Soups Recipes - Pork Soup with Cloud Ears Recipe

Ingredients

• 4-6 Chinese dried mushrooms

• 2-3 small pieces of cloud ear (wood ear) mushrooms

• 115g/4oz pork fillet (tenderloin), cut into fine strips

• 45ml/3 tbsp corn flour (cornstarch)

• 150ml/2/3 cup water

• 15-30ml/1-2 tbsp sunflower oil

• 1 small onion, finely chopped

• 1.5 liters/6 cups good quality beef or chicken stock

• 150g/5oz fresh firm tofu, diced

• 60ml/4 tbsp rice vinegar

• 15ml/1 tbsp light soy sauce

• 1 egg, beaten

• 5 ml/1 tsp sesame oil

• salt and ground black pepper

• 2-3 spring onions (scallions), shredded, to garnish

Serves 6

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Method:

1. Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl, with the pieces of cloud ear. Add sufficient warm water to cover and leave to soak for about 30 minutes.

2. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking water. Cut off and discard the mushroom stems and slice the caps finely. Trim away any tough stem from the wood ears, then chop them.

3. Lightly dust the strips of pork with some of the corn flour; mix the remaining corn flour to a paste with the water.

4. Heat the oil in a wok and fry the onion until soft. Increase the heat and fry the pork until it changes color.

5. Add the stock, mushrooms, soaking water and cloud ears. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.

6. Stir in the corn flour paste to thicken. Add the tofu, vinegar; soy sauce, and salt and pepper.

7. Bring the soup to just below boiling point. then drizzle in the beaten egg so that it forms threads. Stir in the sesame oil and serve at once, garnished with spring onion shreds.

Note: One of China's most popular soups, this is famed for its clever balance of flavors. The "hot" comes from the pepper, the "sour" from the vinegar.