**Making Hulatang: A Traditional Chinese Soup**

Hulatang is a traditional Chinese soup that originated from the Sichuan province. The dish consists of seitan, peanuts, and various other ingredients such as day lily, wood ear, kelp, and glass noodles. In this article, we will guide you through the process of making Hulatang from scratch.

**Isolating Gluten and Starch**

To start making Hulatang, we need to isolate the gluten and starch from wheat flour. This is done by soaking wheat flour in water and then separating the gluten and starch. The gluten can be separated using a cheesecloth or a fine mesh sieve, while the starch remains in the liquid. We repeat this process several times until the dough becomes soft and milky, indicating that most of the gluten has been extracted.

**Creating Seitan**

Once we have isolated the gluten and starch, we create seitan by kneading the gluten mixture into a smooth dough. This process can take about three to four minutes, during which time we need to be careful not to overwork the dough, as it can break up too much and become difficult to work with. After kneading, we add in a second cup of water and repeat the process one more time to achieve the desired consistency.

**Adding Add-ins**

In addition to seitan, Hulatang also includes various add-ins such as peanuts, day lily, wood ear, kelp, and glass noodles. We soak these ingredients in cool water for at least four hours or overnight to rehydrate them. The day lily is dried and chopped into one-inch pieces, while the wood ear is soaked and sliced into strips. The kelp is only needed for half an hour of soaking time, but overnight can also be used.

**Making the Soup**

To make the soup, we combine a liter of stock with the soaked peanuts and bring it to a boil. We then add in the sliced beef and simmer for three minutes. Next, we add in our seitan, tearing it into small pieces as we go. The soup is seasoned with a combination of spices, including thirteen spice, Sichuan peppercorn powder, salt, chicken bouillon powder, MSG, soy sauce, and white peppercorn powder.

**Thickening the Soup**

To thicken the soup, we use a mixture of rinsed starch water from earlier. We drizzle this mixture in bit by bit over low heat, checking the consistency of the soup as we go. The amount of starch used will depend on how much starch was extracted when making the gluten.

**Finishing Touches**

Once the soup has reached the desired consistency, we finish it off with a teaspoon of dark Chinese vinegar and half a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil. We then top each bowl with cilantro and serve with youtiao or any other crunchy starchy ingredient that you enjoy.

**Freezing and Reheating Hulatang**

One of the benefits of making Hulatang is that it can be frozen and reheated whenever needed. The stock, beef, and spices can be portioned out into individual containers and frozen for later use. The seitan can also be frozen in batches and then added to the soup as needed.

