Hot and Sour Soup

My mom would make this soup for special occasions, although it's a good soup for cold, damp weather. The heat in the soup comes from black pepper and its sourness from vinegar; though not any vinegar will do. Apple cider vinegar and rice vinegar are cetain sweeter in taste than say, red wine vinegar. And, don't put balsamic vinegar into this soup.

A note from my dad about the wood ear fungus. It may look small, and the original recipe called for 1/4 of it but that is a mistake. He says that the fungus will soak up enough water to turn into 10x its dehydrated size.

Makes: 2 quarts + 1 pint

Ingredients

3 oz pork loin, pork shoulder, or country pork rib
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 scallion, thinly sliced

1/4 c dried lily buds, soaked in warm water, trimmed
1/4 c dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water, thinly sliced
4 pc dried wood ear (mu-erh) fungus, soaked in warm water, thinly sliced
1/2 c winter bamboo shoots, thinly sliced
1/2 pkg organic firm tofu, small diced
2 quarts organic chicken broth, low sodium
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
3 tbsp white vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 tsp tamari soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
sea salt, to taste

1 organic carrot, sliced into matchsticks

Directions

Slice pork into thin 1/2" strips then fry with scallion and olive oil. When pork has lost its pink color, remove from heat and set aside.

After soaking the lily buds, trim off the hard parts of the stem.

In a large stockpot (or a pot large enough to hold 3 quarts of liquid), combine chicken broth, lily buds, wood ear fungus, mushrooms, tofu, white pepper, soy sauce, and vinegar. Add the soaking liquid of the dried ingredients to the soup.

Bring the soup to a simmer and let all the ingredients come up to temperature. At this point, you can add the cornstarck/water slurry and bring the soup to a boil to thicken the soup.

Next, and add the eggs for an egg-drop-soup look. 

Serve hot.

You may need to add more black pepper (for heat) or vinegar (for sourness).

To thicken the soup:

Combine equal portions cornstarch and cold water. Stir until cornstarch is dissolved in the water. Use 1 tbsp cornstarch plus 1 tbsp water per quart of liquid.

To turn this into an egg drop soup:

Whisk 2 eggs in a small bowl

Before serving the soup and while the soup is boiling, stir soup in a clockwise (or counterclockwise) direction so the liquid is rotating in one direction. Usually, it's 1 egg per person for a regular egg drop soup.

As the soup is rotating, slowly pour in the beaten eggs.