What's up everyone?
Today, Chef Daddy Lau is going to teach us
How to make hot and sour soup
Also known as "syūn laaht tōng"
This dish was a favorite at my parents' old restaurant
And it's often found on most Chinese takeout menus
As popular as hot and sour soup is
Interestingly, this wasn't something my parents ate
Growing up in Guangzhou
As with a lot of Chinese dishes, the origin (or origins)
Are hard to pinpoint, but it's likely further north
Where the weather is colder and the flavors are more heat-inducing
Our friends at Chinese Cooking Demystified
Have a great write up on this in their own
Version of Hot and Sour Soup
Regardless of where the dish came from
It's a perfect soup for a cold winter day that's
Equal parts spicy and soothing
Teaching us this delicious hot and sour soup recipe
Will be my dad, who's been cooking Chinese food for over 50 years
And, who also happens to be playing the flute
That you're listening to right now
Be sure to stay tuned at the end to eat with my family
And to learn more about the dish
If you're looking for a written version of this recipe
Check out our blog post at madewithlau.com
Where you'll find an adjustable list of ingredients
And step-by-step videos to guide you
As you make the recipe at home. Hope you guys enjoy!
Hello friends! I hope all of you are doing well!
Today, we'll be making Hot and Sour Soup
It's cold weather, and a lot of people have
Been wanting to eat Hot and Sour Soup
Today, our soup will only contain vegetables, no meat.
If you want to add meat, that's totally fine
But the version we'll be making today is
Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup
Just to highlight a few key ingredients
We're using 3 different types of mushrooms
Shiitake, seafood mushroom, and king oyster
As well as dried wood ear fungus
At least for my dad’s recipe, the heat comes almost entirely from white pepper
If you've never heard of white pepper
It's a spice that's ground up from white peppercorns
Fun fact: black and white pepper actually both come from a fruit
The same fruit, to be exact
White peppercorns, black peppercorns, green peppercorns, red peppercorns
These are all the same berry from the same pepper plant, piper nigrum
The main difference is when and how they’re harvested and processed
Black peppercorns are dried as soon as they’re picked
And their skin becomes black and shriveled
White peppercorns are soaked for at least a week
Which allows the outer skin to decompose
This leaves just the seed to be dried
With its distinctive heat and concentrated spiciness
As you’ll see in my dad’s recipe, even just a teaspoon
Of white pepper is enough for a pretty noticeable kick of heat
Let's open our seafood mushroom package first
We'll only need to use half of this (about 2 oz)
First, let's cut away the roots, which we won’t be using
Cut the stem in half, lengthwise
Wash the mushrooms in water
This is a king oyster mushroom
We'll be using half (about 2 oz)
Cut into small strips
Next, we'll be cutting 2 to 3 shiitake mushrooms
If you bought dried shiitake mushrooms,
Then rehydrate them in warm water for 5-10 minutes
We'll also be cutting about 1/4 ounce of dried wood ear fungus
Rehydrate them in warm water for 15-20 minutes
Then cut them into small strips
Two additional notes - first, these types of mushrooms are always great
Substitutes for meat in most of the recipes my dad makes
Second, with the exception of tomatoes
Which vegetables you use and how much are pretty flexible
When dry it's about 1/4 oz, but when wet, it'll be about 2 oz
This is a carrot
We'll be using about 1.5 to 2 oz
We'll be using half of a red bell pepper (about 1 oz)
I'll be using two tomatoes (medium sized)
For cutting tomatoes, my dad has a pretty cool dicing technique
Cut off the end with the green stem
Cut the tomato in half
Then make cuts about 1 centimeter apart
That just almost reach the edge of the tomato
Then, we’ll turn the tomato and make perpendicular cuts
Because the tomato is still held in place
It’s much easier to make these perpendicular cuts
We'll chop our tofu into small strips
Watch
Great, we're done chopping everything
Before we start cooking, we’ll also prepare a cornstarch slurry
With 3 tbsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp water
We’ll also crack two eggs into a bowl
Which we’ll be mixing together later for our egg drop.
