Winter Vegetable Soup

December is a good month to be unemployed. That’s my opinion, anyway, and the reason why my most recent efforts to find employment have been halfhearted at best. In January, my job search will become more earnest, but for now, I’m not exactly straining myself. That said, I don’t want to give you the impression that I’m lazy, because I have had no trouble keeping myself busy. Andrew and I are still settling into our new place, and so I’m working at making it feel more like home. I’ve also been exploring our new neighbourhood, and discovering wonderful restaurants, butchers, and other shops. I joined a food co-op last week that advocates for all things local, organic, and environmentally sustainable, so as you can imagine, I’m very excited. Of course, there has been some Christmas shopping, as well as some Christmas baking, and it’s nice to be able to do these things at my leisure, instead of trying to juggle them with a demanding work or school schedule. I also made this soup.

I know, it doesn’t seem like much to look at, but I had it for lunch every day last week, and I’m still in love with it. The soup is simply composed of cubed vegetables simmered in chicken stock, and flavoured with some dried herbs (that’s right, I said dried herbs, and I’m not ashamed to admit it; they taste wonderful in this soup). I used mainly seasonal root vegetables: onion, garlic, carrot, turnip, and yams. I was hesitant to add the yams at first, because I worried that they may make the soup cloyingly sweet, but that wasn’t the case at all. They add just a hint of sweetness to the broth, and the chunks of smooth, creamy yam contrast pleasantly with the firmer turnips and carrots.

I made the chicken stock myself, and it contributed significantly to how good the soup was, but I’m sure you would have decent results with store bought chicken or vegetable stock that you really like the taste of. I also added some pearl barley to a) make the soup heartier, and b) add more contrast to the texture of the soup. Pearl barley has a firm exterior that, once cooked correctly, bursts in your mouth when you bite down on it to reveal a softer inside. It’s sort of a cross between crunchy and chewy. Pearl barley is also a good soup component because it does not absorb that much liquid, compared to something like rice or pasta, which tend to soak up all the liquid in a soup if it’s left to sit, even in the refrigerator. And it tastes delicious.

Once everything was prepped, I sweated the onion and garlic, and then the remaining ingredients all went into the pot together and simmered for forty-five minutes or so. It needs to simmer for at least long enough to cook the pearl barley. Meanwhile, the stock becomes delicately flavoured with the herbs and vegetables. The resulting soup is simple and unassuming. The flavours aren’t bold or overpowering, but rather, subtle and complex. I want to say that it tastes nourishing, though, of course, nourishing is not a taste, but maybe you know what I mean. You know when you taste something, and you can almost feel how it is not just filling your belly, but also providing you with the nutrients you need, giving you energy and making you stronger? That’s what this soup tastes like, and it’s a taste I can only describe as good.

 Winter Vegetable Soup

Makes approximately 1 gallon/3.75 litres 

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, medium dice
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried savory
9 cups/2 litres (or more) good quality chicken or vegetable stock, preferably homemade (taste it first and make sure you like the flavour)
1 large white turnip, peeled, medium dice
2 medium yams, peeled, medium dice
2 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1 cm slices
½ cup pearl barley
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until it becomes translucent, about 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic, then the rosemary, thyme, and savory. Stir for about 30 seconds longer, until the garlic and herbs become fragrant. Add the chicken or vegetable stock, and then stir in the turnip, yams, carrots, and barley. Add about half a teaspoon of salt. Increase the heat to high to bring the soup to a boil. Once it boils, reduce the heat to medium and let the soup simmer for about 45 to 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the liquid reduces to the point that the vegetables are not swimming in the broth, add more. You can also partially cover the pot to slow the evaporation of the liquid.

The soup is ready once the pearl barley is fully cooked. The grain will have a firm outside, but when you bite into it, it shouldn’t be hard at all. Taste the soup and add salt and black pepper to taste. It is now ready to serve. This soup keeps in the fridge for up to 5 days or so, and it also freezes very well.

Two Chilled Avocado Soups

If I haven’t already made it clear, allow me to do so now: I am a soup fanatic. I love to eat it, I love to make it, and I love that there are many different styles of soup, each with its own process and technique, and each wide open to numerous possibilities. There is rarely a time when I would say no to a hot, steaming bowl of delicious soup.

