Recipe Hot & Sour Cabbage Soup

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I read somewhere that it's a good idea to make things without a recipe at times. While I like to pride myself on mostly making only things I invent, I typically document what I'm doing when I'm making it, in case I want to do it again. But, I've recently decided to make at least one meal a week without a recipe.

That's what happened here. I had a cabbage and leeks that I wanted to use for a cabbage "butter noodle" recipe (using shaved cabbage in place of the noodles). But, after my heavy food last week (fried chicken, heavy sauce, cheese, rye bread), I decided on something lighter. But, I didn't want to just make regular cabbage soup. Thus, a mashup is born.

I know what I said about no recipe, but the result was so delicious that I had to reconstruct what I did. Here's my best approximation of that.

NOTE: nutritional info is courtesy of Food.com, where I store all my recipes. I think an entire bowl is about the same calories as one of my fried chicken nuggets. And, note the sodium: I kept it very low by not using soy sauce (Chinkiang vinegar is my best friend when making Asian foods):

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sesame oil
4 ounces leeks
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 ounce ginger, grated
1⁄2 head cabbage, shaved into small uniform pieces
2 tablespoons tamarind paste
1 quart low sodium vegetable stock
28 ounces crushed tomatoes
8 calabrian chili peppers, diced, with oil
6 ounces bamboo shoots, cut into strips (canned is perfect)
4 ounces Chinkiang vinegar
3 ounces rice vinegar
1⁄2 cup water (or use drained liquid from canned vegetables)
3 ounces cornstarch (or 4 ounces of flour)
2 large eggs

Directions

1. Heat sesame oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add leeks and saute for about 5 minutes, scraping the bottom continuously with a spoon or spatula. Add garlic and ginger and saute for another minute, stirring continuously.
2. Add cabbage and bamboo shoots to pot and stir thoroughly to coat. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes.Stir in tamarind paste to coat thoroughly and cook for another minute. Add vegetable stock and stir thoroughly.
3. Open the can of tomatoes, but leave them in the can. Add chopped Calabrian chili peppers (minus the stems) to the can. Use an immersion blender for 30 seconds or so to blend tomatoes and peppers together. Add mixture to the pot and stir thoroughly.
4. Add both vinegars to the pot and stir. Cook for 20 minutes on medium heat, or until cabbage is tender.
5. In a separate bowl, use liquid reserved from bamboo shoots to blend with cornstarch. Alternately, use 1/2 cup of water or some of the soup removed from the pot. Blend the cornstarch mixture into the soup by pouring in a steady stream while stirring continuously.
6. Whisk two eggs in a bowl, then blend them into the soup by pouring in a stead stream while stirring continuously. This will produce a "feathering" effect in the soup.
7. Stir in chopped cilantro and serve, adding additional fresh cilantro as a garnish.

 

[Morning Glory]

A fascinating recipe - would you say its inspired by Chinese dishes?

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

A fascinating recipe - would you say its inspired by Chinese dishes?

Absolutely. I've made many hot & sour soups the more traditional way (without tomato or cabbage, but with tofu, mushrooms, and some sort of meat), so I had an idea of what to throw into it. To me, hot & sour soup needs three things: peppers (for the "hot"), vinegar (for the "sour"), and tamarind (for more "sour" with a bit of sweet). I also think the Calabrian chili peppers made a difference: I'd normally use crushed pepper flakes, but these peppers had a lot more depth.

 

[Morning Glory]

So - the Calabrian peppers, are they dried, fresh or from a jar?

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

So - the Calabrian peppers, are they dried, fresh or from a jar?

They're in oil, and a bit like these:

These are my new favorite peppers (sorry, serrano). As redundant as it sounds, I like how....peppery these peppers are compared to other peppers. It's a heat that starts low, and gradually builds, in case you haven't tried them. I'll have to see if I can get them fresh to see how they compare. With the peppers in oil, I sometimes add the oil to dips if I want to kick up the heat without obliterating the flavor.

 

[Francesca]

@The Late Night Gourmet,

Like this profile .. Lovely idea .. Just noted it in the new Cooking Bites Notebook ..

Thanks for posting ..