Szechuan Hot and Sour Soup

The crappy roads and car-scraping every morning are getting old.  In an act of desperation, I started searching for a good winter soup.  I don't typically go for Asian dishes, although I've been trying more and more.  After reading the ingredients to this soup I decided to try it.  If winter is getting you down, this soup will definitely warm you up!

A wonderful collection of veggies, mushrooms and chicken, this soup is spicy and tangy.  So...hot and sour.  Just like the name says.  Go figure.  It has a lot of ingredients, but the majority of them are kitchen staples.

This was the first time I've ever added an egg to soup.  Is there a trick to it?  Do you need to wait a bit before you start stirring?  Is stirring vigorously not the right way to go?  I think I overblended it, and the egg is really shredded.

Hot and Sour Szechuan Soup (adapted from this)
Ingredients:

• 2 tbs coconut oil
• 1 c mushrooms, chopped
• 2 green chilis, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 c. carrots, chopped
• 8 c. chicken stock
• 3 c. cooked chicken, cubed
• 1/2 c. bamboo shoots, julienned
• 4 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs chili sauce (I used chili paste - nearly the same thing)
• 2 tsp hot sauce
• 4 tbs vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 4 tbs cornstarch
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 c. green onion, chopped
• 1/2 c. cilantro, chopped

Instructions:
1.  Heat the coconut oil and saute the mushrooms, chilis, pepper, and carrots until the mushrooms have shrunk.  Add the stock, the chicken and bamboo shoots and heat up.  Simmer for ten minutes
2.  Add the soy sauce, chili sauce, hot sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.  Simmer for five minutes.
3.  Mix the cornstarch with 4 tbs of water.  Pour mixture into soup and stir well.  Stir in the eggs.
4.  Garnish generously with green onion and cilantro.

And now for a continuation of last week's saga!  The finished product: a snow mitten, also known as FIRST PLACE!

The "paint" (food coloring and water, applied via spray bottle) turned out really well - it stayed pretty bright for the first couple days after we applied it.  On day 2, the sun even came out!

And here are the artists posing with their sculpture.  Not that you can tell who any of them are due to bundling up against the bitter coldness.

On the last day for registration, there were only two sculptures signed up - but they were offering three prizes!  Figuring we were going to be out in the cold anyway, we signed up for a second sculpture.  It's a (semi-)functioning skee-ball game.  Second place!

And here's third place.  It's an Easter basket, with food-coloring-frozen-water-balloon eggs.  It was pretty awesome before it snowed and kind of filled in the basket.

After a week in the snow, some spicy warm soup was exactly what I needed.  Give it a try!