Everyone has comfort food that they eat when sick or under the weather, like classic chicken noodle soup. As a pescatarian, I choose a different route: hot and sour soup.
This flavor-packed, broth-based soup can be easily adjusted to vegetarian or vegan. You could make and serve it immediately, but that’s lots of work when getting out of bed zaps your energy. So I created a freezable base that contains the key flavors. Freeze it in trays that make 1- to 4-ounce cubes, and then prepare just a serving or two of soup as desired.
When really ill, I simply heat up a broth base cube with Homemade Shrimp Stock or Homemade Vegetable Stock. For more of an appetite, add cellophane noodles, fried garlic slices and perhaps further solids.
I find every ingredient in this base locally, visiting stores like Withey’s Health Foods or Third Street Market and Mabuhay Oriental Market for the more unusual ones. For the sour note, I buy tamarind pulp, which keeps well, and make paste myself. Fenugreek seeds add a slightly bitter flavor that has no substitute. Asafetida powder is another unique spice with a funky pungency and even more potent smell.
For a vegetarian and vegan broth base, use vegetable stock and leave out the fish sauce. When I restock my supply midwinter, I defrost a bag of homegrown frozen cherry tomatoes and use dried herbs at a third of the volume.
Hot and Sour Broth Base
Makes about 3-1/2 cups
1 cup vegetable or shrimp stock
2 tablespoons tamarind paste
2 tablespoons sunflower or other mild oil
1-1/2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (optional)
1/2 teaspoon asafetida powder (optional)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 dried chilies, crumbled
2 teaspoons minced or grated gingerroot
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon curry powder
6 tablespoons minced basil
6 tablespoons minced cilantro
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce (optional)
In a small saucepan, bring the stock to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the tamarind paste until combined. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat and add the mustard, cumin and fenugreek seeds. Toast the seeds, stirring, for three to four minutes, until the mustard seeds begin to pop. Add the asafetida powder, if using, and let it dissolve for about 30 seconds. Stir in the garlic, chilies and ginger for a few seconds, and then add the tomatoes and curry powder. Cook, stirring, for about five minutes, until the tomatoes soften, and then add the basil and cilantro. Pour in the tamarind gravy, and then stir in the brown sugar and fish sauce, if using, until the sugar dissolves. Remove the pan from the heat and let the concentrate cool completely.
Pour the broth base into a food processor or upright blender or use an immersion blender to puree it until smooth. Pour the puree into cube trays and freeze until ready to use.
Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger at TwiceAsTasty.com.