Hot and Sour Wood Ear Soup
Dried mushrooms, vinegar, and chili rehydrated into a sharp brothy dinner.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 3.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Chicken bouillon powder | 2 tsp | a light one, not a dark beef base |
|---|---|---|
| Dried wood ear mushrooms | 1/3 cup | they triple in size, so measure dry |
| Dried yellowfoot chanterelles | 2 tbsp | any light dried mushroom works |
| Dried ginger slices or 1/2 tsp ground ginger | 3 slices | |
| Dried galangal | 1 slice | optional, sharper than ginger |
| Rice wine vinegar | 2 tbsp | in a small leakproof bottle |
| Red hot sauce | 1 tsp | |
| Chili oil | 1 tsp | |
| Toasted sesame oil | a few drops | |
| Cornstarch | 1 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried tofu or shelf-stable firm tofu | 2 oz | |
| Powdered whole egg | 2 tbsp | mixed with 3 tbsp cold water at camp |
| Dried scallions and cilantro | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | to taste |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Add the bouillon, wood ears, chanterelles, ginger, and galangal. Simmer eight minutes with the lid on.
- Add the tofu and simmer two more minutes to soften it.
- Mix the cornstarch with a splash of cold water in your cup, then stir it into the pot. It thickens in under a minute.
- Pull the pot off the heat. Rehydrate the egg powder in cold water, then pour it in a thin stream while stirring one direction. Let it sit thirty seconds without stirring again.
- Add the vinegar, hot sauce, chili oil, and sesame oil off the heat. Vinegar boiled hard goes flat.
- Scatter the dried scallions and cilantro on top and salt to taste.
Wood ears are the reason this works on trail. They dry hard and come back almost exactly as they went in, with the same snap, which is more than most dried vegetables manage. The rest of the pot is a mushroom broth that hydrates in ten minutes.
The source version used a homemade dark mushroom stock and black vinegar. Both go muddy once egg hits the pot, so this uses light chicken bouillon and rice wine vinegar instead, which also happen to be the two things easiest to carry. Acid and chili go in after the heat is off. Boiling either one strips out what you brought them for.
Packing
Bouillon, mushrooms, ginger, cornstarch, tofu, and herbs go in one bag. Egg powder in its own small bag so it stays dry. Vinegar and the two oils ride in dropper bottles inside a ziplock.
Variations
- Drop the egg and tofu for a lighter soup, or double the tofu for more protein.
- A spoonful of miso or soy sauce powder replaces the bouillon, but the broth goes darker.
- Add a crushed block of ramen at the end and it becomes a full dinner.
https://foragerchef.com/hot-and-sour-soup-with-wood-ears-and-yellowfeet