Vegetarian soup from Chinese Food Made Easy by BBC TV chef Ching-He Huang.

Some dear friends of mine recently gave me a copy of Chinese Food Made Easy, which ties in with the BBC show presented by Ching-He Huang. It’s full of beautiful pictures and recipes that sound delicious - from mussels in black bean sauce with mung bean noodles to durian honey puffs with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup.

I decided the first recipe I would attempt would be the ‘egg flower’ drop soup from the ‘takeaway favourites’ section of the book. It looked simple and tasty and had the added advantage of being vegetarian and thus catering for my non-meat eating partner.

‘Egg flower’ drop soup

Serves 2

3 ripe tomatoes, sliced (see step 1)

500ml/18fl oz hot vegetable stock

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon of light soy sauce

a dash of sesame oil

1 pinch of ground white pepper

1 tablespoon cornflour, blended with 2 tablespoons cold water

1-2 sheets nori (dried seaweed), shredded

200g/7oz fresh silken dofu, diced into 1.5 x 1.5cm / 1/2 by 1/2 inch chunks

1 large handful spinach

2 spring onions, finely sliced

1. If you want to skin the tomatoes before slicing, cut a cross at the base of each one. Plunge them into a pan of boiling water for less than 1 minute, then drain - the skin will peel off easily. Finely hop the flesh, discarding the hard centre. However, most of the nutrients are underneath the skin so I don’t bother - also the dish is even quicker to prepare.

2. Add the tomatoes to the hot stock in the pan. Pour the whisked eggs into the broth, stirring gently. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and blended cornflour and mix well.

3. Add the nori to the broth, followed by the dofu and heat for less than 1 minute.

4. Add the spinach and let it wilt slightly, then add the spring onions. Serve immediately.

Road test

A note on ingredients: The recipe doesn’t mention whether to use toasted or untoasted nori. I went for untoasted on the basis that it would be cooked in the hot broth. I think this was the right decision as the consistency seemed right. I used two sheets.

I didn’t have any fresh tomatoes and I had a cupboard full of crushed tin tomatoes so I drained a can and used about two thirds of the contents.

I used Waitrose-brand vegetable stock, baby spinach, and organic eggs, tofu (which I presumed was the same as dofu), and spring onions.

Method: The instructions were very clear and easy to follow.

Result: It was a bit disappointing. Firstly, the quantities of ingredients seem off. Even allowing for the fact that I opted for two sheets of nori, I had very little broth for the amount of solid ingredients. If I were making this again, I would either increase the amount of stock or decrease the amount of spinach, nori and tofu. It also made four bowls of soup rather than two, though maybe that’s down to the size of my bowls.

Secondly, and more importantly, it was quite bland. I had to add a good slug of soy sauce and another hefty pinch of white pepper to each bowl for it to become palatable. It might have been a bit better with fresh tomatoes but I don’t believe this would have made a significant difference.

Verdict

I really wish the result had been more impressive because it was incredibly easy to make. It took me about 20 minutes in total.  Unfortunately though, it just wasn’t that interesting. Perhaps I might experiment a bit with different flavours, like chilli and ginger. I’m certainly willing to test out some of the other recipes in the book before I give up.