Hot Pepper Soup (胡辣汤)

Using traditional technique to make this warm peppery soup from the wheat growing Henan province, with homemade seitan and wheat starch.

For the stock

• Beef bone with marrow (牛骨(带骨髓)), sliced open, 1kg

• Beef shin (牛腱), 500g

• Water, 4L

• Ginger, smashed, ~1 inch

• Star anise (八角), 1

• Sichuan peppercorns (花椒), ¼ tsp

• Fennel seed (小茴香), ¼ tsp

Process:

Add 1kg bone, 4L water, and 500g shin to a pot and bring up to a boil, and down to a simmer. Skim. Add ~1 inch smashed ginger, 1 star anise, 1/4 tsp Sichuan peppercorn and 1/4 tsp fennel seed. Cover and cook for ~6 hours.

After 90 minutes time however, remove the beef shin. Slice up the 40g you’ll want for the soup, freeze the remainder.

After 6 hours, strain the stock. Set aside the 1L that we’ll be using for the soup – freeze the remainder.

For the 13 spice:

• Sichuan peppercorns (花椒), 5g

• Fennel seed (小茴香), 5g

• Star Anise (八角), 4 pieces

• Cinnamon (桂皮), 2g

• Clove (丁香), 1g

• Tsaoko a.k.a. Chinese Black Cardamom (草果), 1g

• Sand ginger (沙姜), 1g

• Galangal (高良姜), 1g

• Baizhi a.k.a. Chinese Angelica (白芷), 2g

• Dried Ginger (干姜), 5g

• Nutmeg (肉蔻), 1g

• Long pepper (荜拨), 3 pieces

Process:

Grind all the ingredients together, then pass through a fine mesh sieve. What’s still not ground enough goes back into the grinder for another round, then sift it all again.

If you’re grinding your own white peppercorn powder:

Follow the same grind-sift-grind again process. If you’re only doing a small amount (~1/2 tbsp whole white peppercorn in this recipe), you can opted for the mortar like us instead. Both are ok.

For the Seitan:

• AP Flour (中筋面粉), 100g

• Salt, ½ tsp

• Water, 75g

Process:

Mix 100g AP flour, 1/2 tsp salt, and 75g water thoroughly with a chopstick, and once combined let it sit for 20 minutes.

Come back, and fold the dough for 1-2 minutes, then rest again for 20 minutes. Repeat this process two more times.

Add one cup of water in with the dough, and fold and knead it under the water. After 3-4 minutes of folding, the dough should be soft and the water milky. Strain out the liquid, reserving it for later.

Add any gluten that was caught in the strainer back in with the dough. Add another cup of water and repeat, folding for 1-2 minutes under water. Strain, and reserve the second cup of water too.

Add a final cup of water and fold for a final 1-2 minutes. The water will likely not be very starchy at this stage, so just throw it away. Move the seitan to a separate bowl of cool water, and soak until you’re ready to use it.

For the Hulatang soup:

Makes two servings.

• Boiled beef shin from the stock, ~40g of cooked beef

• Peanuts, 8g

• Dried Day Lily (黄花菜), 8g

• Mu’er, wood ear mushrooms (木耳), 8g

• Dried kelp (海带), 2g

• Sweet potato glass noodles (红薯粉条), 8g

• Seitan from above (水面筋)

• Stock from above, 1L

• Seasoning:

  13 Spice (十三香), ½ tsp;

  Sichuan peppercorn powder (花椒面), ½ tsp;

  Salt, ½ tbsp; chicken bouillon powder (鸡精), 1 tsp;

  MSG (味精), ¼ tsp;

  Soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp;

  White pepper powder (白胡椒粉), preferably freshly ground, 2 tsp

  Dark Chinese vinegar (陈醋/香醋), 1 tsp

  Toasted sesame oil (麻油/香油), ½ tsp

• Extracted starch from the Seitan washing to thicken: add a couple tablespoons at a time until thickened to your liking, ~1 cup

• Cilantro for garnish

Process:

Soak 8g peanuts, 8g dried day lily, and 8g wood ear (at least 4 hours); 2g kelp (at least 30 minutes); and 8g sweet potato glass noodles (at least 2 hours). Or soak all of these ingredients up to overnight.

Chop the soaked day lily into 1 inch pieces, the wood ear and kelp into ~1/2cm strips (plus a couple chops in the other direction for the kelp), and the glass noodles into ~1.5 inch sections.

Bring the 1L of the beef stock we made earlier to a boil, then swap the flame to medium. Add the soaked peanuts and cover. Cook for five minutes. Then add all the remaining add-ins (the soaked and cooked day lily, wood ear, kelp, and glass noodles), and cook those for another ~3 minutes.

Add in the seitan by stretching it slightly and ‘snapping’ it into the soup. Cook for ~1 minute, or until the seitan is floating. Add in all of the seasoning except the vinegar and toasted sesame oil.

Thicken by slowly drizzling in the starch water from the Seitan – going a couple tablespoons at a time, we use about 1 cup in total. Once thickened to your liking, add in the vinegar and the sesame oil, top with chopped cilantro.

Best served with Youtiao Chinese deep fried dough sticks or toast.