Except, that is, for in the middle of summer, when the weather itself is far too warm for me to want to consume anything hot and steaming. The simple solution? Cold soup! There are the classics, like vichyssoise, gazpacho, and borscht, but just like hot soups, there are many, many different variations of chilled soups. And what better candidate could there be as the main component of a cold soup than the rich and creamy avocado?

I recently tried out two different chilled avocado soups with completely different flavour profiles. The Chilled Avocado Soup Shots with Spicy Breadcrumbs from the June 2010 Bon Appétit was simpler from an ingredients standpoint, and focused more on the avocado itself. The Spicy Avocado-Cucumber Soup in the 2011 Food & Wine Annual Cookbook, on the other hand, had more ingredients, and had more flavour complexity.

Soup number one—BA’s soup—was a simple matter of pureeing four ingredients (avocado, broth, heavy cream, and lime juice) together in a blender, seasoning it, and putting it in the fridge to chill. I also made the breadcrumbs, which were toasted on the stovetop with melted butter, paprika, cayenne, and salt.

I appreciate the simplicity of this recipe. If you want a soup that showcases avocado, this is the one. I even went so far as to tweak this one to use a little more avocado, and a little less cream. I mean, the avocado is creamy enough on its own, isn’t it? Another note about this recipe: be sure to use a very mild-tasting broth. Anything with too strong of a flavour will easily overpower the avocado. You may even want to use half broth and half water.

Soup number two—F&W’s soup—was also simple to put together, though it involved more ingredients. As per the recipe’s instructions, I made this one in the food processor.

 This soup includes cucumber, avocado, Thai green curry paste, sugar, lime zest and juice, Serrano chile, water, and coconut milk. Let me tell you: I loved this recipe. I loved the coolness that the cucumber added, and the sugar, while working to balance out the spiciness, seemed to make the cucumber’s delicate flavour pop. I liked the hint of spiciness from the curry paste and the chile. The heat is definitely not overpowering, just a subtle tingling that comes with the aftertaste. I loved the sweetness and the richness that the coconut milk added as well. This recipe seemed very Thai to me, especially with the balance between the hot (curry and chile), sour (lime), sweet (sugar, coconut milk), salty (salt), and plain (cucumber, water). I’ll bet that some chopped and salted peanuts would make a great garnish to this soup.

A quick note on making this recipe: I halved the recipe, and it barely fit into my 11-cup food processor. The original doesn’t say anything about this, but I’ve added a note in the recipe below that if you are making the full amount, you will need to purée it in batches. Another note about this recipe: it is raw, vegan, and gluten-free, for anyone who is keeping track!

So which recipe is better? Well, I’d say that’s all a matter of opinion, and depends on what you’re looking for. I have my favourite, but both of these soups have their merits. There’s a lot more summer left, and plenty of time to try both these recipes, as well as many, many other variations on the cold soup.

Chilled Avocado Soup Shots with Spicy Breadcrumbs
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine, June 2010, p. 75
Makes 8 small glasses.

Soup
1 large ripe avocado (or two, if using less cream), halved, pitted, peeled, diced
1 ½ cups (or more) MILD vegetable broth or low-salt chicken broth (or, ¾ cup broth and ¾ cup water, depending on how strong your broth is)
¼ cup heavy whipping cream (or 1/8 cup if using two avocados)
2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
Kosher salt
Breadcrumbs
1 4x4x1/2-inch slice soft white sandwich bread with crust
1 tbsp. butter
¾ tsp. paprika
¼ tsp. coarse kosher salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Place diced avocado in blender. Add 1 ½ cups broth, whipping cream, lime juice, and a big pinch of salt. Puree until smooth. As necessary, add broth by ¼ cupfuls to thin soup to desired consistency. Taste and add salt to season, if necessary. Cover and chill at least 2 hours. (Soup can be made up to 24 hours in advance.)

Finely grind bread in food processor. Melt butter in medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add breadcrumbs to skillet; stir until golden, about 1 minute. Add paprika, coarse salt, and cayenne; stir until breadcrumbs are crisp, about a minute longer. Transfer to a small bowl and cool.

