Hot and Sour Chicken Soup #FoodieExtravaganza

Hot and sour chicken soup is a restaurant favorite that is quick and easy to make at home. With bits of chicken breast and cubes of tofu, it’s high in protein with a comforting spicy and flavorful broth that will cure whatever ails you.

Aside from its healing properties, hot and sour chicken soup also brings back fun and fond memories for me.

Many years ago, my sister lived near a Chinese buffet restaurant we adored. It had The Best pork ribs and Sichuan green beans, my favorite things to eat there, but everything else was pretty tasty as well.

When my eldest nephew was old enough to eat real food, my sister would scoop the little cubes of tofu out of the hot and sour soup for him, blow on them to cool them off, then set them on his plate. It was a lot of fun watching him trying to pincer grasp the tofu with his plump baby hands and get it to his mouth. Considering how soft and slippery tofu can be, he did a great job. Those were good times.

This month, my Foodie Extravaganza group is making chicken soup in honor of National Chicken Soup for the Soul Day on November 12th. Make sure to scroll down past my recipe to see the rest.

Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

This version of hot and sour soup is adapted from two separate recipes from Ken Hom’s Foolproof Chinese Cookery and Joanne Chang’s Flour, Too. Both of these wonderful recipes use pork. I have used boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead.

Ingredients
2 small boneless chicken breasts (about 9 oz or 250g by weight)
2 tablespoons canola or other light oil
1 garlic clove, smashed and minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 chilli pepper, minced
2 tablespoons sliced onion tops (white part only – save green for garnish)
5 cups or 1.2L chicken stock
7 oz or 200 grams tofu (bean curd), medium firm
3 1/2 oz or 100g shiitake mushrooms
Salt

For the chicken marinade:
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine or substitute dry sherry
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
Pinch each of salt and sugar

For the egg mixture:
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
Pinch salt

Just before serving:
1/4 cup or 60ml Chinese black (mature) vinegar
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon chili bean sauce
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

For garnish:
Chopped cilantro
Sliced chilli peppers
Sliced green onion tops
Slivered ginger

Method
Combine your marinade ingredients in a small bowl.

Slice your chicken breasts very thinly and add them to the marinade. Mix well and set aside.

In a measuring cup with a spout, whisk the eggs with the sesame oil and the pinch of salt. You can use a bowl but the spout will making pouring the egg into the soup much easier. In another small bowl, mix together the vinegar, light soy, the dark soy, the chili bean sauce and the sesame oil. Set aside.

Clean and finely slice the shiitake mushrooms. Cut the tofu (aka bean curd) into 1/2 in or 1 cm cubes.

In a deep saucepan, heat the canola oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic, ginger and green onions and cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Be careful not the let the garlic color.

Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 2 more minutes.

Add the stock and bring the soup to a simmer.

Add the tofu and mushrooms and bring the soup back to a simmer over medium-high heat.

Now add the egg mixture in a very slow, thin and steady stream. Use a chopstick or a fork to pull the cooked egg slowly into strands.

Turn the fire off under the soup and stir in the vinegar mixture.

Serve each bowl garnished with cilantro, green onion tops, sliced red chili peppers and slivered ginger, as desired.

Enjoy! 

How will you celebrate National Chicken Soup for the Soul Day? Try one of our delicious recipes!

• Asian-Style Chicken Dumpling Soup from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Chicken Ramen Soup from Sneha's Recipe
• Cranberry Chicken Noodle Soup from Palatable Pastime
• Creamy Chicken Asparagus Soup from Hardly A Goddess
• Creamy Cranberry Chicken Wild Rice Soup from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Hot and Sour Chicken Soup from Food Lust People Love

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays by posting delicious recipes your family will love. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a home cook looking for tasty recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

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Quick Blackberry Jam Muffins #MuffinMonday

The best Blackberry Jam Muffins are made with small batch homemade quick jam folded into a fluffy batter. But, fear not, you can make yours with whatever good quality jam you have on hand.

I sometimes think that I was born in the wrong century, or perhaps later than I should have been in this one. I love to make jams, preserves and chutneys. Maybe it's because I don’t live in the early 1900s and have to do it. Like homework, it’s always more fun to do if it’s not your own assignment, amirite? I can hardly imagine either of my grandmothers putting up just one jar of jam or chowchow at a time. They are probably tsk-ing at me right now.

