Sweet & Sour Soup

Ingredients

  • 8 cup Chicken stock Any flavorful stock (vegetable, beef...) will do
  • 1/2 cup Rice vinegar Can be substituted with white vinegar, although not ideal
  • 3 tbsp Corn starch
  • 1 Good handful of Shiitake mushrooms
  • 1 can Bamboo shoots
  • 2-4 Eggs Frozen are actually easier to work with, but fresh will do
  • 2 tbsp Dark soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp Light soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp Asian spicy chili-garlic sauce
  • 2 tsp Ginger Fresh is better, ground is okay
  • 2 tsp Honey, brown sugar or white sugar
  • 1 tsp Garlic Fresh is better, ground is okay
  • 1 tsp MSG
  • 1 tsp Sesame oil
  • 1/2 tsp White pepper Seriously, a tiny bit makes a huge difference. Have faith !
  • 1-2 Green onions, thinly sliced, for serving
  • Some Firm tofu slices (optional, to add proteins)

Preparation

Put the shiitake to boil on medium-low until tender consistency is achieved and flavor is released to the broth. It will take longer with dried than with fresh. If using firm tofu, put the cubes at that time so it softens up.

When mushrooms are rehydrated/tender, take some of the liquid to do a slurry with the corn starch.

Put the eggs in. If fresh, whisk the eggs together in a bowl and pour slowly into the boiling soup (make it hot so the eggs cook quicker) while turning gently to form ribbons. If frozen, put them in and let unravel by themselves while stirring gently.

Then mix all the things together and let simmer until all powders dissolve.

Notes

Be generous with the chicken broth to make it flavorful. 2 very full tablespoons of chicken mix for 8 cups of water is a good start. Gigi used to find the soup very acidic. I increased the amount of chicken broth from 6 to 8 cups, with an extra spoon of corn starch to appropriately thicken. Gigi says she likes the eggs being more spread out. I.e, don’t worry too much if there aren’t nice ribbons. Both soft or firm tofu can work, but Gigi says she prefers firm. From experience, frozen eggs form nice ribbons every time and effortlessly, while fresh require the right temperature and stirring speed.