I love Chinese food! When I was little my parents took me out to dinner for my birthday every year; I got to pick what type of food I wanted to have. It was always a hard decision between Italian food at Spiritos in Elizabeth, NJ, or Chinese food at a place in Linden.

Spiritos was my number one favorite place to eat, but my mouth drooled anytime I thought about Chinese food. The place in Linden had my favorite ice cream, pistachio with lots of maraschino cherries that were right in the ice cream.

One of the biggest bummers about having to be gluten-free is not being able to eat most Chinese food because of gluten in the soy sauce and marinades; along with gluten contamination coming from the deep fryer as well.

When I was a kid I loved chicken lo mein, shrimp chow mein, pork fried rice, spare ribs, eggrolls and spring rolls, egg drop soup, chicken with lobster sauce soup, and anything on a pupu platter. Yum shrimp toast!

As I got older I expanded my food selections to more adventurous and flavorful choices. That’s when I discovered hot and sour soup. I started making my own version after going gluten-free several years ago.

Asian cuisine is getting easier to make at home with many of the ingredients available at your local grocery store. Those specialty items used to be found at Asian-type markets exclusively. I still get mine at the Asian Supermarket in Albany because I love going there!

To be honest, it’s taken me a long time to master a few Chinese dishes. It’s fucking hard to make Chinese food that tastes like the kind you get at a restaurant. There are so many variables why the home-cooked versions don’t compare. Cooking equipment, ingredients, cooking style, and the lack of crazy hot BTU cooking temps that cannot be reached on a home stove.

Starting out with Chinese soups is a good place to start since the cooking methods aren’t hard and no special equipment is necessary.

One thing I tell my cooking class students is just because you don’t have one or two ingredients in a recipe, you don’t have to scrap the entire thing. Obviously, you can’t leave out major ingredient components, but some you can either omit or substitute with something you have on hand.

So what exactly is Chinese hot and sour soup? The direct translation is hot vinegar soup. Many other Asian cuisines have their own type of this soup. Don’t turn your noses up to the word vinegar soup, it is simply a form of acid that is necessary to create balanced dishes.

It seems to me that most Asian cuisine dishes are always in balance. A balanced dish contains the five basic tastes-sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. When the taste of a dish is “off” or not right, it’s because the dish doesn’t contain the right taste components.

Knowing what the dish should taste like helps to figure out what it needs, more salt, umami, or acid when tasting it. Always try a dish prepared authentically so you know what you are tasting. Don’t try ethnic cuisine in a place that doesn’t specialize in any one kind of cuisine. For example, ordering ethnic foods from a ten-page diner menu isn’t the place to try it.

My style of cooking and recipes for home cooks is creating food that tastes as authentic as possible but is not too intimidating. Trying to track down dried lily flowers or dried wood ear mushrooms would make most people run away from a recipe. Substituting easier-to-find ingredients is a better choice for home cooks. Advanced cooks or chefs love to seek out these hard-to-find ingredients and would shake their heads at the notion of using baby bella mushrooms available at the local grocery store instead of dried shitake or wood ear varieties.

I keep a well-stocked pantry so I can whip up an ethnic dish any night of the week. A trip to an ethnic market or specialty store and picking up a variety of ingredients. to have on hand makes ethnic or specialty cooking easy.

Some things I always have in my pantry: Ethnic spices like curry powder, Chinese 5-spice, garam masala, sesame seeds, and turmeric to name a few. Canned items like coconut milk, Thai curry pastes, chickpeas, and green chilis. Chicken, beef, and veggie broths. Sauces like oyster, soy, and Thai chili sauce, Chinese garlic chili paste, rice vinegar, Chinese cooking wine, sherry, Marsala wine, and sriracha. Dried items like basmati and jasmine rice, corn, and potato starches…the list can go on and on.

My version of hot and sour soup doesn’t have ingredients such as dried lily flowers but easier to find ones. This version can be made gluten-free, vegetarian, or vegan using GF soy sauce and GF broth or omitting the pork and using vegetable broth. For vegan also omit the eggs. The pickled daikon radishes that I add are totally unnecessary, but I add them instead of the bamboo shoots.

Speaking of specialty ethnic items, I am in love with pickled daikon radish! I had it for the first time at an Asian hot pot and BBQ place in Albany this summer and have never looked back. The restaurant sold me a small container of the pickled daikons which I needed to replicate this deliciousness at home and keep in the fridge at all times.

For anyone who is adventurous and wants to make pickled daikons, you can find daikon radishes at your local supermarket. The rest of the ingredients are vinegar, sugar, salt, and water. Black mustard seeds aren’t necessary but kick up the flavor. There are many recipes online. The pickled daikon radishes should be kept refrigerated and need at least a month to pickle in the refrigerator. If you taste the daikon radish raw be prepared for your mouth to be on fire. Pickling the daikon mellows out the heat leaving a sweet, turnipy tasting crunchy treat.

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Here’s my version of Chinese Hot & Sour Soup. There are literally hundreds of different combinations you can use to create your own version.

Chinese Hot & Sour Soup

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

8 cups chicken, beef, or vegetable broth
4 oz lean pork cut into batons
8 oz shitake or baby bella mushrooms thinly sliced
1 8 oz can bamboo shoots, drained (optional)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari for GF version
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp white pepper or to taste
1 tsp garlic chili sauce
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
2 large eggs beaten well
1 tsp sesame oil
8 oz extra firm tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3-4 sliced scallions thinly sliced
*** 4 oz cubed daikon radish

Directions

In a large pot add the broth, pork, mushrooms, bamboo shoots (if using)
rice vinegar, soy sauce or tamari, ground ginger, white pepper, and garlic chili sauce. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes.

To make a cornstarch slurry, in a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water mixing well until smooth. Begin stirring the soup in a circular motion while slowly drizzling the slurry into the soup. The slurry will give the soup body, but will not make it thick.

In a bowl, stir the sesame oil into the beaten eggs. Repeat the circular stirring motion and slow drizzle method with the egg mixture.

Add the tofu and the sliced scallions. Taste for seasoning. Some people like their soup spicer and add more white pepper, others like their soup sourer and add more vinegar. This is when I add the pickled daikon radish.

Simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Serve immediately in soup bowls garnished with more sliced scallions if desired. Enjoy!

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