Hot Pot
Thinly sliced marble beef
Thinly sliced lamb
Hot pot plater
Hot pot is very popular all around Asia. It is a great winter food to keep warm. Usually a whole family would sit around a table having hot pot. It doesn’t take long to prepare. You will need a portable electric (or gas) stove and a pot to place in the middle of dinning table, which is surrounded by all the raw ingredients to cook in the pot. You basically can have anything in the hot pot. Typically thinly sliced lamb or marble beef are must to have. You can also have prawns, shell fishes, fish fillet, octopus, chicken wings, pork ribs, meat balls, cocktail frankfurt, Asian greens, mushrooms, tofu, noodles, dumplings, potatoes, bamboo shoots, sweet potatoes… The list goes on and on. People can then choose whatever they want to put in the pot and let it boil for 2-3 minutes or longer. When it is cooked you can use chopsticks to fish it out and eat it.
Flavour wise, every part of Asia has its own distinct spices to make a hot pot broth. My favourite is Chinese Sichuan style. Like all Sichuan food, it is spicy, pungent and delicious. You will still need a dipping sauce, although the food has already absorbed a lot of flavour from the broth. You can buy ready to go Sichuan hot pot sauce to make the broth in most of Chinese groceries. You can also buy the dipping sauce.
Ingredients:
1 pack of Sichuan hot pot sauce, thinly sliced lamb (1 pack, 250 g), thinly sliced marble beef (1 pack, 250g), fish fillet, Asian greens, tofu sheets, cocktail frankfurt, Asian mushrooms…
Dipping sauce: vinegar (1 table spoon), sesame oil (1 table spoon), oyster sauce (1 table spoon), sesame paste (2 table spoon), soy sauce (1 table spoon), water (1 table spoon), minced garlic (1 clove), minced spring onion and coriander
What to do:
- Prepare all the raw ingredients and cut into bite size pieces, and place them in a plater (or individual plates).
- Place the whole pack of Sichuan hot pot sauce in a pot, and fill the pot with water up to 70% of the pot capacity, bring it to boil.
- While waiting for the hot pot to boil, make a simple dipping sauce. Place all the ingredients for dipping sauce in a jar and give it a good shake until sesame paste is well combined with all the other ingredients.
- Now you can sit around the table, choose whatever you like to put the pot, eat and chat… (this can go on for hours)
