Hot and Sour Soup/Soupe Pékinoise/Suan La Tang

Baby Boy before he was even two, would tell us that he wanted to eat soupe pékinoise (Hot and Sour Soup). And whenever we ate in a Chinese restaurant, you can be sure that that's exactly what he would order for himself for his entrée.

Without fail, the waiter/waitress would inform us that the soup would be too hot for the child. They must be joking, calling the fadish soup you usually find here in Europe "hot". They do not know the real meaning of the word.

Actually, Big Boy and Baby Girl are fans of the soup too. Thanks to in vitro chilli and curry training. In Paris, we usually eat it chez Da Jia Le (one of these days I'll install a Chinese keyboard - if I manage to figure out One Wheel's Greek instructions...) in the 13e arrondissement. Not too bad. Could be very good or mediocre depending on the Cantonese chef's mood.

Well, the other day, I told myself, why not make it myself? They tend to slurp it up by the bowlfuls, it'll be cheaper this way. Besides I'm on a carbo (reduction) diet, over here in Germany, free-flow of rice comes with the (usually lousy) dishes in the Chinese restaurants and I'm the see-rice-eat-rice kind of person...So if I do not walk into a Chinese restaurant I will not be eating alot of rice!

I basically experimented quite a bit with the vinegar, pepper etc à mon goût, so measurements will not be exact.

Chinese dried mushrooms or fresh Shitake mushrooms (julienned)
Brown button mushrooms, black fungus (optional)
Spring Onions (julienned)
Ginger (julienned)
Garlic (diced)
Chicken filets (diced)
Cooked ham (julienned)
Carrots (diced or julienned)
Zucchini (julienned)
Bean curd (the medium-soft type)
Sherry
Chicken stock
Vinegar (White rice or Dark)
Soy Sauce
Fish sauce
Sesame oil
Chilli Padi
White pepper
Cornflour
Egg

I started by browning the chicken, ginger, spring onions and garlic (everything finely diced or julienned). Followed by the mushrooms, carrots and cooked ham. Next, I poured in some sherry, chicken stock and water. Followed by loads of white pepper (the heat of the soup comes from pepper rather than chilli), 1-2 Tbsps of soy sauce, fish sauce and black Chinese vinegar. A touch of sesame oil. 1 chilli padi (diced). The julienned zucchini (I dislike bamboo shoots so I used zucchini instead and it has to be added in quite towards the end so as to remain crunchy), and tofu. Then I stirred in cornflour mixed in water, as much as is needed to thicken the soup. Finally drizzled a beaten egg into the soup.

The soup turned out really great and the fun part is that we get to decide what veggie etc go into it. And no MSG.

Hubby said that I had gone a bit crazy with the chilli, which I found puzzling 'coz I was thinking as I was drinking it that I should have added more...