Pour about 1/3 cup of soup into eight small glasses. Sprinkle each serving lightly with breadcrumbs.

Spicy Avocado-Cucumber Soup
Adapted from 2011 Food & Wine Annual Cookbook, p. 62
Serves 10

*NOTE: In most processors, the ingredients will not all fit in one batch. Half works in an 11-cup processor, so I’d suggest doing the recipe in two batches for this size of processor, and in more batches for anything smaller. If you have a larger processor, keep in mind, you’ll need space for approximately 18 cups of liquid in your processor to do this entire recipe in one batch!

Two 12-ounce cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and chopped
2 Hass avocados, coarsely chopped
2 tsp. Thai green curry paste
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. finely grated lime zest
1 Serrano chile, seeded and chopped
3 ½ cups water
One 13-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
3 tbsp. fresh lime juice
Salt
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted
10 cilantro sprigs

In a food processor, puree the cucumbers until smooth. Add the avocados, curry paste, sugar, lime zest, and chile. Process until blended. Add the water, coconut milk, and lime juice and process until smooth. Transfer the soup to a large bowl and season with salt. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about one hour.

Ladle the soup into small bowls or cups. Garnish with the toasted coconut flakes, the cilantro sprigs, and serve.

One final note: A really nice touch to any chilled soup is to place the dishes you will be serving it in into the fridge fifteen minutes before you’re ready to plate. This will make the dishes as icy cold as the soup, and the soup will seem even more refreshing!

A Little Unusual: Ramen with Tuna

Sometimes, a recipe looks so unique, I feel absolutely compelled to try it. An unexpected combination of ingredients just has a way of drawing me in. I love it when this happens, when I am surprised by an idea I never would have thought of before. This was the case with a dish described in this May’s Bon Appétit. The recipe was not so much a recipe as a few lines describing how to throw together this quick meal in a brief feature on different uses for canned tuna. This one was tuna with ramen.

So here’s the general idea: store-bought kimchi-flavoured ramen is combined with tuna, vegetables, herbs, and egg to make a more complete meal. I have a soft-spot for instant ramen, but I don’t allow myself to have it often because of the multitude of sins it commits against a healthy, natural diet of whole foods. One glance at the ingredients list will tell you how heavily processed this stuff is, and skimming the nutritional facts will quickly indicate that having this every day would not be wise. Still, a bowl of those salty, slurpy, scrumptious noodles every once in a while is fine by me, and the idea in Bon Appétit seemed like an improvement on having the soup as-is.

This is not the first time I’ve heard of adding other ingredients to store-bought ramen , but it was certainly the first time I had heard of adding tuna. I started by warming sesame oil in a pot with a dash of red pepper flakes.

Next, BA suggests adding some diced vegetables: carrot, pepper, onion, broccoli, and garlic would all be good. I was feeling lazy, though, and decided to omit the extra veggies. Instead, I added the tuna. I used half of a five-ounce can for my one bowl of ramen. Then, I stirred in the flavour packet from the ramen. Actually, I stirred in about three-quarters of the flavour packet—I never find it necessary to use the whole thing.

When the tuna had warmed up, I added vegetable stock and the ramen noodles, and brought it to a boil. Then, I threw in some herbs (basil and cilantro, but feel free to use whatever you have on hand), and cracked an egg into the hot liquid. My thought here was that I would poach the egg, as the BA recipe suggests, but I’m not sure if this is the best method. It takes a while for the egg to cook through this way, and by the time it’s done, the noodles start getting mushy and over-cooked. I would suggest beating the egg a bit first, then adding it in so that you get more of an egg ribbon effect.

So the final results? It was good, but way too salty. I really have to talk about the salt here, because it was a major issue for me. These instant ramen soups are always high-sodium (this one boasts 1021 mg of sodium for HALF the bowl!!!), but I found that this one tasted even saltier than usual, and I didn’t even use the entire flavour packet. I used tuna with no salt added and a low-sodium store-bought stock. My suggestion to reduce the sodium even more: use only half the flavour packet, and use either salt-free homemade stock or just plain water.

