Hot and Sour Soup

So the soup theme continues...

My successful hot and sour soup!

When Joe gets a hankering for Chinese food, there's usually just about 3 things I like on the menu: crab rangoon, Singapore noodles, and hot and sour soup.  Lately, while he gets a big entree of lo mein noodles and General's chicken, I'll just order a large hot and sour soup and make that my dinner (usually saving leftovers for lunch the next day!).  A few years ago, I decided to make the soup at home and so went onto my friend Google to see how it's done.  I quickly ran into a huge problem: every single recipe claimed to be the real deal and every single one had drastically different ingredients.  I went through pages and pages of results. Frustrated, I finally picked a recipe that seemed to have the largest number of ingredients mentioned in other recipes.  I made the soup.  And it tasted (and looked) nothing like hot and sour soup. Damnit.  Frustrated, I gave up.

That is, until I saw this recipe in our local Indy week newspaper.  The recipe came straight from a local restaurant, Super Wok, so it had to be better, right?  So after tracking down the ingredients, I made it. And damn if it didn't taste like the real deal!  So triumphantly, I present to you that recipe but with my modifications.

Super Wok's hot and sour soup recipe

200 grams (about a half block) soft tofu (got it at the Asian mart, but available in just about every supermarket)

100 grams (about 1 cup) canned bamboo shoots, precut into matchsticks, drained (again, most supermarkets carry this)

20 dried wood ears (i.e., ear-shaped fungi) (supermarkets often have these in little plastic containers hanging above the fresh mushrooms in the produce section)

15 dried arbol chilies (already had these from making chili powder. You can find them in the Hispanic section of your supermarket)

3 tbs. canola or vegetable oil

7 cups unsalted chicken stock, preferably homemade (I didn't want to use up all my homemade broth on one recipe, so I used one carton of store bought chicken stock and one carton of chicken broth)

1/2 cup white rice vinegar (again, Asian section of grocery store)

1/3 cup soy sauce, preferably Kikkoman brand

1 tbs. dark soy sauce (I had to go to the Asian mart for this)

2 tbs. Shaoxing cooking wine (I had to go to the Asian mart for this)

1 tbs. sesame oil (supermarkets have this)

2 tsp. MSG, preferably a quality Japanese brand like Ajinomoto (I actually picked up a small bottle of this at the Mexican mart El Superior)

2 tsp. chicken bouillon powder (I had cubed chicken bouillon so I just used this)

1 tsp. Chinese white pepper powder (I used regular black pepper)

5 tbs. tapioca starch (found at the Asian mart, but Joe claims you can get this at the regular grocery)

5 tbs. room-temperature water

2 large eggs, well beaten

Kosher salt (to taste)  (my soup really did not need any extra salt at all so don't even think of adding this until the soup is completely done and you taste test)

Place the chilies in a bowl of boiling water. Soak for three hours, letting the water gradually cool. Drain and finely chop. Heat a pot of oil to 350 degrees and add 3 tablespoons to the chopped chilies. Set aside.

Hydrate the wood ears in a bowl of water for one hour, drain and roughly chop. Cut the tofu into inch-long rectangular blocks.

Bring the stock to a boil. Add the vinegar, soy sauces, wine, sesame oil, MSG, chicken bouillon powder, white pepper powder, wood ears, tofu and bamboo shoots. Add 1–2 tbs. of the chili and oil mixture (1 tablespoon gives a kick, 2 is super spicy). Return to a boil.

Fully dissolve the tapioca starch in the water and stir into the soup. The soup will quickly thicken and assume an attractive sheen.

Drizzle the egg into the soup in a thin, steady streamlet, forming concentric circles. Allow the egg to set for about 15 seconds and give a gentle clockwise swirl with a spoon or spatula to produce attractive ribbons. I thought that 2 eggs was a good amount for the soup but Joe thought it was too much.

Taste and add salt as necessary (in all likelihood, no salt will be necessary). 

As I said, it turned out great.  It tastes just like the real deal you get at restaurants. 

I'm wondering if the method for the chiles is really necessary.  There's plenty of other ways to add the spiciness to the soup.  Also, one local restaurant I frequent doesn't even use wood ear mushrooms - they use regular button mushrooms!  And the soup doesn't seem worse for wear because of it.  I make this point only because if you eliminate those soaking steps for the chiles and wood ear mushrooms, the soup could come together in 20 minutes... of course, I can't say at this point if it will really still taste the same.