America's Test Kitchen Hot & Sour, modified

The nice thing about recipes from America's Test Kitchen is that they're solid recipes, usually short on ingredients and quick to make. The bad thing is that most (if not all) contain animal products.

I happened to listen to their episode Staying in for Chinese Take-out on Saturday (I say listen because we lack TV reception) and their hot and sour soup seemed like a good idea. (I'll make their stir-fry recipe another day.)


In my version a few things had to change. First, I'm serving 2 people, and although I like leftovers, I didn't need enough food for 6 people. Here's what I did (leaving out the pork, chicken stock, and egg a hot & sour purist would probably want, but I don't think the final product was adversely affected.)

Heat:
4 C vegetable stock
Add:
1 C sliced shiitake mushrooms
1/2 small can of bamboo shoots (they said to cut them into matchsticks, I didn't)
1/3 block of firm tofu, drained/pressed, cut into small cubes
Stir into simmering liquid:
3 T corn starch in cold water, the soup will begin to thicken immediately
Simmer for a bit, then add:
1/2 t ground white pepper
1/2 t hot chili oil
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 T red wine vinegar
1 t sesame oil
3 T low sodium soy sauce (if you're using canned bamboo and pre-made stock it will already be salty enough)
To serve, garnish with some green onion.


I also served a salad of chopped napa cabbage, dried banana, fresh banana, pineapple chunks, and cashews. I wanted to add fresh cilantro but the grocery store was actually out.

For a dressing I blended 1/4 c olive oil into 1/2 mashed banana, 1 t grated ginger, 1 T rice wine vinegar, 2 t brown sugar, and a squeeze of lime. I forgot 2 things in my haste. A pinch of kosher salt and a bit of minced jalepino. I had the pepper sitting right there on the cutting board and somehow overlooked it.