Hot & Sour Soup
- Tracy Scheckel
- Aug 8
- 6 min read
I love a good hot & sour soup! Apparently so did John Lennon. I learned that and more during a visit to the Cygnet Gallery in Southwest Harbor, ME to see the Lost Weekend exhibit of May Pang photos. The photo exhibit was a collection of intimate candid shots -- including Polaroids -- of John with his son Julian and a plethora of others just hanging out.
Although all were amazing, one image, Soup's On elicited a true laugh out loud moment for me. Without reading the description, it was clear that he was eating some kind of soup that literally brought a tear to his eyes. May captured the moment in a collage of 4 images.
Since she was at the gallery I sat with her to ask her about the photos. She explained that John loved Chinese food and that this was a good and spicy hot & sour that got to him while she just happened to be standing by with her camera in hand. I asked if she made the soup and she explained that because she didn't have the ingredients on hand, it was takeout from a place near their apartment on East 52th in Manhattan.
For those of you in the NY / NJ region feeling jealous because you didn't get to see the exhibit in Southwest Harbor, May has shows coming up in Albany, Oyster Bay, and Manasquan. OK, back to the soup.....
Hot & sour soup has some history.....
Some believe that hot & sour soup dates back as far as the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) and was a medicinal remedy for colds and flu. Others believe the soup is rooted in Sichuan for its bold flavors. The basic spicy and sour taste of the soup is thanks to a combination of hot pepper and vinegar. Ultimately it's a vegetable soup that typically includes bamboo shoots, shitake and wood ear mushrooms, tofu, and eggs.
The first time I arrived at my own hot & sour soup, it was wintertime and I was repurposing some leftover teriyaki chicken into a soup. As in most of my dishes, I started with some oil, onions and garlic, but in a nod to the teriyaki, I did the saute in sesame oil.
While the onion and garlic were cooking, I shredded the chicken and started wandering through the fridge and pantry for vegetables to include. Again, in a nod to the Asian seasoning of the chicken, I re-hydrated some wood ear and shitake mushrooms (I keep a couple of bags of dried varietal mushrooms for spur of the moment recipes), I shredded some carrot, slivered some red sweet peppers, grated a few tablespoons of ginger and sliced some cabbage into shreds. Once the onions and garlic were aromatic and translucent, I stirred in the chicken and ginger and added some chicken broth and let it simmer to blend the flavors a bit. My plan was to get the broth flavor where I wanted it and then add the veggies and maybe some kind of starch later.
When I started sampling the broth, it was kind of bland and I started tweaking..... a little soy, some tamari, a dash of sriracha, some rice vinegar, a touch of brown sugar when it got a bit too hot, some more vinegar when it got too sweet. This went on for an hour or so, but when it tasted the way I wanted it to, it had evolved into hot & sour, sans the bamboo shoots which I didn't have on hand.
Back then, I had never even seen a hot & sour soup recipe, so the beaten eggs dropped into the boiling soup was not on my radar, but my later renditions evolved to include the egg. Once that trip down the rabbit hole yielded hot & sour soup, I skipped the starch as I couldn't recall ever having rice or noodles in it. Through the years the recipe has been fine tuned, as I have also added slivers of extra firm tofu, other shredded leftover proteins including pork and duck, green onion, and sliced fresh mushrooms (button, oyster, and or cremini).
Are you wondering why I'm sharing my recipe and not May's? I did write and ask her if she would share and here's here response: "I used to look for simple recipes and doctor it up to my liking." She went on to offer, "If I have a moment, I can try and see what I would use to make the soup. Always simple is my motto." Sound familiar? In her email she did mention a favorite English breakfast she used to make for John when they were home on a Sunday. I offered to post it if she was willing to share it. Ya never know..... But for now, you're stuck with my version of hot & sour soup.....
THE RECIPE:
4T sesame oil
4 green onions sliced with top rings set aside and bottoms minced
2-3 cloves minced fresh garlic
1T shredded or minced fresh ginger
1C shredded pork, chicken or duck (optional)
4C chicken or vegetable broth
2C Water for hydrating the dried mushrooms
1/2C shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2C wood ear mushrooms, sliced
1/2C thinly sliced sweet red, yellow, or orange pepper strips
1/2C thin carrot strips (shredded will work too)
1/2C additional sliced mushrooms (buttons, oyster etc.)
1/2C bamboo shoots
1-2C shredded cabbage or bok choy
4 oz extra firm tofu cut into thin strips strips
1T sriracha
1t crushed red pepper flakes
4T tamari
3T soy sauce
2T brown sugar sugar
6T rice vinegar
2 eggs
A couple of things to note here: I threw this together spur of the moment because I was inspired by Soup's On and needed photos for the post. I didn't have tofu, cabbage, or bamboo shoots on hand so made do with some leftover roasted duck for the protein and some coarsely chopped water chestnuts (which I did have on hand) for texture. I also increased the amount of mushrooms.
First, if using dried mushrooms, place them in a sauce pan with a couple of cups of water and heat until boiling.
Continue boiling for 10 minutes or so and then remove from heat and keep covered to let them steep until they are cool enough to handle.
While the mushrooms are doing their thing, mince the onion and garlic and shred the ginger.
Heat the sesame oil in a large stock pot and add the onion garlic and ginger to saute
If using meat, add it to the pot when the saute is tender
Add broth (chicken or vegetable) to cover the meat and let it simmer for 10 minutes or so
In the meantime, drain the re-hydrated mushrooms but retain the liquid.
Slice the re-hydrated mushrooms into slivers and add to the soup
Add the slivered sweet peppers
Add the carrot, i prefer to cut really thin strips rather than shred them
As you add vegetables, keep adding broth enough to cover what's in the pot
The last ingredients I add are the fresh mushrooms, bamboo shoots, cabbage, and tofu. I don't want them to overcook and lose their texture.
Once all the vegetables are in, you've probably used about 3 cups of broth.
Now you want to pour the mushroom water through a strainer or paper coffee filter (in case there was lingering dirt in the dried mushrooms)
You should have about 2 cups of flavorful mushroom water.
Add the sriracha, crushed red pepper flakes, 4T tamari, soy sauce, brown sugar sugar, and vinegar to the mushroom water and stir to dissolve and combine all.
Add that to the soup and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or so.
Gradually add the remaining broth until the soup is the consistency you like. Some prefer it to be thin and others like myself prefer something closer to a stew.
At this point you can stop and store the soup in the fridge -- or even freezer until the day you want to serve it.
When serving, bring the soup to a boil and in the meantime, whisk the eggs until well beaten
Once the soup is rapidly boiling, drizzle (while whisking) the eggs in to cook them into nice strands.
Serve immediately.
