The best part of a hot pot meal? The dipping sauce of course!
There’s no recipe: each makes their own. Soup cups are best to mix and hold all that goodness without spilling.
A station with selection of ingredients away from the main table accommodates the intimacy of the mixing ritual.
It is personal. I wouldn’t want anyone to know that I pour fish sauce by the ladle or scoop hot peppers by a tablespoon, or to see the mess I create loading up my garlic, cilantro, and scallions. No one should judge me spilling sesame seeds or peanuts all over because they don’t fit but I like a lot of them. I bring my bowl to the table neat and mixed — no one knows that sesame paste and chili oil are gone because it was me who used them all up.
These are mixing stations from my kitchen and those we saw in Beijing and Flushing restaurants.
Advantages of hot pot meal:
— no skill required — only planning and chopping;
— the meal is prepared in advance;
— it can accommodate any allergy or diet fad;
— interactivity fuels conversation;
— children entertain themselves.
Here’s what you need:
— electric pot or induction or gas burner for the table plus a wide shallow soup pot;
— chopsticks, tweezer tongs, or forks;
— a small strainer;
— a small ladle;
— a table cover if you must.
The meal has three parts: broth, food to cook, and sauce.
The broth. You can make up your own, Chinese books have them scattered throughout. Sky is the limit for those with imagination, so is the internet for the rest of us.
Things to cook: meat, offal, chicken, fish, seafood, quail eggs, tofu, bean curd, meatballs, fishballs, dumplings, noodles, mushrooms, root vegetables, leafy greens, cabbages, chunks of corn. Just cut it all up like for a stir fry.
And the dipping sauce!
Details didn’t fit — they are on the blog👆
#hotpot #food #cooking #chinesefood #cookingathome #cookingtherapy #foodie #lovetocook #delicious
Ekimellnea
Witch's Hutcooking
Praveen Yadav
Julia
Phil Boyce