eastern cooking from my family or learn it by myself in my personal time. It’s always fun to learn new things, don’t you think?
Credit: These photos were taken by Chris at Chris Radley Photography
Hot and Sour Soup
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 ltr chicken stock
- 80 g pork loin
- 10 wood ears soak in warm water for 15 minutes to soften then julienne
- 1 medium carrot julienne it
- 300 g fresh tofu drain the water and cut into 5cm strips
- 2 eggs beaten
Marinade for pork
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp potato starch
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp rice wine
Seasonings
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1.5 tbsp dark rice vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp normal rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp potato starch
Instructions
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Marinade the pork for 15 minutes.
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Boil a pot of water to blanch pork, carrot, wood ear and tofu then leave it on aside.
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Boiled the chicken stock and add all the ingredients from step 2 to bring it to boil again.
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Add soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt into the soup, then mix the potato starch with a little bit water first (Remember the potato starch with water must be mix evenly and without any lumps) and add into the soup to make it look a bit dense and sticky.
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Turn the gas power to lowest heat and pour the egg into the soup. Stir the soup gently after 30 second and turn off the gas.
I love hot and sour soup. Growing up it was our staple soup when dining out at a Chinese restaurant–it’s the slight tartness that I always enjoyed. 🙂
This is the prettiest hot and sour soup I have ever seen:)
lol. Thank you for your comment.
I love hot and sour soup. Your food always looks amazing!
Hi Lisa,
Many thanks for your kind comment. 🙂
I love hot and sour soup and always order it at my favorite Chinese restaurant, though I may need to give it a try.
Hello Sharlene,
Hot and sour soup is really easy to make and it’s so quick to make as well. I hope you will enjoy my recipe 😉
Hi Liv
I like the eastern way better, I like seeing chunks of meats and veggies in my soup…..this sounds so good too! and as usual your presentation is beautiful!
thanks so much for sharing!
Dennis
Hello Dennis,
Many thanks for your kind comment. I agree with you I love my soup with chunks of meats and veggies in my soup. Have a nice day.
I agree Liv, we like to eat the soup with chuck and we can see what it’s in there 🙂 I like this soup a lot especially when I get a free complimentary from a restaurant haha. Love the color of the bowls too!
Hi Tanantha,
lol thanks for your comment. I love free complimentary from a restaurant as well. Especially some Chinese restaurant here always give people free soup (Mon-Wed) so I always love to go to those restaurant during this time.
Hi Liv, what a lovely presentation. I don’t mind having the pureed soup, but the chunky ones are always the best.
Hi 5 with you. I don’t mind pureed soup but I do love my soup with chunks of meats and veggies in it. Many thanks for your lovely comment.
So fresh! I might add it to my 90 Soups challenge recipes!
The colours are gorgeous! Fantastic shots!
Hi, thanks for your comment. Have fun if you add it to your 90 soups challenge. Thanks, Liv
My mom said the same thing, She always made us drink lot of warn soup when we had flu. This is really flavorful soup and my sister is great fan of hot and sour soup. Perfect
Hi, thanks for your comment. I hope you and your sister can try making this hot and sour soup and hi5 to your mother. Thanks, Liv.
Where’s the “hot”? I love it spicy, what do you use to make it spicy?
The hot in hot and sour soup is from the black or white pepper. This dish, in China, isn’t spicy, just hot.
Hi Liv, It’s definitely a good thing to learn new things! 🙂 Your hot/sour soup looks delicious and I am saving this for another Liv-Recipe to try! I’m a fan of both chunky – Eastern soup as well as smooth – Western Soup!
Hi Judy, thank you very much. Both chunky eastern soup and smooth western soups are equally tasty but as you know very different in texture. Love them all 😀