Time for our monthly Mike vs Jeff challenge again! What are we competing on this time? Hint: Winter is coming 🙂 it’s a soup challenge. I’m going to challenge Mike’s chicken and mushroom soup with my hot sour soup! Although there are so many kind of soups, I love hearty soups with passion! I am a die-hard soup fan who is deeply in love with pottage such as Taiwanese squid pottage, Taiwanese meat pottage, or thickened soup like hot and sour soup! Everytime I go to a Cantonese Eastern and Western Restaurant, which is a special kind of fusion restaurant that is popular in Hong Kong, I enjoy the soup they serve in the beginning of a meal which opens up my appetite, especially when it’s a hearty style soup!
Although growing up in Taiwan, I have tried so many different kind of soups, but I had never tried chowder or cream type of soup until coming to America. The rich and creaminess of the soup is simply indescribable! Soups such as cream of mushroom, cream of broccoli, are very rare in Asia because it requires hand blender to make them. This is not a typical cooking process we have in our culture. I remembered after I had my first cream of mushroom. I’ve been dying to find out how to make it. Without researching online, I bought home a pack of mushroom and stew for a long time, hoping it will become chowder! Of course I did not make it right that first time. However, with the proper technique and knowledge after researching online, I have made several successful chowders and cream type of soups! My corn chowder is now my friends favorite, they demand it every single time! Maybe we can do that dish another time, with a Chinese spin to it.
In order to challenge Mike, a soup with great contrast to his dish is needed. I’m making my Chinese hearty soup – hot sour soup for this challenge. It’s rich and full of different ingredients. Compare to 5 ingredients in his chicken soup, I have approx. 15 ingredients. Unlike the light soup he has, mine is thick and strong in flavor. It warms you up not only because it’s hot, but also because it’s hot! (haha, get it? :D)
Pork Strips ingredient
- 1 cup of pork strips
- 1 tbsp of cornstarch
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of water
Filling ingredient
- 1 box of tofu (medium to firm)
- 1 cup of carrots shredded
- 1 cup of black fungus
- 1 cup of bamboo shoots
- 1 cup of enokitake mushrooms
- 2 eggs
Soup base ingredient
- 4 cup of chicken broth
- 4 cup of water
- 4 tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of white pepper
- ½ cup of rice vinegar
Thickening ingredient
- ⅓ cup of water
- ⅓ cup of cornstarch
First, cut the all the ingredients, bamboo shoots, tofu, carrot, enokitake, pork and black fungus, into strips. The black fungus needs to be soaked in water for 15 minutes to reconstitue. Marinate your pork strips with 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of cornstarch, and 1 tbsp of water for about 15 min. The trick here is that once you marinate your pork you can start making the soup. By the time you put in pork, it’ll be about 15 min already!
Now the truth needs to be told. The redness of hot sour soup is not from red chili pepper but actually derived from carrots! The spicy agent of this soup is from the white pepper, which we will add at the very last stage. We want to extract the red color from the carrots into soups so heat up a pan and stir fry your shredded carrots with 2 tbsp of oil at high heat for 1 min. Take a look at the color of the oil, it’s red now!
Add the chicken broth and water to the pan. If you don’t have chicken broth. Water only will work just fine! Since the soup is sour and spicy, normally you won’t feel the soup is plain even with water only.
Use 4 tbsp of soy sauce to get the “amber” color and your soup base is ready!
Add in the rest of the ingredients except eggs and bring it to boil, stir carefully because tofu is very fragile. If you are afraid to break your tofu strips (I’m sure it’s not that easy to make them into strips!), you can use firm tofu so it won’t break that easily!
It is very important to thicken the soup first before adding in the egg. If you have enough time to make two different pot of soup to compare, you’ll see why. Thickening the soup first will make the result of egg better. The process is called 打蛋花, “making the egg flower”.
Add vinegar and white pepper in a separate container, mix evenly before you pour the soup into that container. We want to mix the vinegar at the very last step. The reason is that the sourness will go away if you heat it for too long. If you want to simplify the steps. You can turn off the heat and then add the vinegar and white pepper, just remember to turn off the heat first and mix your vinegar and pepper before you combine them! Once the soup is thickened, it’s hard to dissolve any powder substance.
Now it’s done. Just add a pinch of cilantro. Enjoy your hot and sour soup!
Recipe box
- 1 cup of pork strips
- 1 tbsp of cornstarch
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of water
- 1 box of tofu (medium to firm)
- 1 cup of carrots shredded
- 1 cup of black fungus
- 1 cup of bamboo shoots
- 1 cup of enokitake mushrooms
- 2 eggs
- 4 cup of chicken broth
- 4 cup of water
- 4 tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of white pepper
- ½ cup of rice vinegar
- ⅓ cup of water
- ⅓ cup of cornstarch
- Shred all ingredients into stripes
- Marinate the pork with 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of starch and 1 tbsp of water
- Heat up a pan at medium heat, add 2 tbsp of oil, stir fry shredded carrots for 1 min until the color goes into the oil
- add 4 cup of chicken broth and 4 cup of water, bring to boil
- Add 4 tbsp of soy sauce to the soup for the right color
- Add black fungus, bamboo shoots, enokitake, meat and tofu to the pan
- Once it’s boil again, mix cornstarch and water evenly. Add cornstarch/water mixture to the pan, stir continuously until the soup turn translucent again
- After the soup is thickened, beat 2 egg and slowly add to the soup while stirring, mix well
- In your container, add ½ cup of rice vinegar and 2 tbsp of white pepper, mix well
- Add the soup to container
- Ready to serve