Hot and Sour Soup with Shrimp

[mamster]

Hot and Sour Soup with Shrimp

One ounce of mushrooms doesn't sound like a lot, but once they're reconstituted and sliced, it looks like Gargamel had his way with the Smurf Village. If you don't enjoy the chewy texture of dried shiitakes, you've got options: substitute any sort of fresh mushroom, substitute bok choy stems, or drop the mushrooms and shrimp in favor of chicken or pork.

If you're using an Asian chicken stock that was made with ginger, reduce the ginger to 1 tbsp or omit if you're not a ginger addict.

• 1 oz dried shiitake mushrooms
  
• 6 c homemade chicken stock
  
• 3 T peeled and finely julienned ginger
  
• 1 tsp minced garlic
  
• 2 tsp chile paste with garlic (such as Rooster brand in the green-topped plastic jars)
  
• 1/4 c rice wine vinegar
  
• 1/4 c soy sauce
  
• 1 c canned slivered bamboo shoots, drained and diced
  
• 1 T lime juice
  
• 2 tsp sugar
  
• Salt
  
• 5 tsp cornstarch
  
• 2 T cold water
  
• 1 large egg, beaten
  
• 4 oz medium shrimp (51-60s are fine), shelled, deveined if necessary, and coarsely chopped
  
• 1/4 c scallions, thinly sliced
  

Soak the mushrooms for thirty minutes in lukewarm water, drain, and slice thinly.

Heat the chicken stock in a large saucepan and add the mushrooms, ginger, garlic, chile paste, vinegar, soy sauce, and bamboo shoots. Simmer 10 minutes, add the lime juice and sugar, and season to taste with salt if necessary.

Add the scallions. In a separate small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water into a slurry and add half to the soup. Simmer until it thickens, adding more cornstarch slurry if you prefer a thicker soup. Give the soup a vigorous stir in one direction and slowly pour in the beaten egg to make swirls.

Place 1 ounce each of raw shrimp into four heated soup bowls. Divide the soup among the bowls, stir to distribute the shrimp, and serve.

Ingredient notes:

Chicken stock: You must make homemade stock for this recipe. There's no reason to dismiss canned stock out of hand, but it just doesn't work here as the backbone of this soup. One thing most canned stock does have going for it is MSG, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to toss a little of that into the soup.

Here's how I make my stock: Buy four pounds of chicken necks, backs, or breast frames, none of which should cost much more than 50 cents a pound. If necessary, cut into manageable chunks with a cleaver or poultry shears. Heat vegetable oil in a stockpot and brown the chicken in two batches. Add all the chicken to the pot with a few slices of fresh ginger, a half-bunch of trimmed scallions, and two quarts of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer one to two hours (the time isn't that critical, so feel free to work in a game of cards or prep another dish). Strain and refrigerate. Skim the fat off the top before using.

When cookbooks talk about stock, they often imply that the worst mistake you can make is letting it boil or not skimming often enough. If you're making a perfectly clear stock for use in a serious European restaurant kitchen, they're right. But the most common home stock-making error is using too much water for the amount of meat and ending up with watery stock. For chicken stock, don't exceed one pint of water for each pound of meaty bones, which is easy to remember if you recall that a pint of water weighs a pound. You probably don't want to use less water than this, because it won't cover all the chicken. If you need a stronger stock, reduce the stock or make a double stock by following the above instructions, substituting stock for water.

Rice wine vinegar: Kong Yen brand, available in almost any Asian grocery, doesn't have the unpleasant sugary undertone of the ubiquitous Marukan.

Keywords: Soup, Chinese, Appetizer, The Daily Gullet

( RG247 )