What I loved about trying this recipe out, was that it made me want to try out other combinations with ramen. What about a broccoli stir-fry with shrimp ramen? Or chicken ramen with vegetables and bacon added? I figure, if instant ramen is something I’ll only allow myself every once in a while, I might as well make the most of it.

Cream of Carrot Soup

Last weekend, Andrew (the future husband, for those of you just tuning in) had his wisdom teeth removed. Naturally, my first thought was, “OK, so what should I cook?” I mean, that was my second thought. My first thought was, “Gee, I hope he’ll be all right.” And, of course, he was. The operation went very smoothly and the whole ordeal was about as problem-free as we could expect.

So, that put me into the role of Andrew’s personal at-home nurse: I made sure he took his pills, iced his swollen cheeks, and ate lots of delicious pureed foods. I bought pudding, Jell-O, and popsicles and I made gallons of soup. I made Chilled Edamame Soup and I made Tomato Soup and I made Cream of Carrot Soup.

My cream of carrot soup is fairly straight-forward and involves nothing earth-shattering in terms of technique, but it always receives rave reviews. I first made it at the restaurant I worked at over the summer where soup was the only thing that staff were allowed to eat free of charge. When I was the daytime cook, it was one of my responsibilities in the morning to make the soup of the day. This happened to be my favorite responsibility because I pretty much had carte blanche to make whatever I wanted using anything we already had in the restaurant. The only drawback was the selection wasn’t great in terms of ingredients. Chicken noodle and vegetable soups were standard, and cream soups were also usually doable. Sometimes, one or two of the servers would take a bowl of soup during their shift, but we often barely went through half the pot in a day. Soup doesn’t sell very well in the summer and I have to say, our soup selections were not exactly inspiring. Well, the first time I made cream of carrot, the pot was gone before my shift ended. One waitress tried it, and spread the word to customers and coworkers that it was a soup worth ordering, and it was gone in no time.
I think that a lot of people are turned off by the thought of cream of carrot soup. It sounds a little like baby food. In terms of taste, though, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Carrots are one of the most under-valued vegetables out there. They are far more remarkable than people give them credit for: they manage to be both sweet and savory at the same time and this is most evident when they are cooked. The sugars become more concentrated, sweetening the carrots, while they still remain savory. And in case that wasn’t convincing enough, I’ll also remind you that carrots are packed with nutrients, and incredibly inexpensive. I bought a two-pound bag for a dollar. As wonderful as carrots are, there is more to this soup that makes it such a hit. I hate to bring this up after raving about the nutritional value of carrots, but two other necessary components of this soup are butter and cream. Yep: pure, unadulterated, saturated fat. That said, there isn’t exactly a ton of it in there. Butter is used to sauté the vegetables and make the roux, and the soup is finished with cream. Bowl for bowl, there really isn’t an excessive amount of fat: the carrots really have center stage here.

Now, a quick note on production: at the restaurant, I had to puree my soup by transferring it, bit by bit, into a food processor. This was a messy and cumbersome process. At home, I have an immersion blender and it works wonders. It’s simple to use, easy to clean, and involves no transferring of the soup to different containers. I got mine for $30, and I highly recommend it as a kitchen must-have.

Of course, if you don’t have one and can’t get one, a blender or food processor works just fine.

So, if you or someone you know is having teeth pulled out of their mouth, make them this soup. Or, just make it for yourself and enjoy the creamy, rich, carroty goodness.


Cream of Carrot Soup
Makes about 4 medium bowls

I use chicken stock to make this soup, but if you wanted to make it vegetarian, you could use vegetable stock. A word of warning though: try to use a stock that is as smooth and mild as you can find it. Vegetable stocks can sometimes have strong flavors, but you really don’t want that here. Try making the stock yourself using only very mild vegetables. Use a lot of carrots!

2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 lb. carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp. flour
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, cold
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2-3/4 cup heavy cream
¼ tsp. nutmeg
Salt and pepper
2 tsp. crème fraîche (optional)
2 tsp. chopped chives (optional)

Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and sauté until carrots begin to soften, 6-7 minutes. Stir in the flour and continue to cook and stir for one minute.

