In article
>,
Peppermint Patootie > wrote:

> I'll see if I can find it. I typed it in from the book, and I'm not
> looking to do that again, but if I can find it on google, I'll repost it.

Ah! I posted it over in alt.support.diabetes. Here it is again:

Originally posted on May 8, 2012


I'll put it just as Mme. Chao writes it and allow you to make the
changes you want. I'll have some comments of my own after the recipe.

***** Begin quoted recipe

From _How to Cook and Eat in Chinese_ by Buwei Yang Chao.

(This is the edition I grew up with:
http://www.amazon.com/cook-Chinese-B...I6VDU/ref=sr_1

_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336531462&sr=1-9 )

Sour-Hot Soup

This is also a very famous soup that sometimes will help you get rid of
leftovers. But sometimes we also purposely make it with fresh
materials. Whichever its origin, it is a most appetizing soup, if
properly made, and is very helpful when one is not hungry but has to
eat.

The eggs and characteristic seasoning exist in all kinds of Sour-Hot
soup. As to the other things you can ad lib; they can be fish, meat,
shrimps, bean curd, etc. Even the water itself can be replaced by
chicken soup, meat soup, made from boiling meat bones, etc.

3 eggs
7 cups water or any soup
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon taste powder (omit if you use soup instead of water)
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
3 Tablespoons vinegar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 lb of any other materials chopped in small pieces

Mix salt, soy sauce, taste powder, and cornstarch with 1 cup cold water
or soup. Then put it in 6 cups of boiling water or soup. Keep a low
fire while doing the following:

Beat 3 eggs and pour very slowly into the soup. Keep stirring the soup
while pouring the eggs. Then add in the vinegar and pepper and any
other materials. If you have meat slices, prepare them as in meat-slice
recipes before adding into the soup.

***** End quoted recipe

I usually put in Chinese "long" cabbage (aka celery cabbage -- what I
grew up knowing as "Chinese cabbage") sliced thin, cubes of firm tofu,
sliced or chunked mushrooms, lily buds (from the Asian market), and
sliced pork that I've marinated in soy sauce. (If I consumed alcohol
I'd add some dry sherry to the marinade.) I use the dark, flavorful,
more fatty pork which is sold in the Asian market as "pork shoulder
butt." That dry white stuff that Anglos eat isn't really food, to my
taste. It's more like a construction product. ;-)

I prefer the flavor of tofu which I buy in Asian markets -- preferably
taken out of a big plastic bucket and dropped into a plastic baggie,
which is then tied, but that's hard to find anymore. ;-) Nowadays most
of it is sold in plastic tubs with lids or those square plastic boxes
with clear plastic top. The kind one finds in Whole Foods and the like
doesn't have the good sour edge to the flavor, and the texture is often
too grainy. I like to age mine a bit to get a little more of the good
flavor.

"Taste powder" is MSG (aji no moto). I grew up with a tin of it in the
cupboard. My father used it in Chinese cooking, and I never developed a
reaction to it until I was an adult. Nowadays it gives me migraines, so
I never use it.

For "soy sauce" I use "light soy" from the Asian market. There's a
brand I like which is less than $2 per liter. "Dark soy" and "mushroom
soy" and many other kinds of soy are different, and you don't want them
in this recipe.

I always use a meat stock, for a fuller flavor. For me, pork.

This is about the right spiciness for me. I don't like really spicy
food, but this is good. Black pepper is a different kind of hot (to my
tongue) than all those chillies.

I find sour-hot soup is wonderful in cold weather, particularly if one
has a cold. :-)

Eat it in good health!

Priscilla