Eat.Drink.Man.Woman - Hot & Sour Soup

December 17th, 2005

All of the festive cooking and eating for the holidays has left me feeling stuffed, bloated and with a few unwelcome pounds. Earlier this week I decided to make a conscious effort to eat lighter and healthier for a change, as I have been junkin’ it up BIG time since Thanksgiving. My plan is to lay off of the bad carbs for a bit, well until Christmas at least, and focus more on lean protein and increasing my water consumption. I’m even thinking of transitioning to a low-carb way of eating after the holidays are over.

Now that the cold weather seems to have finally settled in for a bit this is the perfect time for one of my favourite Asian dishes, Chinese Hot & Sour Soup. I absolutely adore this soup, which also happens to be low carb. Whenever I venture out for Chinese I almost always have a small bowl of this soup as an appetizer. Today I decided it would be a good choice for a light and healthy dinner to enjoy while watching The Joy Luck Club and one of my favourite foodie movies, Eat Drink Man Woman (both excellent, I highly recommend).

Feeling a bit adventurous, I opted to try my hand at making a pot on my own rather than the usual restaurant takeaway. My only dilemma was which recipe to use. A couple of my cookbooks have recipes and I found several others on the Web. While most are quite similar, I decided to try this one from Epicurious. Of course I did my usual tweaking to make the soup a bit more robust for my taste, but for the most part I was faithful to the recipe … well, the ingredients at least. Of course the recipe will still taste delicious as-is, but my adaptation includes these changes:

1. 1 lb. of pork loin instead of 5 oz.
2. 2 tbs. of soy sauce on the pork instead of 2 tsp.
3. Stir-fried the pork loin for about 5 minutes instead of 1.
4. Combined the chicken stock and pork, simmered for about 25 min.
5. 12 medium dried shiitake mushrooms instead of black ones.
6. Added 8 oz. thickly sliced button mushrooms.
7. An entire 20-oz. can of Bamboo shoot (strips).
8. Only used rice wine vinegar, about 1/2 cup.
9. 4 14-oz. cans of chicken broth instead of 4 cups.
10. Added the soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms, about 3 cups.
11. Added 1 cup of scallions (green onions) into the soup pot at the end.
12. 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites, instead of 2 whole eggs.
13. Used 2 tsp. black pepper instead of 1.5 tsp. white.
14. 2 tbs. of Asian sesame oil instead of 2 tsp.
15. 3 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion greens per bowl.
16. 3 tablespoons fresh diced cilantro leaves per bowl.
17. Added 1 to 2 tsp. of Thai hot sauce (Sriracha) to each bowl.*

*Didn’t want to risk adding too much heat to the entire pot since I’m not the only one eating it. Aren’t I considerate?

That’s pretty much it, I think. Wow, 17 changes. I didn’t realise I modified the recipe that much. Oh well, oh well. It’s all good. I had fun and the soup is delicious. Now I’m off to enjoy it, my movies … and get cozy with a bottle of Riesling and my guest!

Filed under: Soups & Stews