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From: abel@vax.sonoma.edu (dan abel)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking,rec.food.veg
Subject: Recipe: Hot & Sour Soup
Date: 1 Jul 92 22:22:31 GMT
Organization: Sonoma State University

HOT AND SOUR SOUP
=================

If you want a real, authentic Hot & Sour Chinese soup, go look it up
in a cookbook.  This is my version, distilled from several recipies,
but missing several ingredients that I'm sure some would say were
absolutely esential.  The quantities below are approximate, and you
should vary them to suit you.  I had this last night, and my wife was
surprised that the kids each ate three bowls, instead of the stuff
*she* made (I liked the stuff she made, but I had three bowls of the
soup in addition to her stuff).

2 T oil
2-3 oz. fresh mushrooms
6-8 c. stock
fresh ginger (size of US quarter, 3/4 inch round, 1/8 inch thick)
small can of sliced bamboo shoots (3 oz?), cut lengthwise into three, drained
8 oz. tofu (or a package), sliced 2" X 1/4" X 1/4", drained
2 T vinegar
2 T soy sauce
1/4 t white pepper
Tabasco sauce or chili oil (optional)
3 T corn starch
3 T water
1 egg, beaten (eliminate for vegans)
2 green onions, cut into thin circles
1 T chinese-style dark sesame oil

Slice the mushrooms and saute with oil in the soup pot (you can
eliminate fat by just tossing the mushrooms in the stock without
sauteing them, but they shrink something awful!).  Add the stock (I
used ch****n, which is traditional, but this is cross-posted to
rec.food.veg, so I can't say that).  Most people will want the stock
to have salt, but remember that the soy sauce is salty.  Add the
ginger, heat to a boil, and simmer gently for 20 minutes.  At some
point you may wish to discard the ginger so some unsuspecting soul
doesn't bite into it and get a mouthful of heat.  You may wish to do
the rest differently, but my wife is always in the kitchen preparing
another last-minute dish, so I like to get all my ingredients
together and ready.  Get five small bowls.  Put the vinegar, soy
sauce, ground white pepper and (optional) hot sauce in one and mix.
Put the corn starch and water in the next and mix.  Put the
(optional) egg in the next and beat lightly.  Put the green onion in
the next, and the tofu and matchstick-cut bamboo shoots in the last.
A few minutes before you are ready to eat, turn the heat to medium.
Add the tofu and bamboo shoots and wait until heated.  Add the soy
sauce mixture, heat until boiling.  Stir corn starch mixture and add
to rapidly boiling soup.  Boil for a long minute until it thickens.
Reduce heat.  If using egg, stir the soup in one direction until it's
moving pretty well.  Dribble the egg in, forming long strands.  Let
the strands firm (20 seconds).  Add sesame oil and stir.  You can
float the green onions on top, or stir them in.  Serve, with chili
oil available for those who like it hotter.


FROM:  Terri Huggett <huggett@sequent.com>

Saved from the net.  Don't know if all the ingredients are easy to
find.  Hope it helps.

Terri Huggett
huggett@sequent.com
----------------------------

From: harkins@iraq.crd.ge.com (Cynthia K. Harkins)