**Conclusion**

Hulatang is a delicious and traditional Chinese soup that requires some effort but is well worth the investment. With this guide, you should be able to make Hulatang from scratch and enjoy it with your family and friends. Remember to experiment with different ingredients and spices to find your own unique flavor combination.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enOk, so pop quiz.Hulatang, Henan’s famed hot pepper soupand… liangpi, Xi’an’s ever popular coldskin noodles.These’re two dishes that’re at a fundamentallevel actually extremely close to eachother,technique wise.You could probably never figure it out justby quick look, but if you do want to pausethe video for a quick guess, feel free.So right.As some of you might already know, Xi’an’sLiangpi are produced using a technique calledximianjin or gluten washing.What you do is you make a flour dough, andthen you rinse it thoroughly to separate outthe gluten and the starch.Then that gluten gets turned into Seitan,the starch into the slippery liangpi itself,and then you combine the two together withspicy vinegary dressing.On the other hand, Henan’s hot pepper soup,is made… as maybe you could guess …by… a technique called ximianjin or glutenwashing.You make the flour dough, rinse it thoroughlyseparating the gluten and the starch... andthat gluten gets turned into fresh Seitan,which’s then torn into pieces and boiledin a soup.. and that starch you use to…thicken said soup.It’s a really interesting way of manipulatingstarches that I think’s a good educationfor anyone interested in doughs, but evenif we put aside our cooking dweebery…hulatang’s a Northern Chinese classic fora reason.It’s a fantastically soothing soup, andits aggressive hit of white pepper makes itan awesome way to start the day together witha good pile of youtiao or fried baos.So.We’ll get to the gluten washing in justa second, but besides that whole seitan dealthere’s gunna be three other core componentsthat we’ll need to prepare in advance.First one is some stock, most traditionallybeef stock, but if you happen to already havesome chicken or vegetarian stock on hand Ipromise we won’t tell any Henan people onyou.Either way, to make it, just toss a kilo ofbeef bone to a pot together with 500 gramsof beef shin and four liters of water.Then, just get that up to a boil and downto a simmer, and then begin skimming yourstock.For us, our beef bone was a little on thegunky side so we needed to do a real bangup job with the skim, but once you’re donejust toss in an inch’s worth of smashedginger, one star anise, and a quarter teaspooneach Sichuan peppercorn and fennel seed.Then just cover and let that simmer over alow flame for five to six hours, but we’llalso swing back to this in 90 minute’s time.Because, at that point, that beef shin shouldbe cooked and tender, able to be poked throughwith a chopstick.So, we’ll just slice off any remaining cartilagefrom the beef, toss it back into the pot andlet our remaining shin cool down… keepingthe soup going for the remaining time, ofcourse.Then, once the meat is cool to the touch,we’ll be slicing up what we’ll be usingfor our soup today, which was about fortygrams worth in all… but you’ll definitelyhave a good hunk of excess shin remaining.Obviously, waste not want not, chop it uplike you like, and freeze those leftoversfor whenever you want a bit of beef.So then, back to the stock, after those sixhours just… ladle out one liter’s worth– our portion today – and save the restjust like the excess shin, for future use.Then, the second core component is, of course,the titular white pepper.Now, because this is a pretty white pepperheavy dish, what we’ll be doing is takinga half tablespoon of whole white peppercornsand pounding them into a powder.Of course, definitely know that there’sno need to walk this specific mile if youdon’t want to - a nice pre-ground whitepepper powder would also be totally fine.That said, a quick aside that I have seenmore than a few people online complain aboutsome sort of white pepper powder ‘barnyardsmell’?Guys, if your white pepper powder smells likea horse, it means it’s gotten old… soif you’ve got something offensive smellingon your hands, just get a newer – or fresher– bottle, or, of course, just pound someyourself.Which, then brings us then to our third corecomponent – Chinese thirteen spice.Now, I imagine you’ve probably heard ofChinese five spice – Cinnamon, Sichuan pepper,Clove, Star Anise, Fennel – but maybe thirteenspice might be a little new to some of you.It’s a common mix in the north of the country,and at most Chinese supermarkets you shouldbe able to find this exact brand, which thesedays is practically synonymous with the stuff.If you can’t find it though, thirteen spice’sbasically five spice plus eight more spice,so if you’ve got a stocked spice cabinetyou can also totally grind it yourself.Starts off just like a five spice…five grams Sichuan peppercorns, five gramsfennel seed, four star anise, two grams cinnamon,and one gram of clove… and our eight newspices are 1 gram caoguo, Chinese black cardamom,one gram sand ginger, one gram dried galangal,two grams baizhi, Chinese angelica, five gramsdried ginger, a gram of nutmeg, and threelong peppers.If you find yourself having some sourcingproblems on this front though, do know thatfive spice would also work, but if at allpossible we’d additionally recommend addinga bit of dried ginger, long pepper and nutmegto that base if you can.So… just strain and give the coarser bitsanother