Jamie Oliver's Hot & Sour Soup for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

Since Friday was Chinese New Years and I was craving Hot & Sour Soup, I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe this week.I think you can't go wrong with tangy and spicy.

Hot & Sour Soup

Slightly Adapted from JamieOliver.com

(Serves 4 to 6)

2 cloves of garlic
1-2 fresh red chillies
sea salt
freshly ground white pepper
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
250 g (about 9 oz) shitake mushrooms, cleaned
225 g (about 8 oz) bamboo shoots , drained
groundnut oil , or vegetable oil
low-salt soy sauce
rice wine vinegar
1 tsp runny honey
1.5 litres (about 6 cups) hot organic vegetable stock
150 g (about 5 oz) firm tofu (I used whole 1lbpackage)
2 spring onions
1/2 bunch of chives
1 large free-range egg 

(I added 1 tsp toasted sesame oil)

 

Peel the garlic and deseed the chillies, then roughly chop and place into a pestle and mortar. 

Bash with a pinch of salt to a rough paste. Peel, finely chop and add the ginger, then bash until broken down and combined.
 

Finely slice the mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Heat a lug of oil in a large wok or heavy-based saucepan over a medium-high heat, add the mushrooms and fry for 4 minutes, or until lightly golden. Stir in the chilli paste and bamboo shoots and fry for a further minute.
 

Meanwhile, mix together 3 tablespoons of soy, 4 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar, the honey and a good pinch of white pepper. Stir the mixture into the pan and cook for a minute, then pour in the hot stock and bring gently to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, or until slightly reduced. Meanwhile, chop the tofu into 1cm cubes, finely slice the spring onions and chives and whisk the egg well.
 

Once reduced, remove the soup from the heat. Using a chopstick, stir the soup in a clockwise direction until you get a little whirlpool, then slowly add the beaten egg, stirring continuously to form thin ribbons. Stir in the tofu and return to the heat for 1 minute to warm through. Season to taste with soy and vinegar, then serve immediately with the spring onions and chives scattered on top.

 

 

Notes/Results: For some reason, my egg never made it into ribbons so maybe I left the soup of too long, otherwise this was great--rich, tangy, slightly spicy and lots of flavor. I stirred in a little toasted sesame oil at the end, which I really like. A nice way to make your dinner instead of relying on take out, I would happily make it again. 

 

Linking up at I Heart Cooking Clubs where we are celebrating Chinese New Year!

 

Now let's check out the Souper Sundays kitchen and see who is here!

It's nice to have my friend Tina of Squirrel Head Manor back at Souper Sundays this week. Tina made Veggie Soup and said, "Not too much new in the kitchen this month but as we cleared out our fridge and freezer, useing leftovers and partial frozen bags of veggies so there is minimal waste. Roasted corn from Trader Joe's store. ... We tried it as a side dish and I have to say, it wasn't remarkable.  Perhaps I added a bit too much water in the cooking method. ... I gave the corn another try adding it in a pot of soup. It was a good addition there. Leftover roasted potatoes and carrots, sliced onions rounded this out. Thickened with a bit of flour and broth and you have a hearty lunch for a cool day."

Simona of briciole is here with Vegetable and Quinoa Salad, saying "Since I am the only one in the family eating quinoa and I don't eat a lot of it, I cooked 1/4 cup / 50 grams at a time for each of my experiments. Every time, I found that I needed more liquid than the 1:2 ratio usually found in recipes. Finally, using part water and part broth made for a tastier result. As for the vegetables, use what's in season, like tasty salad turnips (a favorite, also featured in a recipe last year⁴). If you buy a bunch, save the tasty greens and cook them. I liked the addition of steamed broccoli in one version. I liked using the last persimmon in another. And in terms of dressing, choose what goes well with the vegetables: nut butter and broccoli, mayonnaise (maionese) and baby salad greens (from my garden). The overall idea is that you can cook some quinoa and have it handy to compose a salad."

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen shared Sriracha Butternut Couscous Salad and said, "I had some left over butternut squash that I roasted and tossed into some couscous making this rather simple Salad. It was perked up a little Sriracha and baby spinach from the garden for colour. Okay, I am off to have a lazy weekend, which may mean sitting on the sofa under my blanket watching TV and reading. But one thing for certain, I am turning off the computer screen. Have a good weekend."

Finally here at Kahakai Kitchen, I made a (Mostly) Classic Tuna Salad Sandwich for a book review.  It reminded me of how good a simple tuna sandwich on soft white bread with potato chips can be.

Thank you to Tina, Simona, and Shaheen for joining me this week!

 

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Kung Hei Fat Choi and have a happy healthy week!