Hot'N'Sour Soup

Directions

• If soup is not thick enough, add 2 more spoons of cornstarch (mixed into cold water) into the soup.

PREPARE AHEAD:

In a small bowl, cover the mushrooms with ½ cup of warm water and let them soak for 30 minutes.

Discard the water.

With a cleaver or knife, cut away and discard the tough stems of the mushrooms, and shred the caps by placing one at a time on a chopping board.

Cut them horizontally into paper-thin slices, and then into thin strips.

Drain the pieces of bamboo shoots and bean curd, and rinse them in cold water.

Shred them as fine as the mushrooms.

With a cleaver or sharp knife, trim the pork of all fat.

Then shred it, too, by slicing the meat as thin as possible and cutting the slices into narrow strips about 1½ to 2 inches long.

Have the above ingredients, stock, salt, soy sauce, pepper, vinegar, cornstarch mixture, egg, sesame seed oil and scallions within easy reach.

TO COOK:

Combine in a heavy 3-quart saucepan the stock, salt, soy sauce, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and pork.

Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for 3 minutes.

Drop in the bean curd and the pepper and the vinegar.

Bring to a boil again.

Give the cornstarch mixture a stir to recombine it and pour it into the soup.

Stir for a few seconds until the soup thickens, then slowly pour in the beaten egg, stirring gently all the while.

Remove the soup from the heat and ladle it into a tureen or serving bowl.

Stir in the sesame seed oil and sprinkle the top with scallions.

Serve at once.