hot and sour soup

I caught a cold. I’m just glad I’m already bunkered at home. The ways things are currently, an achoo outside of my house may send people fainting or running away from me in a panic. No fever or aches. Just a crummy congested head and sometimes runny nose.

The last time I had a cold was when I was in Florida for my cousin’s wedding last spring. I didn’t sleep well being stationed directly next to the freezing AC and I was camping out with relatives that were night owls. They hooted til dawn.

I have my go to soups that restore me back to health: matzo ball soup, egg drop soup, and hot and sour soup. The Chinese soups I learned how to make. They are EASY to prepare even when you’re feeling SEMI-BLAH. When I’m not feeling great, the last thing I want to deal with is people. You probably have many of the ingredients for hot and sour soup in your kitchen already. I’ve not yet tried making matzo ball soup. If you have a recipe, do share.

Hot and sour soup is surprisingly hearty considering it only requires TWO dried shiitake mushrooms and a few pieces of black fungi mushroom. My friends thought I used more than two shiitake mushrooms. Nope! Soak them for a few hours and they EXPAND. My shiitake was heart shaped when it was hydrated. Pretty!

After slicing the mushrooms, you slice soft tofu and put that aside. Then you slice up some other protein to marinate in soy sauce and corn starch and put that aside. The first time I made hot and sour soup, I used ground turkey. The second time, I used shrimp and some leftover pork belly. It would taste just as good if egg and tofu were it for protein. The recipe called for TWO eggs which I beat and put aside. The fanciest part of the recipe was making the soy sauce seasonings which used dark soy sauce AND regular soy sauce and a mix of salt, sugar, and corn starch. And fancy yet easy part two of seasonings is a separate mix of white pepper and vinegar. I used seasoned rice vinegar. I didn’t have their specific chinese vinegar.

After preparing the lineup of ingredients, cooking time is FAST. The bulk of time goes to prepping the lineup of ingredients. When you’re ready for game time or cook time, everything moves quickly. Here’s the exact video I learned how to make hot and sour soup from:

The recipe was called Better Than Takeout Hot and Sour Soup and it didn’t disappoint. I have both chicken and beef broths in powder form for ease. I used beef broth for this soup, And I used powdered ginger in place of fresh ginger. My substitutions worked. Follow this woman and check out her channel.

Now off to nurse my sniffle and to enjoy my soup. Stay well everyone. If you get a sniffle, don’t fret that you’re going to die. Take your vitamins, drink juice, and make soup!

JNET