Stir in the stock and thyme, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender and the flour taste of the roux is gone, about 30-40 minutes. It is important that the carrots are soft all the way through. Otherwise, you’ll have lumpy soup.

Off the heat and puree the soup using an immersion blender, or by transferring it in batches to a food processor or blender. If necessary, return the soup to the pot, and place over medium-low heat. Stir in the cream and nutmeg and cook gently until it heats through. Taste and season with salt and pepper (use white pepper if you don’t want dark flecks in your soup).

If desired, garnish with a drop or drizzle of crème fraîche and a sprinkle of chives.

A Story About Hot and Sour Soup

I can’t eat hot and sour soup without being reminded of a cold January day when my Mom and I trekked out to the café around the corner for a steaming bowl of soup for lunch.

Now, for any readers who don’t already know, I’m from Montreal. So when I say it was a cold January day, I mean it was a COLD January day. I’m talking so cold, that when you open up the door a crack to get the newspaper, you’re chilled in seconds and it will take you the next hour to get warm again. I’m talking so cold that it literally freezes your face, as in, after a minute or so, you can’t smile, frown, or wiggle your nose. I’m talking so cold that unless you’re wearing snow pants, your legs go numb so that if you flick your thigh, you won’t feel it. I’m talking so cold that leaving an indoors, heated environment wearing anything less than a parka, a scarf, a toque, insulated gloves, and warm boots, is asking for hypothermia.

So, yeah, it was that kind of cold. And, very wisely, my Mom suggested that we go around the corner to this little café and have a bowl of their hot and sour soup for lunch. It would be just the thing for a day like this. I gladly accepted her invitation.

The walk from our house to the café was less than ten minutes, but we were painfully frozen by the time we got to it. The café was warm and smelled delicious (they bake fresh bread), so we were immediately comforted by the welcoming environment and took our seats. We waited a moment before removing our coats, still feeling the chill from outside, and looked around for someone who might be available to serve us. It’s a small place, and at the moment, we were the only customers inside, so whoever was working must have been hiding in back.

I went up to the counter and called towards the kitchen: “Hello?” It took a minute, but the kindly man who owns the café with his wife eventually emerged, wringing his hands and all apologies for making us wait.

We told him it was no trouble, and really, we didn’t mind. We were in no rush, and knew that this café had never been known for its prompt and exceptional customer service. We just wanted our soup.

“We’ll both take a large hot and sour soup,” my Mom said.

“Oh,” the owner said, looking a little apprehensive, “yes, sure, but we have to make it.”

“You don’t have any now?”

“No, but we’ll make it,” the owner insisted, seeming to suddenly cheer at the thought of making soup. “No trouble.”

My Mom wasn’t so convinced. “You have to make it from scratch?”

“Yes, but it will be very fresh. No trouble, I’ll be back soon.” And he scurried away before we could get another word in.

My Mom and I looked at each other uncertainly, both thinking that this wasn’t quite what we had come for. How long could it take to make the soup from scratch? Neither of us knew, but we decided too long. So, when the owner returned with glasses of water for us, we tried again to tell him we would order something different.

The owner wouldn’t hear of it. “No, no. My wife is already making it. It will be very good. No trouble.”

At this point, it seemed rude to refuse him. Both of us were hungry, and neither of us felt like sitting around for an hour waiting for a bowl of soup, but it seemed we were stuck. We weren’t totally put off, though. Like I said, we weren’t rushed, and hadn’t we come here for the soup anyways?We chatted and waited, soon growing warm enough to remove our coats and scarves. We watched a few customers pass through, getting coffees to go or fresh bread. One man, who clearly must have been insane, ordered an ice cream cone, which he ate two tables away from us. We had warmed up completely by then, but we shuddered at the thought of the coldness of that ice cream on a day like this.

Fifteen minutes went by … twenty … and then thirty. We were really hungry now, and I was at the point where I didn’t even want the soup anymore. It shouldn’t have been this much trouble for such a simple order, and there was an apple turnover in the pastry case that seemed to be calling my name. I knew the owner was going out of his way to give us what we wanted, but isn’t there a point where pleasing the customer just goes too far? Or, more accurately, what was the point of giving the customer what he or she wants when it also meant giving them something they didn’t want? Like a wait longer than half an hour.

