MIXTURE D

Instructions

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   ginger). PROCEDURE (1) Put the golden needles, wood ear, and black mush- room to soak in separate bowls of water. It takes 30 to 60 minutes for them to be ready. After soak- ing, the wood ear should be a flexible and flat material. It may have a few hard lumps; cut these off and discard them. Discard the soaking liquids. (2) Meanwhile, prepare mixtures A,C, and D. Place their ingredients in bowls, and mix well. When mixing with cornstarch, add the liquid slowly to the cornstarch. This avoids getting undissolved cornstarch balls. (3) Shred the pork. This pork must be very lean. The meat portion of pork cutlets or the center of pork chops are good sources. Shredding means cutting the pork into pieces about the size of wooden http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/soup/hot-sour/mb-hot-sour-soup-coll.html (5 of 10) [12/17/1999 12:02:18 PM]

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   COLLECTION: Hot and Sour soup matches. (1/4 inch square by 1-2 inches) This is most easily done by slicing the pork, then laying the slices overlapping each other at an angle and cutting these at a reverse angle. (4) Marinate the pork in mixture A for 15 minutes. Then use 2 Tbsp oil to stir-fry the meat until the color changes. Set the meat aside. (5) Shred and cube the other ingredients. (6) Bring mixture B to a boil and add the black mush- room, bamboo shoots, wood ear, bean curd, and gol- den noodles. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the meat, then add mixture C. Add the beaten egg while stirring to disperse the egg in sheets and fila- ments. Add mixture D, and cook another minute. (7) Serve hot. NOTES Bean curd must be fresh. If you cannot get it fresh, omit it. You will need at least 6 bowls (soup bowls are OK), 1 large bowl, and either a two-handled wok or a large sauce pan. Don't attempt this with a one-handled wok because it will be filled with boiling soup and is almost certain to spill. Hot and sour soup is a generic soup type, so you can make many variations on this soup. To control the spiciness, adjust the ratio between mixture D and mixture B. Changing the ratios inside mixture D changes the nature of the soup. Finally, you can add a lot more ingredients if you want. The critical ingredients are the golden needles, bamboo (although almost any variety can be good), mushrooms (or fungus of some sort), and pork shreds. Experiment with dif- ferent kinds of fungus and bamboo. Adding other mild veget- ables is usually a success. RATING Difficulty: easy but tedious. Time: 1-2 hours (lots of preparation, little cooking) Precision: measure the ingredients. HOT AND SOUR SOUP HOTSOUR-SOUP-1 - Szechuan hot and sour soup I have seldom been to a Chinese restaurant without having http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/soup/hot-sour/mb-hot-sour-soup-coll.html (6 of 10) [12/17/1999 12:02:18 PM]

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   COLLECTION: Hot and Sour soup hot and sour soup, and it was pleasant to discover how easy it is to make it at home. We have fixed this by itself as a dinner for two with enough left over for lunch. Particu- larly when we add extra meat and vegetables, we find it a very hearty soup which is surprisingly easy to make.