blitz in your grinder, another strain,and just toss those remaining solids.And then with that, you’ve got yourselfa good batch of Chinese thirteen spice.So.Now… we can make ourselves some gluten.To do so, first start off with 100 grams ofAP flour, a half teaspoon salt, and 75 gramsof water.This’s a high hydration dough, by Chinesestandards at least, which’ll make it easierto wash the gluten later.So then once that’s thoroughly combined,just cover, and let it sit for twenty minutes.So, twenty minutes later, come back and foldyour dough.Think of this kind of like working with ahigh hydration bread – stretch and foldthe dough under itself to get it into a sortof a ball shape.This process will be important to the finalwashing, because, I mean, if you don’t actuallydevelop your gluten when you’d try washthe thing all you’d end up getting wouldbe some sort of flour-water sludge.We’ll need to fold this three times in total,with a twenty minute rest in between eachtime... so, after a quick 20 minutes, foldit again, rest it again, and after your finalfolding at this point the dough should havea good bit of resistance to it.Then just wait your final 20 minutes, andthen we can wash.So.Your dough should be good and stretchy bynow, so first go in with one cup of water.Just continue to do that same folding motionwith your ball in the water – the goal hereis to wash off the starch while isolatingthe gluten, but don’t go at this willy nillybecause if your gluten breaks up too muchit can kinda be a bit of a mess to deal with.So, after about three to four minutes of allthat, the dough should be quite soft and yourwater pretty milky, so strain, and toss anygluten that was caught back in with thedough.Then, add in a second cup of water, and repeatthe process.After a minute or two of going at it thisa second time, you should be looking at somethingthat’s starting to look pretty seitan-y,so strain that water again, in with anothercup, and continue for another minute.After that time, this last bit of water doesn’treally have much starch to it so no need toreserve it… and then move your seitan intoa new bowl of fresh water.Give the thing a bit of a stretch, and letthat soak until you’re ready to use it.Then, besides those core components, Hulatangusually has a number of ‘add ins’ to givethe dish a bit more texture.You can go in any number of routes here, butto ours we’ll add in eight grams of driedpeanuts, soaked in cool water for at leastfour hours and up to overnight…eight grams of huanghuacai, dried day lily,soaked for the same amount of time then choppedinto one inch pieces… another eight gramsmu’er, wood ear, soaked for the same time,root removed, and sliced into strips…two grams of kelp, which only need a halfhour soak but overnight would also be totallyok… then sliced into half centimeter stripsand given a couple chops in the other directionas well… and finally a bit of glass noodles,eight grams, soaked for at least two hoursbut again overnight’s fine… and givena couple chops into about inch and a halfsections.So then with everything prepped, we can finallymake our soup.So.To make it, to a pot first toss in your literof stock and bring that up to a boil.Then just add in your soaked peanuts, swapyour flame to medium and cover.Boil those peanuts for five minutes, thenadd in the sliced beef together with everythingelse.Cover, simmer for another three minutes orso, and then we can go in with our Seitan.To do so, first stretch it out a bit, andtear little pieces into the soup in sort ofa snapping motion.Some’ll be a little bigger, some a littlesmaller, all totally normal.Let it boil for about a minute, and once yourseitan’s floating, season with a half teaspoonof your thirteen spice, a half teaspoon Sichuanpeppercorn powder, a half tablespoon salt,one teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder, aquarter teaspoon MSG, a teaspoon of soy sauce,and of course a generous two teaspoons ofthat white peppercorn powder.Quick mix, and then… we can thicken – with,of course, that rinsed starch water from before.So.Over a low flame, just drizzle that stuffin bit by bit…checking the consistency of the soup as yougo.For reference we used about a cup of our starchwater BUT you will need to trust your ownjudgement, because the total amount’ll completelydepend on how much starch you extracted whenmaking the gluten.We’ll be aiming for something about thiskind of consistency, basically the same asa hot and sour soup, so once you’re therejust finish things off with a teaspoon ofdark Chinese vinegar and a half teaspoon oftoasted sesame oil… and heat off.The amount here in this pot will be enoughfor two good servings… so top each bowlwith a bit of cilantro, and serve with someyoutiao or really anything crunchy starchythat you enjoy and have convenient.So I know that we made that big pot of stock,and all that beef… and that whole jar ofspices.Um, that’s the nature of Hulatang, you can’tlike just make a small, like, couple grainsof spices… and like one bowl of stock.But what you can do is freeze your stock,portion out your beef, also keep it in thefreezer… and whenever you feel like havinga whole nine yards hulatang, just make theSeitan, everything should be done in… halfan hour.Uh… or, maybe not half an hour, but – seitantakes like one hour and a half?But, generally speaking, everything’s prettyeasy.So right!Check out the recipe in the description box,a big thank you for everyone that’s supportingus on Patreon… and of course, subscribefor more Chinese cooking videos.\n"