It was forty-five minutes after the owner first took our order that he finally emerged from the kitchen, proudly carrying two very large, steaming bowls of hot and sour soup. My Mom and I were so relieved to finally get some food that we only mumbled a quick thanks before digging in.

It only took one full slurp for me to realize that all of this had been worth the trouble. The trek through the freezing cold, the long wait, the awkwardness of feeling like we had caused an inconvenience—all of it was forgotten as I filled my mouth and my belly with that soup. The spiciness, the sourness, the savory tofu and mushrooms, and the silky strands of egg all seemed to heighten the warmth of this dark, earthy soup. After being indoors for nearly an hour, we thought that we had thoroughly ridden ourselves from the outside chill, but that soup seemed to seep into cold nooks and crannies of ourselves that we didn’t even know were there and warm them up.

I think that this experience is responsible for the profound love I have now for hot and sour soup. I order it anytime I get take-out Chinese food, and enjoy it every time (though perhaps the experience never quite matches up to the one my Mom and I had at that café).
Just recently, as the chill of winter set in, I made my own hot and sour soup. I used Mark Bittman’s recipe from The Best Recipes in the World and it was delicious. For the most part, I followed the recipe as it was, but I couldn't find the correct mushrooms or the lily buds the recipe called for, so I used a package of mixed dried mushrooms and it worked beautifully. It made the soup a little different from what I've had at restaurants, but in a good way. If you’re a fan of porcini, Portobello, shiitake, oyster, and cremini mushrooms, what's not to like? And I think the real thing to love when it comes to hot and sour soup is the broth, and this is where you get to have some fun.

First of all, as with any soup, use a good quality stock that you love the taste of. Homemade is always best, but your favorite store-bought stock is also good. And to get that signature hot and sour flavor, add your sesame oil, pepper and rice vinegar in small increments, tasting all the way, to ensure that you get exactly the flavor you want. Personally, I like the soup to have a good bite of sourness and just a bit of spiciness in the background, so I go a little heavier on the rice vinegar and a little lighter on the pepper. It's all about getting the balance that you want, so take your time with it. Andrew and I had big steaming bowls of this for dinner with fried spring rolls--it was a delicious and memorable meal.

Hot and Sour Soup
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s The Best Recipes in the World
Makes 4 servings

1 tsp. Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. dark sesame oil
3 tbsp. cornstarch
½ lb. lean boneless pork loin, chicken breast, or flank steak, cut into thin shreds against the grain (I used pork, and probably will again the next time I make this)
6 cups good quality chicken stock
2 garlic cloves, minced
1” piece ginger, peeled and minced
5 dried black mushrooms, soaked in hot water for at least 10 minutes
5 dried Chinese wood ear mushrooms, soaked in hot water for at least 10 minutes
10 dried lily buds, soaked in hot water for at least 10 minutes
(For the last 4 ingredients above, a mixture of varieties of dried mushrooms can be substituted)
½ lb. extra-firm tofu, cut into small cubes
¼ cup rice vinegar, or more to taste
1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
½ cup chopped scallion

Whisk together the wine and 1 tsp. each of the soy sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch. Combine the meat shreds with this mixture to marinate while you combine the stock with the garlic and ginger in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Drain the mushrooms and lily buds (if using), trim off all the hard ends, cut into thin slices, and add to the stock. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Bring the stock back to a boil over medium heat and add the meat. Stir to make sure the pieces do not stick together and cook until the meat loses its pinkness, about 3 minutes. then add the tofu, vinegar, pepper, and remaining soy sauce. Reduce the heat to low again and simmer for 5 minutes.

Mix the remaining cornstarch with ¼ cup cold water and stir that mixture into the soup until it thickens, about 1 minute. Continue to stir and pour in the eggs in a slow stream. The eggs should form thin, almost transparent ribbons. Remove from the heat and season with the remaining sesame oil. Add more vinegar and pepper to adjust to taste, testing all the way to get the flavor you want. Garnish with cilantro and scallion and serve hot.

For vegetarian hot and sour soup, omit the meat and add ½ lb. more tofu and ¼ lb. slivered bamboo shoots. Substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock.