The Seaweed Soup My Dad's Made 100,000 Times

Step 1: Prepare dried ingredients

Start by rinsing the dried seaweed (0.50 oz). These days, dried seaweed tends to be very clean, but if your seaweed has a lot of sand and residue, that will come off with a few more rinses, and will sink to the bottom during the soak.

Then we need to soak the seaweed for around 10 minutes. It's fine if it ends up sitting in the water for longer than that, because it'll be cooking in a big pot of soup anyway.

Wash the dried shrimp (0.50 oz) twice to make sure they're clean, and rehydrate them by soaking in a small bowl of hot water for 5 minutes.

Step 2: Prepare eggs & cabbage

Crack the eggs into a bowl so they'll be ready for later.

We'll cut the napa cabbage (6 oz) into manageable bites. Make two length-wise cuts, and then chop into pieces about 1-2 inches wide. The stem pieces should be smaller than the leafy pieces to account for cooking time.

Step 3: Cut & marinate pork

You can slice the lean pork (5 oz) into any shape you like. For this recipe, we're cutting it into strips by slicing first, and then laying them down to cut strips. Besides strips, you can also do big slices or even mince the pork.

Put the pork in a bowl.

Then, we'll make the marinade for the pork with salt (0.50 tsp), cornstarch (1 tsp), and water (1 tbsp). A handy technique is to mix the marinade ingredients to the side of the bowl that the pork's in, smoothing out any clumps there, and then stirring it into the pork.

This way, the marinade is smooth and easy to incorporate, and you don't have a separate marinade-making dish to clean later!

Step 4: Stir-fry dried shrimp

With a soup pot on the stove, turn the heat on high. Add oil (1 tbsp) to the pot. It should heat up rather quickly.

Put the rehydrated dried shrimp in, making sure to save the soaking liquid, and cook for 50-60 seconds. The shrimp flavor will bloom and flavor the oil, and you'll be able to smell it.

Step 5: Add chicken broth & water

Add chicken broth (14 oz) to the pot of soup, as well as the shrimp soaking liquid that we saved earlier. The liquid will add an extra little layer of shrimp flavor to the soup. Then add water (6 cup) and put the lid on the pot.

Step 6: Add ingredients to soup

When the soup comes to a boil, remove the lid, and add the napa cabbage. Place the lid back on, and continue to cook on high heat. We need to wait for the soup to come back to a boil, which should take about 1.5 minutes.

Once the soup is boiling again, remove the lid, drain the rehydrated seaweed, and add it to the soup.

Add the marinated pork as well. Make sure to stir as the pork goes in, so that they cook evenly without sticking together.

We're going to add the eggs next, but to make sure the soup doesn't boil over while we're working, turn the heat down to medium.

Beat the eggs, and slowly pour the beaten eggs in while stirring the soup to create smooth wisps of silky egg. Then, turn the heat back up to high.

Step 7: Add final seasonings

It's time to season the soup. Start with salt (1 tsp). It's not a lot, but you can always add more salt at the end if it's needed. Then add sesame oil (0.50 tsp), fish sauce (1 tsp), and white pepper (1 dash).

Step 8: Taste test & plate

Finally, taste to adjust the flavors of the soup to your liking! This is usually served in a large serving bowl at the center of the table. Everyone can take the amount they want in smaller individual bowls.