five thousand shades of blue
Wednesday, July 25, 2001
How to make :
- Get out a big soup pot; it must accommodate more than the broth. This is actually 4x the recipe out of my cookbook, the original of which allegedly serves 6. Hah. Maybe 6 elves. My mods make enough for 2-3 people (depending on appetite) to have dinner and then lunch the next day. Gotta love leftovers.
- 12 cups of chicken broth (if you use boullion, only use 10 cubes to 12 water. Trust me on this, I'll tell you why later). The vegetarians out there can use vegetable broth.
- ~2 lbs of pork (for some reason chicken with the chicken broth does NOT work, taste wise). Or, firm tofu cut into smallish pieces (again, for those who don't do meat).
- Veg! Green onions, shiitake mushrooms, , water chestnuts, , and so on. Use as much as you want, I guess. I happen to like it well stocked with vegetation.
- Don't add anything yet.
- Beat 8 eggs well and set them aside.
- Bring the broth up to temp. Take out 2 cups of the now-hot broth and dissolve 8 teaspoons of cornstarch in it. Then dump it back into the soup.
- Now add: 4 tbsp soy sauce (this, my friends, is why you only need 10 cubes -- otherwise, it is too salty), 2-3 tbsp sesame oil. Then boil the soup. I mean, BOILING. And start adding stuff. The veg. The meat (or tofu) -- which is why you need smallish pieces, because they will cook thoroughly when they hit the broth.
- Keep that soup moving as you slowly pour the egg in. The egg will cook the instant it hits the boiling broth.
- Turn down heat; serve with cilantro sprinkled on top (ok, this is not part of the recipe, but I think it tastes swell) and a small bowl of chow mein noodles on the side.
What not to do with your egg drop soup:
- Take the name too literally.
- That is to say, do not set it down on an unstable table so that gravity will take over and send your bowl of boiling hot soup splashing all over your arm and foot, heating up the buckle on your Birks such that you blister, and otherwise burning you pretty painfully.
(I am much better today. The blisters look and feel weird and are still a mite tender, and I just have a few red marks on my hand and arm. Here's a handy tip: Preparation H makes an excellent burn cream. I kid you not.)
And you, dear readers, benefit from my injury and stupidity! Aren't I kind?
is
this just not enough…?
