Pork Hot and Sour Soup

Today for dinner I made pork hot and sour soup. I got the recipe from the Shoujo Beat magazine in the section called "Easy Does it bye Jennifer Olvera". I tried uploading a picture of the recipe but the text was too small, so I'll just type it out:

Ingredients:

1/2 lb pork tenderloin

1 pkg char sui (Chinese bbq) seasoning

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vegetable oil

1/2 a while onion finely diced

3/4 cup or thinly sliced button mushrooms (About 6 mushrooms)

2 cloves minced garlic

7 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp red whine vinegar or wine garlic vinegar (I used red cooking wine)

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs beaten

2 green onions, trimmed and sliced

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

I wasn't able to find any char sui at the store so I found a recipe online to substitute (found at

http://bbq.about.com/od/barbecuesaucerecipes/r/ble10312.htm)

"

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

• Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup sherry
  • 2/3 cup hoisin sauce
  • 2/3 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons black bean paste
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt

  Preparation:

  Combine all ingredients in a double boiler and simmer for 10 minutes or until it begins to thicken. Allow to cool and store in the refrigerator."
  
  

The only real problems I had with the recipes was the issue of missing ingredients, we didn't have any hoisin sauce or black bean paste so I had to go to the store to try and find it, fortunetally the store I went to had an Asian food section that I did find the hoison sauce in, although I had to substitute a different sauce for the black bean paste since they didn't have that. At the start of the recipe it tells you to mix the pork, char sui, and water in a zip lock baggie to marinate, we were out of the large zip locks so I just used a bowl. The mixture is supposed to marinate for 2-4 hours but I didn't have that long so I only marinated it for 1 hour, which ended up being fine.

While it was marinating I got out the rest of the ingredients and I cut up the onion, this would also be when I would cut up the mushrooms but I didn't put mushrooms in. After the pork was done marinating I put it in a pot to pan on medium heat, it takes about 20 minutes to cook. Leaving the meat to cook I put the onions in a soup pan to cook you let it cook for about five minutes and then added the garlic and let it cook for about three more minutes. After that I added most of the remaining ingredients to the pot (Didn't add: the eggs, cilantro, or green onions). I then brought it to a boil and then turned it down to low to simmer for about 20 minutes, then I turned it up to medium heat and added the now fully cooked, and cut up, meat and the egg, the instructions then say it's done but I let it simmer on low for about 10 minutes I then served it, I put the green onions and cilantro on the table so that people would have the option of whether or not they would put some in their soup.

Overall I found this recipe very easy to make and it was very delicious to eat afterwards. Everyone enjoyed it ^_^ Although it didn't taste like any hot and sour soup I'd ever eaten, it was still delicious to eat! I served it with hot Jasmine Green tea which made it taste all the better. I was going to post a picture of the finished product but I forgot to take one...