Hal Laurent > wrote:
> Sheldon, I don't know where you get your Chinese recipes but I'd question
> their authenticity. I just checked my six Chinese cook books. Five of them
> have hot and sour soup recipes, and not one of them has any red pepper in
> them. (Curiously, "Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook" maintains that you
> can't really make authentic hot and sour soup in the US, 'cause it's
> impossible to get coagulated duck blood).
This is very interesting. I assume we are speaking of the "real", as
distinct from the "fake" soup now. :-) There appear to exist some
pan-Chinese recipes and sour-and-hot soup, usually, it seems,
transliterated as "suan la tang", may well have by now become one, but
most recipes are regional, of course. I wonder where suan la tang
really originated. I am anything but an expert on anything Chinese, but
it looks like there are at least three versions of its origin:
1. Peking, under which name the soup is known in a lot of places
2. Shanghai
3. Szechuan, particularly Chengdu
Again, I have no idea where the "authentic" version originated. I
wonder if there is more than one. Anyway, here is what appears to be a
nice version said to be from Shanghai:
<http://www.student.nvcc.edu/home/chhuang/project2/soup1.htm>
Shanghai Style Spicy Sour Soup
Suan La Tang (Mandarin)
Materials
Shredded Meat 100 g
Dry Black Fungus 4 pcs
Dry Black Mushrooms 5 pcs
Shredded Doufu 1 pc
Shredded Bamboo Shoots 1/2 can
Shredded Solid pig blood 1/2 cup
Shredded Red Carrot 1 tbsp
Egg 1 pc
Spring Onion 1 stalk
Cornflour 3 tbsp
Sauce 1
Light Soy Sauce 2 tbsp
Red Vinegar 2 tbsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Sauce 2
Sesame Oil 2 tbsp
Spicy Red Pepper
Oil 1/2 tbsp
Pepper some
Salt 1/2 tbsp
Chinese Parsley some
Steps
1) Soak the dry fungus and mushroom, clean and wipe dry, shredded
2) Whisk the egg with 3 tbsp of water and a little cornflour
3) Stir fry the spring onion, mushrooms with 2 tbsp of oil
4) Add 6 cup of water (approx. 1/2 liter) until boiled
5) Shred spring onion, add all shredded materials to soup
6) Add sauce (1) and cornflour solution, stir well until boiled
7) Pour the egg solution and stir gently until egg float on surface
8) Add sauce (2), mix well and until boiled for 1 minute, serve
Remark
tbsp - table spoon
Pig blood can be instead by chicken's - steam blood with 1/3 water in a
bowl until cooked
Pig blood - this material is not necessary, but better taste if applied
> Most Chinese restaurant versions of hot and sour soup around here (the
> Baltimore-Washington area) are wimpy, lacking in both black pepper and
> vinegar. It's best to ask for vinegar on the side (pepper is usually
> already on the table) to correct the flavor.
FWIW (not much), most Chinese restaurant versions here (Germany) are
also almost always fairly wimpy, but they do usually include hot pepper
flakes and, at least occasionally, it seems, a bit of hot chilli oil.
BTW, pepper and vinegar are not always on the table, but hot chilli
paste (of the sambal oelek type) nearly always is.
Victor
|