Hot and Sour Soup

•  1 fist sized handful of dried woodear, presliced and soaked overnight
• 6 dried lily flower, soaked overnight with the woodear
• 36 oz. canned white mushrooms, pieces and stems and sliced
• 1 carrot, grated
• 2 tbsp diced garlic or half a head to taste
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 5oz. can bamboo shoots, sliced into matchstick size
• 3 room temperature eggs, whisked
• 8 oz. hot bulk breakfast sausage/ground pork/sliced pork, cooked in 1 tbsp oil
• 8 oz. firm tofu (1/2 package), pressed 1 hour and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 2 tbsp sugar or honey equivalent to taste
• 1 tbsp sambal olek chili paste
• 1 tbsp cornstarch, mixed into slurry
• 5 tbsp light soy sauce
• 5 tbsp mushroom dark soy sauce
• 8 cups water
• 4 tbsp beef bullion paste
• 1 tbsp white pepper to taste
• diced green onion for garnish
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• Hot pepper oil, 1 tsp

Drain the mushrooms and lily, reserving 1 cup liquid
Slice them to desired size, I like something that will fit into a spoon
Press and slice the tofu
Prepare the broth: add the chicken bullion until flavorful, add the Kitchen Bouquet caramel coloring and mushroom water, and bring to boil
Add the white pepper. Do this before adding the cornstarch so it distributes well. Stir the cornstarch slurry and add it. Whisk eggs and add while slowly and evenly stirring in a circle. Let the eggs set one minute with the heat off.

In a large skillet, add 1 tbsp oil and the sambal, cook for one minute
Add the carrot and ginger, cook two minutes with a lid
Add the garlic for 1 minute
Add the precooked ground pork, tossing gently and simmer for a minute, add to broth

In the same pan, lightly brown the tofu in 1 tbsp oil for 4-5 minutes and add to broth

After all this it's pretty much dump and go:
Add the contents of the skillet to the broth

Add the mushrooms and shoots
Add the vinegar and soy sauce and sugar

Add the pepper oil (this really changes the flavor)
Stir and taste, add more vinegar/soy/sugar/salt/pepper until it has a balanced taste

Cover and simmer for a few minutes to let it meld
It's done! Garnish with sliced green onion and serve.

The backstory: This is no attempt at traditional or authentic, it's a reverse engineered version of the soup I love at a tiny local restaurant. My version is also altered to my personal taste, I like it REALLY sour and REALLY hot and REALLY garlicey chickenbrothey. I also prefer the canned white button mushrooms over standard reconstituted shitakes. It's a texture thing mostly.

I also have a habit of adding a lot more soy/vinegar/sugar/bullion/pepper at the end to make it more savory and potent. Also a dash of fish sauce or chili shrimp powder.

Plot twist: I browned 1 lb. of smoked sausage, diced into small chunks after the soup cooled, and it is delicious and more filling! If you let smoked sausage boil in liquid, all the flavor and fat comes out. This is a nice addition.

Pro tip: Don't spend money on hot pepper oil! Put 1/4 cup red pepper flakes or any dried pepper with 3/4 cup vegetable oil into a jar, and microwave 2-3 minutes. Done, pepper oil. Be careful, it's super hot to touch.