Recent recipe

[The Dong]

Bit quiet. Guess you guys are too busy eatin'

Here's a new favourite, quick recipe even the the most bumbling culinary 
nincompoop can cope with ;)

Chinese Egg Drop Soup (one version + extras and my variations**):

Serves about four, adjust.
A tasty, filling, yet low calorie soup.

Ingredients

     * 3 cups stock (dashi is preferable)
     ** I used 2 good veg stock cubes and ~two bowls worth of water)
     * 1/4 teaspoon salt
     ** I used Kosher/Sea salt
     * 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
     ** I like a bit more
     * 2-3 fresh mushrooms (optional)
     ** I omitted and use half an onion very finely sliced)
     * 1 whole beaten egg
     * 2-3 stalks trefoil or coriander, chopped or 1/2 tablespoon 
chives,
       chopped (optional)
     ** I used 2 leaves of thinly sliced Romaine lettuce and dried 		 
     chives. Pak Choi or Chinese lettuce ideal too.
     * Szechuan pepper (sansho) 1/2 tsp or so
     ** I have these pepper corns, but made a peppercorn mix. I use:
        Pan heat a teaspoon of Szechuan peppercorns with a tsp 
coriander 	       seeds. Grind to a powder with a mix of all the 
peppercorn types
        you have; pink, white, green, black (use 4x amount of black to 

        boost qty) and store in a lidded jar.

Directions

    1. Heat stock in a saucepan and stir in salt and soy sauce.
    2. If using mushrooms, wash and slice thinly and add to the stock.
    ** Onion in here
    3. Simmer for 3-4 minutes.
    4. Bring soup to a boil and with a ladle or chopsticks stir the soup 

       clockwise.
    5. Pour in the beaten egg, remove the soup from the heat and stir
       counterclockwise. The egg looks like tiny strands.
    6. If using add trefoil/coriander/chives, cover pot for 30-40 seconds
       then uncover and add pepper.
    ** Lettuce here. Pepper mix or Szechuan..
    7. Serve immediately.
    8. If you cannot find the sansho/Szechwan peppercorns, I imagine a
       pinch of standard black pepper (or a blend, which often contain
       sansho/Szechwan peppercorns) will do.

It's really simple and tastes similar to a chicken noodle soup.
I guess it mostly depends on your choice of base stock.
Very quick and so hard to get wrong..

(I had this for lunch !again! today with a cheesy bun)