Tuesday 13 October 2015

Hot Pot at Home



The correlation between cooking your own food at the table and how good it tastes, amazes me. In this case I think the work you put into this dish is well worth the outcome.  As we sat down for our version of Thanksgiving dinner, for the better part of the evening we cooked, ate and talked about the wonderful experience that is hot pot. The list below is just a guide for hot pot at home. That's the charm of this dish, it's completely customizable. You like it? Throw it in! Happy hot potting.

Ingredients

Equipment needed for hot pot:
hot plate/single burner
pot with a separator to accommodate 2 broths
individual slotted spoons or wire baskets
chopsticks
bowls for serving

For the broths:
Szechuan Spicy
1 package of spicy hot pot soup base
6 cups of water
3 green onions chopped into 2 inch pieces
6 whole cloves of garlic

Ginger Goji 
1 package of plain hot pot soup base
6 cups of water
3 green onions chopped into 2 inch pieces
6 whole cloves of garlic
5 slices of ginger
3 tsps goji berries
6-8 dried red dates

For cooking, dipping and eating (you can buy everything below at any Asian grocery store):
thinly shaved beef or pork
prawns
assorted meat balls (I used fish and beef)
slices of firm tofu
fried tofu puffs
enoki mushrooms
white mushrooms
soba noodles
udon noodles
rice cakes
frozen dumplings or wontons
daikon radish
lotus root
choy sum or bok choy
napa cabbage
spinach

Dipping Sauce
2 tsps sacha sauce (chinese bbq sauce)
2 tsps sesame paste or tahini
1 tsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp chili oil
1 tsp chopped green onion
1 tsp chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp chopped garlic

Directions
1. To assemble the broths, bring all ingredients for each broth to a boil on the stove then transfer to your hot plate. Keep on low until you're ready to begin adding your cooking ingredients, then raise to a simmer. The broth will reduce as you cook on a steady simmer, add boiling water to keep it topped up. Don't worry about losing any flavour by adding water, as it reduces and you add the ingredients, the broth evolves into something amazing.

2. Chop all your vegetables as you like, I left my greens in 3"x 3" pieces since they wilt as they cook. Lay out the rest of your cooking ingredients so they are easy to grab and add to your broths.

3. Construct your dipping sauce by adding all ingredients together, the amounts given are just a gauge, adjust as you see fit.

4. Cook, dip and get ready for some serious flavour.