2. PREPARE THE RICE AND SOUP
Rice
Serving a Chinese dinner without rice would be like serving an Italian dinner without pasta. A crime! You can easily pick up a box of white rice and follow the directions to cook it, or you can go the more authentic route and make Chinese rice in a rice cooker. We're not going to get into how to cook rice in a rice cooker; each machine is different and will provide clear instructions. Our advice: follow them. We'll get into how you should serve the rice later. For now, just keep all the cooked rice in a large casserole dish.
Soup
You have two choices here: the simple and tasty egg drop soup, or the complicated (and equally tasty) hot and sour soup. Don't go overboard and serve both because you'll make your guests bloated.
Egg Drop Soup
Hot and Sour Soup
Egg Drop Soup
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 2 tbsp. water
- scallion - finely chopped
Directions:
- Bring the chicken broth to a rapid boil.
- Beat the egg in a bowl.
- Put the cornstarch in another bowl and gradually stir in 2 tbsp. cold water.
- Stir the soup and very slowly add the cornstarch to it, then the eggs, and finally the scallions. The eggs should form ribbons in the soup.
Hot and sour soup
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp. peanut or canola oil
- 1 boneless, skinless, chicken breast - sliced into short, thin ribbons
- 6 cups unsalted chicken broth
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- cup water
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 egg - beaten
- 12 mushrooms - sliced lengthwise
- lb. pork tenderloin - cut into short, thin ribbons
- 1 tsp. dark sesame oil
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- lb. firm tofu
- 4 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- salt to taste
Directions:
- Wrap the entire chunk of tofu in paper towels, place it between two plates, and put something heavy on top (like a couple of big cans). The moisture will seep out of the tofu. Give it 20 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a deep saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Boil the broth, chicken, pork, mushrooms, and soy sauce to a boil in a large pot. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Mix the cornstarch with cup water until it is completely dissolved.
- Cut the tofu into -inch cubes and add it to the broth.
- Bring the broth back to a boil and slowly stir in enough of the cornstarch mixture to thicken the broth to your preference. Don't dump the entire cornstarch mixture in at once or your soup will immediately clump up.
- Add Worcestershire sauce, pepper, sesame oil, and salt.
- While stirring the pot, slowly pour the egg in, so that it forms ribbons in the soup.