Dubai and the UAE in general have much more locally grown fresh produce available since I arrived six years ago, but except for dates, fruit is still flown in so it’s expensive. So much so that I cannot pass up produce when it is on sale, especially berries and summer fruit like peaches and nectarines.

This week it was blackberries. I cooked them down into a quick jam – no pectin, just lemon juice and sugar – then because it is Muffin Monday, I used one-third cup to make these lovely muffins. So good! And, the best part is that once the muffins are gone, we will still enjoy blackberries for weeks to come. If you'd like to make my quick blackberry jam, find that recipe here.

Quick Blackberry Jam Muffins

Combine my favorite easy quick bread breakfast muffin recipe with your favorite jam (or my quick blackberry jam) to make these delicious muffins for breakfast or snack time. I topped each with an extra blackberry before baking. As you can see from the photos, they sank, making a little tart surprise in the middle of each. Skip that step if you’d like.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
¾ cup or 150g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml minus 2 tablespoons milk (*instructions below)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup or 78ml canola or other light oil
2 large eggs
1/3 cup or 78ml blackberry jam

12 whole blackberries to decorate – optional

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Generously grease cups and top of 12-cup muffin pan or line it with paper muffin cups.

*Put your lemon juice in a measuring vessel and then add milk up to the 1 cup or 240ml mark. Set aside.

Whisk your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together your soured milk, oil and eggs.

All at once, add the wet ingredients to the dry. Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened. There may be little bits of flour showing and that's just fine. 

Spoon the blackberry jam on to the batter, then fold it in. You want ribbons of jam, not a homogenous batter.

Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups.  Top each with a whole blackberry, if desired. As I mentioned above, they sunk. I was hoping for a decoration on top but instead got a little surprise inside. All good either way.

Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes in your preheated oven, or until they are golden.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool 10-15 minutes before removing muffins from the pan.

Enjoy!

Check out all of the wonderful muffins my Muffin Monday group has for you today!

• Egg-free Mini Chocolate Chips Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Healthy Apple Cider Donut Hole Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Marble Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Pumpkin Raisin Bran Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Quick Blackberry Jam Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Quick Blackberry Jam

Quick blackberry jam is so easy that you can have homemade jam in less than 25 minutes. Seriously. That doesn’t count cooling time but those extra minutes will teach you patience, young grasshopper. Good things do come to those wait!

If you’ve ever let jam making scare you, this is the recipe you’ll want to try. First, it only makes one jar, so no huge commitment. Second, it only has three ingredients. And finally, but probably most importantly, it’s quick, easy and delicious. And P.S. It's also great in muffins. Get the muffin recipe here.

Quick Blackberry Jam

As I mention in my blackberry jam muffin post, I cannot resist berries on sale. This quick blackberry jam extends their shelf life in a most wonderful, easy way.

Ingredients - for one jar - 1 3/4 cups or 414ml
3 (6 oz or 170g) punnets large blackberries (mine were Driscoll's from Mexico)
2 cups or 400g granulated sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
zest 1/2 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons or 7g unsalted butter - optional

Method
In your kitchen sink, sterilize one 2-cup or 480ml jar by putting a teaspoon in it and then filling it with just boiled water. Fill its lid as well. Leave to cool while you get on with the jam. I pour the boiling water over my ladle and jar funnel too, just to make sure it’s all sterilized. Once it’s cooled enough to handle, pour the water out of the jar and lid and leave to dry.

Put the clean blackberries in a heavy bottomed pot along with the lemon zest. Mash them with a potato masher until completely pulverized, occasionally using a sharp knife to cut them off of the masher grid.

Add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir well.

Put the pot on the stove over a high heat, stirring frequently, until it comes to a rolling boil. Boil for five minutes, skimming off and discarding any scum that appears with a spoon. Do not walk away from the jam at any time.

Reduce the heat to medium high and cook at a slow boil for an additional 12-14 minutes or until the jam reduces by about one-third in volume, continuing to skim scum if it keeps coming out.

You really don’t need a thermometer for this quick jam but I like to watch the temperature rise. Supposedly for jam to set, it has to reach 220°F or 104°C. This quick jam did not but it set just fine.

Remove the pot from the stove and add the butter. Stir well till the butter has melted completely.

Using a clean ladle and funnel, transfer the quick jam to your jar. Screw the lid on tightly and turn the jar upside down. Leave to cool completely. Once cool, turn the jar upright and store in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

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