Chinese Hot & Sour Soup

You are likely to find this soup on just about every menu in every Chinese restaurant in America. There are lots of variations in recipes, with some using chicken in the soup, and others using tofu, and still others using meaty tasting mushrooms, and I guess you could call it the "deluxe version" with all of these ingredients included.

 

For this, you use the white part of the green onions in the actual preparation of the soup, and you keep the green part for finishing the soup and as a garnish.

 

 

Ingredients (6 servings):

6 cups chicken broth

1/3 cup thinly cut carrot (matchsticks)

4 green onions, white part only, chopped

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1/3 cup sliced shiitaki mushrooms 

1/3 cup firm tofu cubes

3 cloves of minced garlic 

3 tablespoons Asian chili sauce

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

4 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons brown sugar 

1/4 cup rice vinegar (1/3 cup if you like a bit more tartness)

1 teaspoon sesame oil 

4 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed with equal amount of water

2 large eggs, well beaten

green part of 4 green onion, chopped

In a pan, add the chicken broth, carrot, white part of the green onions, ginger, minced garlic, chili sauce, white pepper, soy sauce and brown sugar. Let come to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to simply maintain a nice gentle, but steady simmer for 10 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and tofu, and simmer another 5 minutes, then stir in the rice vinegar and sesame oil. With the soup still simmering, stir in the cornstarch mixture and continue stirring until the soup thickens. Gradually add the beaten eggs, and then stir lightly after about 45 seconds. Add half of the green part of the onion and give it a quick stir. Remove the soup from the heat. Garnish each serving with a bit of the remaining green from the onions.

 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY: 

Clerk (Clark/Cleric)-These words are related to "clergy." The ultimate origin of "clerk/clark/cleric" is uncertain, although Indo European "kleh," meaning "to cut down," is thought to be the ancestor by some. Ancient Greek had transliterated "kleros," which meant "a chip of wood used for casting lots," but then the expanded meaning of "something assigned by lots (land, farm, house, etc), inheritance,"^ which produced the transliterated Greek adjective "klerikos," meaning "of or about the clergy," as in religious usage in Greek, the word came to be applied to priests, who were seen as ordained by God's choice (lot). Latin borrowed the adjective as "clericus," meaning "of or about the priesthood, priestly," but it also used the word as a noun to mean "priest, member of the clergy." This was borrowed into Old English as "clerc," meaning "priest, clergyman." In those times, the clergy were some of the few in society who were educated; thus, they were used as record keepers of accounts and of other written documents. This idea of being able to read and write eventually superceded the meaning of "priest;" thus, those employed to keep records continued to be called "clerks," but without the "clergy" meaning at all. The idea of a "sales person" is from the latter part of the 1700s in American English. The verb form is from the noun in the mid 1500s and meaning "to provide the services of a clerk." "Clark" is from a spelling variant of "clerk" in the Middle Ages, which has remained as a popular family name dating from those times (also spelled "Clarke").

^ In this case, the idea of "inheritance" is seemingly from God, and this meaning connects the word to religion.