More Hot Sour

Thanksgiving Dinner. Turkey. Ham. Stuffing. Mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes. Hot and Sour Soup.

Really?

I've been living in a house dubbed geek-house for a few years now. The original occupants probably lived there for two or three more years before me.

I'd be willing to bet that in all that time, they never made turkey. At least, for Thanksgiving. After all, Thanksgiving is the holiday most people associate with going home, so I suspect the Americans in the household went home, and the non-Americans didn't make turkey.

This year, I thought I'd have to work. Deadlines, you know.

So I didn't plan to go home for Thanksgiving, which I had done the previous two years.

So this year, I decided to make turkey. Now, I didn't have a particular plan for turkey. I had read some ideas on turkey preparation. Some people suggest baking the turkey upside down. Spice rubs have become popular. Then, there's the recent hot trend of brining the turkey. A few years ago, I had read about cooking the turkey in very low temperatures, around 200 F, instead of say 350. You'd bake it twice as long, and then, say, in the final hour, pump the temperature up so it wouldn't be full of bacteria and such.

I tried brining, but without actually reading about it. Not such a good idea. And I only did it for an hour, instead of the recommended 6-8 hours, so I'm sure the effect was rather minimal.

But what else to cook besides the standard turkey? I had stuffing. I had some potatoes. I bought french-cut green beans. What makes them French, I don't know.

Then, I thought, I could make hot and sour soup. I had made it a few times before, and it seemed pretty easy. Most recipes call for lily buds of some sort, and cloud ears, both ingredients rather difficult to find. They also ask for Asian mushrooms like shitaake, which has become much easier to find in recent years.

I usually get tofu and regular mushrooms and bamboo shoots.

But the key to hot and sour soup? Other than decent broth, it's the vinegar. If you want something that tastes a bit out of the ordinary, but is still quite tasty, get Chiangking vinegar. It's a kind of black Chinese vinegar. I'd get it instead of Chinese black vinegar. The one I bought was simply not sour. I'd pour a cup in, and still the sourness didn't come through. Get Chiangking instead.

I also got pork chops and cut it thin. But really, you should douse it in soy and some alcohol of some sort, say, sherry or some alcohol. I think this breaks down the meat some so it isn't so tough, and darkens the pork from a pale white to a rich brown.

Then, mix eggs with cornstarch (supposed to make the eggs stay together as you cook). Mix, stir, and half an hour later, you have decent soup.