Chinese sausage, tofu and mushroom soup

In About Chinese sausages, I asked how you readers like to cook them and there was a comment that stood out. While most, myself included, fry Chinese sausages or include them in stir fried dishes, reader Marilyn wrote about steaming them with chicken. It made me pause but then I realized it really wasn’t all that surprising. I thought about Kowloon House, its iconic siopao (Chinese steamed bread for non-Filipinos) and one of the varieties that has Chinese sausage filling.

That realization made me take another look at the Chinese sausage and I began seeing it in a whole new light. I decided to use it in a soup dish.

This Chinese sausage, tofu and mushroom soup is one of the simplest dishes I have ever made in my life. No sautéing, no frying. Just boil then simmer. It is of course essential that you start with a very good broth. I make my own. I had beef broth and I used it. But I didn’t have enough. I knew that if kept adding water, the soup would lose more and more flavor. In a panic, I decided to add water and dashi — yes, the granules for making miso soup and yakisoba. Whyever not? I thought. The rest of the ingredients that would go into the soup were very Asian, so why not an Asian-flavored broth too?

Holding my breath (as though that would prevent disaster), I poured the contents of the packet of dashi into the pot, added water, tasted the broth and… hurray!

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You can enjoy this soup as is, with lots of scallions and cilantro, or you can ladle the soup into a shallow bowl and top it with a poached egg (see how to poach an egg).

Chinese sausage, tofu and mushroom soup

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

Author: Connie Veneracion

Ingredients

• 2 Chinese sausages cut into 1/4 inch cubes (I do not recommend the very sweet kind — see the related post for a better discussion)
• 6 cups bone broth (or a combination of bone broth, dashi and water)
• 1 cake silken tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 100 grams mushrooms whatever variety you prefer, sliced or chopped of they are rather large
• patis (fish sauce) fish sauce, to taste
• finely sliced scallions to garnish
• fresh cilantro to garnish

Instructions

• Place the chopped sausages in a pot. Pour in the broth. Bring to the boil then lower the heat, cover and simmer for about ten minutes. You’ll be amazed at how the flavor of the broth will be improved after simmering the sausages.
• Add the tofu and the mushrooms. Simmer for another ten minutes. Taste the broth, you will likely need to add fish sauce since the mushrooms and tofu will absorb much of the salt in the broth.
• And that’s it. To serve, simply top the soup with scallions and cilantro. Add a poached egg, if you like.