Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! I was entirely non-festive and prepared soup & baked potatos. Yaaaaay. Finding the time to cook more than just the minimum is always trouble but this was so simple & easy that I should make it again soon. I started by following a recipe but quickly threw it all out the window as I was lacking a few ingredients.
You’ll Need:
Olive Oil
Corn Starch, 4 tbsp
Salt & Pepper
Water, 2/3 cup
Meat/Tofu, ~16oz
Onion, 1 minced
Eggs, 2
Beef/Chicken Stock or Consommé, 32 oz
Vinegar, 4 tbsp
Soy Sauce, 1 tbsp
Mushrooms, if you have any on hand.
Drain the Tofu & slice the Tofu/Meat into thin strips. Lightly coat them in cornstarch. Combine the rest of the cornstarch into the water to create a paste. Mixing the cornstarch now prevents lumping later on when you thicken the soup.
Heat the oil in a large Wok and fry the onions until they’re soft; add the Meat, mushrooms, and turn up the heat. When the Meat is cooked, add the Stock/Consommé. Bring to a boil, let it simmer. Add the Tofu, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, pepper & Water/Corn Starch mixture. Vinegar is for the Sour, Pepper is for the Hot. For a slightly sharper taste, add red pepper of Sri Racha, like a Philistine. Bring the soup almost to a boil, and drizzle in the eggs. Booyah: poached eggs & soup!
The vinegar provided nice flavor that could have used more red pepper and spice. The cornstarch thickened the mixture nicely but more tofu & mushrooms are always a plus. A Hot & Sour stew is never a bad thing.
Would you eat it in a Wok?
Would you eat it for good Luck?
I do not like green eggs & ham. I do not like them, as a plan! I will not try green beer or beef, unless, I turn another leaf. Inebriation is never right because I have an early flight! I’m writing verse upon a limb & hope these rhymes appease dear Kim… XD
I have questions! Do you beat the eggs first? If not, what do you do about the yolk? Drop it in whole? Or are we aiming for more of a unified poached egg (or two)? Also, what kind of vinegar did you use – regular old white? I bet rice wine vinegar would be nice but I don’t have any… And did Kim do something in particular to incite you to verse??
I have a few answers. I’m not a Soup Master, but I’ll try! I slowly spilled the eggs directly from the shell into the soup to get a thin line of poached egg. The whites perfectly drizzled into the soup but I had to crack the yolk after it already hit the water. *shrug* It was sloppy though not disastrous. I’ll beat the eggs first next time; the extra cleaning is worth the texture change the properly done eggs should give.
I only had white vinegar, too. D: The sour flavor was slightly sharp but Andrew/my_housemate still loved it. The smoothness of the rice vinegar would go over really well, and I think that’s what most recipes use anyway? I bought a bottle today and from only the smell it would be a good improvement.
I hadn’t planned anything beforehand and cooked only what was lying about the house, but for next time: beat the eggs, definitely try rice wine vinegar, and add tofu/mushrooms for texture.
I was just in a Dr. Seuss mood? XD Kim called out a particularly bad pun a bit ago and was hoping rhymes were more her style… It wasn’t anything in particular. Apparently, St. Patrick’s day etc. and cooking in woks leads to thinking in iambic? XD
Agreed on all counts – beating the eggs first gives the soup a bit more texture and thickness – it’s basically egg drop soup! protip: finish the soup first and as soon as you turn the heat off, dump in the beaten eggs, wait about 10 seconds, and then take a fork and swirl it around aggressively to separate the egg bits.
Also, I recommend shiitake mushrooms!
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