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[tag]The Sunset Chinese Cook Book[/tag]

The people that publish Sunset Magazine, also publish a number of cook books covering a wide variety of ethnic cooking. Being a great fan of chinese cooking, (I really think the best cooks in the world are the Italians and the Chinese, because of their great emphasis on fresh veggies, avoidance of heavy cream sauces and quickly prepared meats and seafood.) The sunset cookbook covers cooking styles from a variety of different parts of China. Peking, Mandarin, szechuan, Hunan, Cantonese & Shanghai.

They begin the book by telling you what equipment you might need, go on from there by telling you how to use your equipment. (I found that I could improvise with the equipment I have. Years before when I started to cook chinese dishes, I bought myself a couple woks. You can?t find better pots to saute of fry in.) Then the book goes on to give you a great variety of dishes and ways to prepare them. Of coarse as always, I made some minor changes in the recipe to suit myself. So here goes!

Hot & Sour Soup

4 oz Dasi Combu (A dried black seaweed that you can find in stores that specialize in oriental foods. You can substitute this with dried mushrooms if you wish.)
1 your choice hot pepper
8 green onions sliced
1/2 cup water chestnuts
8 oz tofu
2 QTS soup stock (Veggie or Chicken)
1/3 cup White Wine
4 TSP Soy Sauce
1/2 TSP Chili sauce
2 1/2 TSP Corn Starch
5 TBLS H2O
1 TSP Sesame Oil
1 Egg
8 oz De-veined Shrimp (My meat substitute)
2 TSP Rice Vinegar

The Process

Soak The Dried Seaweed or mushrooms in boiling water for 30 min. De-seed and sliver the hot pepper. (remember to protect your hands) Cube the tofu. Combine the soup stock, the wine, Soy and chili sauce. Bring to boil. Reduce the heat until simmering (5 min.) Blend cornstarch with the H2O and add to the soup. Bring to a boil and add the rest of the items except the egg and shrimp. Reduce heat to slow boil. Beat the egg with a TBLS H20 and drizzle it into soup, stir vigorously. Add bean curd and shrimp cook 1-2 min until shrimp are pink and cooked. ?Soups On!?
ENJOY!!!

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