Make Ahead

Hot and Sour Soup with Crispy Wonton Strips

by:
December 10, 2013
4
1 Ratings
Hot and Sour Soup with Crispy Wonton Strips
  • Serves 6 to 8
Author Notes

It’s been cold, gray, and wet – welcome to winter my friends. Fortunately, there are a lot of comfort foods out there to warm your soul – one of my favorites being Hot and Sour Soup. Some of these ingredients may sound unfamiliar or just be plain difficult to find, particularly the mushrooms. Feel free to use whatever combination of mushrooms you like. Likewise, if you can find dried lily buds, pick yourself up a bag – you can (and for more traditional Chinese Hot and Sour Soup, should) use those in place of the enoki mushrooms. However, this Hapa girl is all about mixing, so I used some non-traditional ingredients while still capturing that wonderful hot and sour taste that I remember so fondly as a child. —Kathleen | Hapa Nom Nom

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Hot and Sour Soup
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 pound pork loin, cut into 3-inch x 1/4-inch strips
  • 8 cups good quality chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce
  • 3/4 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
  • 8 ounces bamboo shoots, julienned
  • 16 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
  • 1/2 cup enoki mushrooms, bottoms cut
  • 1/4 cup wood ear mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • Kosher salt
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced
  • Crispy Wonton Strips
  • 6 ounces wonton wrappers
  • vegetable oil
Directions
  1. Hot and Sour Soup
  2. Heat the oil in a medium-size skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until browned, approximately 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and drain off any excess liquid.
  3. In a large pot, combine the broth, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and pepper.
  4. Add to the pot – the pork, tofu, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms. Bring the contents to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Slowly pour the cornstarch mixture into the soup, stirring constantly until the soup has thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Return the soup to a boil and then turn off the heat.
  5. Stirring the soup in a circular motion, slowly drizzle in the beaten eggs. You want the eggs to form wispy strands, not clumps.
  6. Add salt if needed.
  7. Serve hot and garnish with sliced green onions and crispy wonton strips.
  1. Crispy Wonton Strips
  2. Cut the wonton wrappers into 1/4-inch strips. Be sure to pull all of the strips apart so they will not stick when frying.
  3. In a skillet over medium-high heat, add enough oil to cover 1/4-inch of the bottom. Occasionally test by sprinkling a few drops of water in the oil, if it sizzles, the oil is hot enough. Just to be sure, I always like to use one tester wonton strip before adding the rest.
  4. Add a handful of the wontons to the oil and begin to stir immediately. Gently splash some of the oil on the tops of the wontons to ensure that they are fully cooked. Once they start to turn a pale golden brown (about 1 minute), scoop them out using a spider or slotted spoon. Remember the wontons will continue to cook once out of the oil so pull them out before you think they are done.
  5. Serve with the Hot and Sour Soup
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  • Kathleen | Hapa Nom Nom
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3 Reviews

bugbitten
bugbitten February 7, 2015
Quite an accomplished recipe and an accomplishment in recipe writing--just six steps, one of which is "Add salt if needed." (!) I make H+S soup often enough to have picked up a bottle of the Chinese black rice vinegar, and packages of the commercial fried noodles (which are not at all artisan, but which comfort me).
I use the Cook's Illustrated recipe that they published in '06 as my starting point, and try to play around with the flavorings a bit. My favorite "cheat" is to julienne Canadian bacon as I don't usually have one lonely pork chop hanging around; the slight smokey flavor goes well with the black vinegar, and for your 8 cups of stock I would add just a quarter pound of that loin meat.
Thanks especially for the wonton strips recipe which I'll try soon.
I'm not too anxious to try the recipes that include ginger and garlic, as those seem best included in the main course to follow, if at all.
In sum, thanks for this sleekly expressed homage to a classic tummy-warmer.
 
Windischgirl
Windischgirl January 14, 2015
I always crave Hot and Sour Soup whenever I have the beginnings of a cold. Thanks for posting this!
 
Kathleen |.
Kathleen |. January 15, 2015
Me too - I love spicy food when I'm feeling under the weather. I feel like the heat beats the cold out of me :)