Hot and Sour Soup

Jennifer Brown serves up childhood memories.
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I grew up in Toronto, where my family headed to Spadina Avenue regularly for authentic Chinese cuisine. My father preferred to order from non-English menus, allowing my palette to expand with extensive tastes, and accompanying aromas, from a young age. Eating with chopsticks was natural, and the white porcelain soup spoons stood on their flat bottoms, displaying a variety of blue designs painted in the centres. A favourite meal of mine was known as “soup-noodle-in-bowl”—a large bowl for one, which I ordered topped with cleaver chopped chunks of crispy skinned barbecued duck and bright Chinese greens. I loved standing near the front of the restaurant, watching the open kitchen by the front window, decorated with hooks adorned with perfectly barbecued duck. My dessert treat was a round sesame seed coated donut, soft and chewy with glutenous rice dough surrounding a red bean paste filling.

As I grew older, heading to Spadina Avenue and ordering a large bowl of Hot and Sour Soup was a must location for date nights—what better way was there to test a suiter’s palette for compatibility? For those in the know, “large” is basically a request to bring a caldron of soup to the table! My Sweetie—who survived the evening when the kitchen double measured the “hot” in our soup—and I moved west, and it was many years before we discovered our soup again, at Ho Won restaurant in Calgary, Alberta. We raised eyebrows when we insisted on ordering the large portion of soup, but as frequent diners, no longer surprise the longtime staff with our request.

I continue to order what appears to be off-the-menu items when dining out, preferring to descreatly check out what is being served to large parties of diners sitting around circular tables, with an array of mouthwatering shared dishes revolving on the turntable centre. 

I love family traditions, and during the holiday season, Christmas Eve Chinese food dining is a must! After messaging family and friends this morning to find out the number of diners for our Ho Won reservation, I noticed a container of tofu in the fridge—it is common for me to have ingredients on hand to make a pot of Hot and Sour Soup at short notice! 

Over the years, I have developed my own version of Hot and Sour Soup, and although I have promised to share my recipe many times, it’s not something I use accurate measurements for. Today, I finally pulled out the measuring cups and spoons! Keep in mind, I believe recipes are just a guide to get started, and my amounts and specific ingredients leave variations open-ended. Adjust the hot pepper of choice, vinegar and preferred soup stock base, in addition to adding any meats or vegetable options to make it your own.

Hot and Sour Soup

Ingredients:

• 5 cups water
• One pouch Knorr vegetable soup mix (can substitute with soup stock of your choice to replace water & soup mix)
• One-inch piece of fresh ginger
• 6-8 mushrooms
• One package soft to medium tofu
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground fresh chili paste
• 1/4 cup white vinegar 
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tablespoon soy sauce 
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup frozen green peas

Instructions:

1. Place water and soup mix, or stock, in large pot on high temperature to bring to a boil.
2. Grate or mince fresh ginger, thinly slice mushrooms, and slice tofu into small cubes; add to pot along with chili paste, or preferred hot pepper. Cover pot and reduce temperature to simmer for 10 minutes.
   

   

   
   
3. Meanwhile, stir together water, vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil with corn starch; set aside. In small bowl beat the eggs. Measure frozen peas and set aside.
4. Re-stir corn starch mixture, and add all at once to soup pot. Stir continuously, while soup returns to a slow simmer, and thickens slightly.
5. Pour beaten eggs into the pot, in a thin stream, drawing a spiral shape; let simmer until egg cooks and floats to the top.

   
   

   

   
6. Stir in frozen peas, simmering 1-2 minutes longer until peas heat through and turn bright green.