Great, now we'll begin heating our wok
Set the stove to the highest heat
We'll add a little bit of oil, not too much
This is corn oil
We'll be adding two chili peppers to the oil
Once we're done, we don't need the chilis anymore
The purpose here is to add a spicy essence to the oil
We’ll heat our chilies for about 1 minute as our wok heats up
Great, our chilis are done
Now we have some chili flavor in our oil
We can remove these from the wok, we won't need them anymore
First, we'll cook our tomatoes (for 30-60 seconds)
For this recipe, it'll serve about 4-5 people
We'll add 5 cups of water
To speed up our cooking time, I've boiled some water in advance
5 cups of water for this recipe
As the soup starts to boil, we'll add 1 tsp white pepper
For the white pepper, it's important to add it before we thicken the soup
(With cornstarch)
By adding it now, it's much easier to distribute evenly
If you add it after thickening the soup, it will clump up
We’ll also be adding 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp light soy sauce,
1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp of sugar
The dark soy sauce partially acts as a food coloring
That gives the soup a darker look
We've almost added all of our ingredients
We'll be adding the vinegar at the end
Now, we'll add the vegetables
Most important are the mushrooms, because this is a vegetarian dish
Very beautiful, very filling
We'll cover it with a lid
Since the lid is smaller, it'll boil faster in a smaller space
It's about the same, using a larger lid is fine too
In 3-4 minutes, once it's boiling, we can continue
After it's boiling, we'll add our cornstarch, egg, sesame oil, and vinegar
It's almost done
Great, now that it's boiling, we'll add our cornstarch
Mix the slurry so it's smooth and even
Great, now we'll thicken the soup. Watch me.
When adding the slurry, stir constantly
Slowly pour in the cornstarch over the course of 50-60 seconds
Great, now we'll add our egg
Beat the eggs
Beat the eggs really well for about 20-30 seconds
We'll slowly pour in the eggs
We don’t have to mix it like we do with egg flower soup
We don't have to stir it as we pour it in
Slowly pour it all over the wok
Now we’ll use a spatula to gently mix it around for a few seconds
See how beautiful that is?
We shouldn't stir it too much
Mixing it will break everything up
Now we'll add 2 tbsp vinegar
An important tip: add vinegar at the end
If you boil vinegar for too long, it will evaporate
This way, we'll keep all of the vinegar by not boiling it for too long
If you prefer a more sour taste, you can add more
It's not a big deal
Let me see how it tastes
Ahhh, very good
Good!
Mmm, that's good
Now, we'll add 1 tsp sesame oil
Great, let's turn off the heat
If you prefer a darker color, you can add more dark soy sauce
If you don't think it's too light in color
You don't have to do anything
If you want a deeper color, you can add another 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
Then the color will be deeper, more beautiful
Now it’s a much deeper, darker color
We're done now, let's add it to our bowl
Let's pour the rest
Watch
See? It perfectly fits one bowl
See that?
Just perfectly fits one bowl
Now, we'll garnish with our green onion
Now, we're done
Great, we're done cooking!
This is our Vegetable Hot and Sour Soup!
Let's eat!
Oh my gosh he's smiling!
You want to eat some soup, bubby?
Hi Bernie! (Our dog)
Oh that looks so good!
Let me do it
(Laughs)
Back off!
Wow!
Okay! Cheers!
Sweet and sour soup!
Cheers!
Oooh yes!
This looks so good
So good
Ooooh that's a good kick!
Haha let me try
The vinegar is good
Wow!
Vinegar right?
That's very, very -
Have an appetite - flavorful
This type of spice is different than if I had added chilis
This spice is only from white pepper
1 teaspoon
That's it? Wow!
Grab the white pepper
You're ready to eat, huh?
Yeah!
You're ready to eat!
Oh wow! Hey we need to go buy this
With black pepper, we rarely use it for soups
I use it occasionally to cook meat and vegetables
Black pepper chicken, beef, pork
Anything black pepper, I'd use it
What about white pepper, what kind of dishes do people like it in?
More vegetables
You can add this to any vegetable
Also soups
For fish, white pepper helps remove some of the fishy taste
For white pepper's spiciness, it acts slowly
It's not like chili peppers
(Roar)
Chili peppers are instantly hot
White peppers slowly add heat
So what makes it sweet?
We put a little bit of sugar
1 tablespoon
But the sourness is from the vinegar and tomato
My nose is sweating
(Laughs)
From the tomato? Wow!
40 years ago, I moved to the United States
I went to the restaurant with my friend
That was in New York, during a snowy day
Very, very cold
We went to the restaurant
I looked at the menu
The first dish I ordered was sweet and sour soup
Really?!
