Golden Mushroom Soup

Mushrooms, mushrooms and more mushrooms - if you love mushrooms, this soup is for you!  Chock full of Chinese mushrooms (similar to shiitake), enoki (or golden mushrooms) and wood ear mushrooms (aka black fungus - tastes better than it sounds) with soft, grated carrot in a savoury chicken broth, this soup is a huge favorite in my household!  I served it to a bunch of our friends during a Chinese feast I prepared for them before Christmas, and this mushroom soup was what people talked about the most as they left that evening. 

I actually first had this soup at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Calgary - Enjoy House on 17 Ave SE.  Enjoy House specializes in dishes specific to Teochew (Chaozhou) people of China (from eastern Guangdong province).  I am proudly one of those people!  My grandparents from both sides are originally from this region (and immigrated to Malaysia from there).  The cuisine is very distinct - they cook their duck a special way, their congee (rice cooked down in broth) and many other dishes are quite different, and generally the overall flavours are not what you would find in Chinatown which are mostly Cantonese or Peking style.

Back to Enjoy house...the first time I visited Enjoy House with my parents, they had just opened and claimed to have Teochew style food.  Of course, my family and I had to go and give it a try and pass judgment as to whether they really were authentic (they are).  One of the best ways to find out besides trying the Teochew style duck, is to try Lemon Duck soup.  What's special about Lemon Duck soup is that it is a duck soup made with Teochew style preserved lemons.  These are not easy to make (and unfortunately, my grandmother passed away before showing us all how to make them - my mom is still trying to perfect it).  However, as it was our first time there, the waitress said that you had to order the Lemon Duck soup at least 24 hours in advance so they could prepare the lemons!  We were out of luck - so she suggested trying their Golden Mushroom soup instead.  I can say, that in all the times I've gone back to the restaurant (and it has been many - they recognize us now and already know what we will order) - I STILL have not tried the Lemon Duck soup because the Golden Mushroom soup is soooo good.  It is so good that my mom and I went home to try and make it - success!

Now the recipe here, is not the exact recipe they use, it's what my mom and I have gleaned from having it so many times.  I have noticed the restaurant has dried scallops and fresh thinly sliced (on the bias) green beans in their soup too.  The beans are easy to add in - the scallops...well, depends on how much you want to spend.  If you have ever been to T&T here in Calgary and stop at that strange smelling store across from it with all the dried...stuff...then you'll notice several bins of dried scallops - for $50 a pound!! You may think I'm exaggerating and I am and I'm not.  There are definitely really expensive ones (they're usually much bigger scallops) or you can buy the little ones which are much cheaper, but I think they're still around $15-$20 a pound.  It is a great ingredient for many delicious Chinese soups, and if you want to go all the way, definitely get some, but I promise the soup will still taste good without it or if you don't have it on hand at the time (which is usually the case for me).

Let's talk about the mushrooms for a bit as these are mushrooms you probably don't normally run into:

1.  The Chinese mushrooms are similar to shiitake mushrooms and I buy the dried ones and reconstitute them in hot water, rinse them well and slice them thinly once they're soft enough to cut.  I have made this soup with fresh shiitake mushrooms and although it tastes ok, I find the flavour is quite different.  Fresh shiitake mushrooms are very fragrant and the perfume in them I found was a bit overpowering in the soup.  Especially because enoki and wood ears are not very strong.  Dried Chinese mushrooms are much earthier and I think they bring a better balance and foundation to the soup.  You can find dried Chinese mushrooms at T&T or Superstore.  If you go to T&T, you will likely be overwhelmed by the number of choices in Chinese mushrooms - if you go to Superstore, they usually only have one brand. ;)

2. The Enoki mushrooms can usually be found fresh at the Asian market (T&T) or Superstore over by the Chinese greens.  They have extremely long stems and tiny little heads.  Once cooked they look almost like noodles.  They are usually packaged tightly together in plastic.  You need to cut off the bottoms (mostly dirt) and separate the strands otherwise you will get large hunks of mushroom stuck together in your soup.  Make sure to rinse them well as little bits of dirt sometimes get stuck between the strands because they're packaged together so tightly.

3.  The Wood Ear mushrooms or Black Fungus can also be found at T&T or Superstore.  Superstore doesn't always carry it - but if they do, it's in the Asian section along with the dried Chinese mushrooms.  They will look like little strips of brittle, black and brown cardboard (these are the pre-sliced ones - you can also get them whole, but why slice them yourself?!?).  These also need to be reconstituted in hot water and rinsed well then they're ready to use.

I recommend you try making this soup.  It really is delicious and oh so easy to make.  In my house, we each like to spice it up individually, with a few drops of Tabasco sauce and a spoonful of Chinese red vinegar to turn the soup into a hot and sour soup.  It tastes just as good without those accompaniments too so it's all up to you!  Either way, I hope you enjoy it!   

GOLDEN MUSHROOM SOUP

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken broth (or 1 tetrapak)
6-8 dried Chinese mushrooms (depends on size)
1 1/2 cups dried, sliced black fungus (wood ear mushrooms)
1 package fresh Enoki (golden) mushrooms
1 medium carrot, peeled and grated
6 fresh green beans, cut thinly at an angle (optional)
chicken broth powder (Knorr brand, for seasoning)
white pepper
6-8 tbsp corn starch (to thicken soup)

Instructions:

1.  Prepare all your mushrooms (reconstitute if dried and slice thinly, separate enoki strands).
2.  Bring the chicken broth to a boil.  Put all mushrooms, grated carrots and sliced green beans in (if using dried scallops, put scallops in first with the chicken broth and bring to a boil, then let simmer for about 20-30 min before adding mushrooms and carrots).  Bring back to a boil, then simmer for 10 min.
3.  While soup is simmering, make your corn starch slurry.  In a bowl or cup, mix corn starch with just enough water to dissolve the corn starch.
4.  Slowly pour in some of the corn starch slurry into the soup, then stir...give it a few seconds and check if the soup has gotten thicker.  If it's not thick enough, put more slurry in, then stir.  Check again.  Keep doing this until the soup is to desired thickness (usually just enough to leave a thin coat on the ladle).  I wouldn't recommend just dumping in all the slurry as some people will make it with a little more water and some a little less so you should do it a little at a time.
5.  Add a teaspoon of chicken broth powder.  Taste.  Not salty enough, add a little more until desired flavour is achieved.
6.  Season with white pepper.
7.  Serve hot (and optionally with Tabasco sauce, Chinese red vinegar and more white pepper - to the individual's taste).