Chinese Hot Potting...

Winter has always been a season I looked forward to. Not foremost for its festive holiday celebrations, nor for its Yuletide spirit of giving and receiving, but for it’s yummy Hot Pot dinners with family and friends. Which is precisely how my family spent our first day of 2015! My most memorable dinners were gathering around the table during cold evenings to feast on a variety of meat, seafood and vegetables in a hot pot which, not only satisfyingly filled your stomach, but warmed your body and soul in and out. The origin of "Hot Pots" came from Mongolia, where the cold climate favoured such a method of cooking. Now, a variety of ethnic cuisines have adopted this form of cooking. Hot pots are referred to by many names, such as shabu-shabu (Japanese and Taiwanese), Chinese hot pots, fire pots, steamboats, and sin-sul-lo (Korean), because they are used widely throughout Asia. It is very similar to "fondue" from the west, except the ingredients used are very different, and the communal cooking style is very unique. 

I always make sure to prepare a homemade broth with pork and chicken bones. Blanch the bones in boiling water with salt and two slices of ginger for five minutes, drain and rinse, and bring the rinsed pot back to a boil with water and cook bones on medium for two hours. Skim off oil on the surface before using.

Pork neck bones and a whole stew chicken.

Seafood such as scallops and shrimps should be rinsed in cold salt water to remove any impurities and drained well before setting on a plate. Oysters, fresh or frozen then thawed, should sit in some water with salt and a little corn starch, and thoroughly rinsed in cold water for same reason. Do the same when preparing pork liver, only you slice it thinly (freezing the liver for two hours makes it easier to slice) before treating it with salt and cornstarch. 

Top left: You can buy prepared cuttlefish frozen.

For beef tripe (omasum), blanch whole in salted water with white pepper for flavour, before removing and slicing thinly.

Meat balls popularly used in hot pots come in a myriad of flavours. There's chicken, beef and pork, but what really gets interesting is the fish ones. Not only can you find a slew of seafood balls from squid, octopus, crab, lobster and cuttlefish, regular or fried but they also come in various cute shapes and colours. Find these in the refrigerated or frozen sections of an Asian supermarket.

The neon green ones are octopus encased in fish cakes.

Photo Credit: http://shahsulongcooks.blogspot.ca/

Try konnyaku (yam noodles) for something different.

You can buy packages of hot pot-ready thinly sliced meats in the frozen section of an Asian grocery store. They are neatly rolled up to make removing and cooking a cinch straight from frozen. You can get various cuts of beef, pork, chicken and even lamb.

And of course you have to have your veggies. Water spinach, watercress, baby bak choy, pieces of napa cabbage, enoki and shiitake mushrooms to round out the offerings. Fresh cubes of tofu as well as deep-fried tofu are welcomed additions.

A propane-fuel burner is usually set in the middle of each table with a pot 3/4 full of broth set on top. We have also used a wide diameter electric Chinese pan, which you just plug into a circuit. Then there are the real hot pots used for this tabletop dining for serious hot pot connoisseurs, which generally consists of a cylindrical chimney surrounded by a moat in which food is cooked. The attractive pots are made of brass, stainless steel, or aluminium. Charcoal placed in the chimney, keeps the food hot during cooking. 

And what is hot potting without a delicious soy sauce mixture to dip it in? Various options include a combination of fresh chilies, chili sauce, garlic, green onions, cilantro, vinegar, hot mustard, sesame oil or paste, lime juice, fermented bean curd, and end up in a continuously changing mélange. Add raw egg to your sauce to tone down the heat from your cooked ingredients. It's the yin (cooling) to the yang (warming) by restoring your internal balance in the constant heat intake from the meal.

Set up a DIY sauce station for everyone to customize their own.

Utensils for each person, includes a small wire-mesh basket on a bamboo stick and two pairs of chopsticks, one to eat with, and one to pick up foods with. We like to toss a bunch of different ingredients into the pot, but if there is something you really want to put your stake to, take the raw ingredients to fill the mesh basket and plunge it into the broth. In about a minute, the leafy vegetables are cooked, the thin slices of fish and meat, deliciously firmed, and the shrimp pink and juicy. Oysters take a little longer to cook, so enjoy the other tasty morsels in the meanwhile. TIP: Cook in batches in simmering broth, and remove the cooked items before dunking in new items, otherwise, the broth won't get a chance to heat up properly and you risk unsafe food temperatures. 

Cousins enjoying great food and conversations.

Two cool and crunchy side dishes graced the table: kimchi and tangy spicy cucumbers with garlic.

Look! Fish-shaped fried fish cakes- now say it three times!!

Dip the tidbits into the sauce that you've prepared and feast away. Keep extra broth handy as this will be required to replenish the soup in the pot. As the dinner continues the broth will become more hearty and tasty, which is just perfect for adding cooked vermicelli or flat rice noodles to enjoy at the end with... my very favourite thing to end the hot pot session. So-O delicious and comforting. It's like the fruits of my labour all enveloped in this final bowl. Ahhhhh...

Hot pot cooking is healthy, can easily be vegetarian, and offers many creative, culinary possibilities, perfect for hosting a fun and unique dinner party anytime! Ho ho sic!

Wishing you a Happy New Year full of cooking and taste adventures!!