Monday, December 24, 2007

Short'n'sweet post: Hot'n'Sour Soup


Too much cooking, too much to write about, not enough time! Guess I first need to catch up on posts before starting work on the new look for 2008.

Winter begs for warm comforting food. For me, that often translates to soups - thick chowders and bisques are often the norm, but every once in a while a lighter soup makes me quite happy.
In lieu of the continuing green craze, this soup is along the lines of the yummy sweet'n'sour soup we used to eat at Cascade in Madras. A ton of shredded cabbage, onions, some corn kernels, some spices, that's about all it took. I will admit that freshly roasting and grinding the spices made a *huge* impact on the flavor of the soup!



Hot'n'Sour Soup
That indo-chinese favourite!

Servings: 4

1 small cabbage - cut into long shreds

1 bunch of scallions - chopped

1 cup of corn kernels

2 T grated ginger

5-6 cloves garlic - crushed

2 T soy sauce

2 cups of vegetable broth

3 cups of water

5 T white vinegar

1 t freshly ground white pepper

1 T ground mix of cloves, cinnamon, star anise, fennel

1 T canola oil

salt

4-5 fresh red chillies - sliced lengthwise

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the scallions, ginger and garlic till they start to brown.

Add the cabbage and cook covered on low for 5-6 minutes till the cabbage starts to wilt.

Add the corn, broth and water along with all the spices.

Cook covered for another 10-12 minutes.
Add the soy sauce and vinegar and stir for 1-2 minutes.

Top the soup with lightly toasted red chillies before serving.


What did we think?

*Very* good! Especially if it feels like we're sitting at Cascade slurping the soup there :)

8 comments:

Lata said...

One more for the day! good one.

Sig said...

Wow, someone's been a busybee :) Its a good time to catch up on all those posts waiting in the draft, huh? Merry Christmas KayKat!

amna said...

lovely! my fave of all soups!

Cynthia said...

Hot and sour soup is one of my all time favourites.

Looking forward to the new look.

Namratha said...

It's pouring outside and the soup looks very inviting!! :) Would love to have a bowl...

Shella said...

Though am not too fond of this soup, but your bowl looks really inviting. I guess I am going to give it another shot.

Terry at Blue Kitchen said...

This sounds delicious--and nice and quick to make. The corn kernels--are they fresh? Frozen? Canned?

Winter is indeed the time for soup. As I read your post, I'm eating some hearty, satisfying lentil and kale soup that will soon become a post for me! A nice blog you have here, by the way, with lovely photography. And I love your reason for doing a food blog--I had the same thoughts about whether the world really needed another one before launching mine.

KayKat said...

Hey Terry,

I used fresh corn, but canned would probably work too. Mmm ... lentil'n'kale soup sound delicious, never tried that!

Thanks for the comments and compliments :)