• Cooking Time: 1 hour or so
• Servings: 12
• Preparation Time: 10 minutes
• 3000ml vegetable stock*
• 100g julienne carrots
• 100g julienne bamboo shoots (cooked)
• 100g julienne wood-ear mushroom
• 2each eggs (whisked)
• 100g sliced shitake mushrooms (fresh)
• soy sauce
• fine grind white pepper
• rice vinegar
• 100g julienne firm tofu
• slurry: 200ml water, 75g cornstarch
• vegetable stock: 4000ml water, 1each white onion, 5 garlic cloves, 240g dry porcini, 1 4x4 sheet kombu

1. Start by making the base vegetable stock;
2. Preheat the oven to 400f, toast kombu for 10 mins and the whole onion for 30 mins or until charred.
3. Peel the charred skin off the onion and combine all ingredients in a large stock pot and turn heat to high.
4. Once boiling turn heat to a simmer and simmer for at least 1 hour.
5. Strain and reserve liquid. Discard the rest.
6. For the finished soup;
7. Cut and organize your vegetables in their appropriate cuts.
8. combine carrots, bamboo, wood ear mushroom, shitake mushrooms, tofu to the strained vegetable stock
9. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 30 mins.
10. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar and whiter pepper to your preference by tasting and adjusting.
11. Once well seasoned add tofu and turn heat to medium high.
12. Slowly pour in the slurry while stirring. The slurry will thicken the soup as it heats up and is stirred. Add enough to thicken the soup a little but not too much.
13. Once thickened to desired level gently pour in the whisked eggs in a circular motion. Make sure to not stir or disturb the egg for at least 10-15seconds. After the eggs have somewhat cooked give it a gentle stir.
14. Serve hot with sesame oil, scallions and pinch of white pepper as garnish.

This beautiful soup is shared often back in the kitchen. It is very well worth the effort of seeking theses ingredients.