Because I was so cold
That's the first dish I ordered in a restaurant
It was a cold day, a snowy day
Then I said, "Let's get something hot!"
(Laughs)
Then I looked at the menu and said, "Oh, sweet and sour soup!"
"Let's order that!"
So that's the first dish, with me,
In United States, in a restaurant
Wow!
That's why I'm so impressed with the sweet and sour soup
I love sweet and sour soup
I'm not a spicy person
I can't take too much spiciness
I don't order it that often
But I believe a lot of people will love this sweet and sour soup
Was this popular at your restaurant?
We had people order it
But it all depends if people like spicy
Because it's still a spicy dish
Wait in China, then, did you -
You know how you ordered it?
Is that because you liked it when you were in China?
Or you just randomly ordered it?
I can say no, just in here (in America)
I just randomly picked it
But I just remember - that's the first
(Laughs)
That's so cool!
I moved to the United States
During a snowy day, in New York
With my friend -
Who's your friend?
What's their name? We'll say, "Hi!"
Oh, my friend
Since I kept moving around different cities
I didn't see her that much
I don't have her phone number anymore
Too long ago
Say her name, maybe the internet knows
If you are her, reach out to us
I even don't remember her name anymore
(Laughs)
Well, lost cause
If you got sweet and sour soup
With my mom
In New York, 40 years ago, in the snow
Let us know!
Dad, when you were in China, had you tried Hot and Sour Soup?
No
Only in America?
I didn't eat it a lot, but I made it a lot for customers
Where did you learn this recipe?
All of the restaurants I worked in served this
All the restaurants sell sweet and sour soup
Did you learn this in America or China?
I knew how to make it in China, but I never cooked it there
You can just look at it and understand how it's made, son
It's really easy
You can see what ingredients go into it, and then do it
But when I ate this sweet and sour soup in the restaurant
It had much less stuff than what we make at home
Oh, this is packed!
Mmhmm
The seafood mushroom, the dried mushroom
All of those are a little bit expensive
In the restaurants, they still have a lot of stuff, but not like us
They only have a few
Like dried fungus, dried mushroom, chili peppers, egg, pork
That's it
But Daddy's has a lot
But actually, for all of this stuff
Like mushrooms, fungus, if you have a difficult time to get it locally
You don't have to make it exactly like Daddy Lau
You can put some tofu, dried mushroom, egg, carrots, tomatoes, red bell peppers
The major taste comes from the white pepper, vinegar, and tomato
That makes this sweet and sour soup so good
With sugar
Yeah, with sugar
And also, the level of sourness and spiciness
You can adjust it by yourself
This isn't considered a Cantonese dish, right?
Because it's more spicy, right?
Yeah
You can find it in Guangdong
But not as many people eat it
But since it's colder in the north, more people eat it
Is it because of the weather?
Because of the weather, yes
Soy sauce chow mein - that's a popular dish in Guangzhou!
That noodle dish is very easy to make
You can find this dish at dim sum too
"Soy sauce chow mein, soy sauce chow mein!"
They'd call it out, right?
They have this at dim sum, too
Do you guys ever make the one with the sauce and pan fry on top?
It's kind of more Hong Kong style
Yeah, good!
Yeah! It uses the noodle as this dish
He's going to make it later
Yeah!
My family loves that Hong Kong style one!
With the crispy
Mmm! Say, "hi" Cameron!
We can do a video on this - soy sauce chow mein
We can also do Hong Kong style chow mein
So many videos to make!
These are really easy, very simple, son
What if you add meat to this soup?
It's the same
Cut the meat into small pieces
When do you add the meat?
Add it at the end
Add it after it's started boiling
After you've added the cornstarch slurry
You can add all sorts of meats
Shrimp, any kind of meat you like
If you want to use vegetables, this is great
A lot of nutrition, right?
Oh my god, so good! I had 3 bowls!
I could have two more
La la la la la
(Baby screams)
Let grandpa hold him
Spicy!
(Baby screams)
Wow! So loud!
Who's learning to speak?
Wow! What are you screaming so loud for?
Hi! I love you too!
Wow!
Hello dear friends!
It's nice to talk to all our friends again today!
Daddy Lau's sweet and sour soup
I just love this soup
I believe all our friends will make very delicious sweet and sour soup
After you learn it from our video
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