Monday I made J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Hot and Sour Soup from The Wok.

This soup uses the same Everyday Chicken and Ginger Stock as the Egg Drop Soup. This time, I butchered the chicken further, yielding two leg quarters, two wings, two bone-in breasts still connected by the breastbone, and the back and ribs. I definitely got more breast meat out of it this way, and the chicken pieces fit in the water better. But I didn’t notice a flavor difference.

For the soup, wood ear mushrooms and daylily buds are rehydrated in hot water. The mushrooms are then slivered and the daylilies cut into 2-inch lengths.

Fresh beech mushrooms are stir-fried until browned, and then slivered pork is added and stir-fried until cooked. Kenji calls for either shoulder or loin, I went with shoulder. The wood ear mushrooms and daylily buds are added and then a bit of Shaoxing wine.

Stock and matchstick-cut tofu are added and everything is brought to a simmer. Similar to egg drop, this gets thickened with a cornstarch slurry and then eggs whisked with salt and cornstarch are drizzled in.

White pepper and Chinkiang vinegar are added at the end (the hot and sour), then a bit of roasted sesame oil, scallions, and cilantro.

Kenji suggests serving with additional white pepper, vinegar, and sesame oil at the table, but we didn’t add anything.

I served the soup with the rest of the pork shoulder steak that I quickly pan-cooked, rice, and salad.

The soup was good. It had enough ingredients in it to satisfy Megan. My son picked the pork pieces out of it. The white pepper and Chinkiang vinegar came through strongly, but not overpoweringly.

This one might make another appearance on our table.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.