11.24.06 Egg Drop Soup

I worked at a Chinese restaurant as a waitress over the course of five years. Compared to other egg drop soups, our restaurant was probably the best in the city. I wanted to replicate it, but no recipe on the internet came close to it. Also, I had never seen the chefs make it because it was already made by the time I got to work in the morning. Asking them the recipe wouldn't have helped because they were Mexican and didn't speak much English, hahaha.

I decided to start with the basics and just used a chicken broth and thickened it with cornstarch. A key thing I didn't know about cornstarch is that you have to add it while the broth is COLD, or mix it with the broth in another bowl and then add it slowly to the pot if it's hot. The first time I tried, it became a lumpy mess. After the broth came to a rolling boil, I poured in the whisked egg little by little, using a fork to sort of strain it. The egg cooked almost instantly. Then I gave it one stir and took it off the heat as many recipes suggested. In the future, I may not stir it at all because it breaks up the ribbons.

In the picture above, I had put in some chopped up baby carrots and garnished it with green onion. The restaurant I worked at also added some small cpieces of cabbage leaves. Overall it tasted fine, but it was lacking the thickness I wanted in the broth. In the future, I may want to try adding flour in addition to the cornstarch. Also, I want to find out how to make the egg more ribbon-y instead of having congealed chunks of egg floating in there...