Our Asian Hot Pot
The first time David and I had Sichuan Hot Pot, we were in Tokyo and had no idea we were eating at a Chinese Restaurant. It was one of our most memorable meals of that trip (actually all the food was seriously amazing) and since then we have been trying to recreate our own version, cobbled together with whatever ingredients we could find in the Laredo vicinity. We make absolutely no claims to authenticity but it is ridiculously yummy and fun. The fun aspect is definitely enhanced if you have a portable element, metal mesh scoops to stick your meat, etc. in, and chop sticks.
Asian Hot Pot
- 1/2 lb good quality beef, sliced deli-thin
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cup cold water
- 1 cup medium grain sushi rice, rinsed three times in cold water, drained.
- 1/4 lb mushrooms, stems trimmed, halved if small, quartered if big
- 2 cups green cabbage, sliced (you can cook this in the hot pot or dip it in the mayo sauce and eat it raw)
- 1/4 lb tofu, cubed
- 3 tbsp oil (we like using duck fat)
- 6 small dried chilies, (we used chile de arbol)
- 2″ ginger, peeled, minced
- 1/4 cup red pepper paste (we use this Korean kind that is spicy and sugary)
- 1 1/2 tbsp black bean garlic paste
- 1 quart chicken stock
- 1/3 cup dry sherry
Peanut Sauce
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sambal oelek
- 2 tbsp water
Spicy Mayo
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tsp sriracha
- To make slicing easier, place the beef in the freezer for a few hours prior to preparing the meal.
- Combine the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Mix well and set aside.
- Start steaming your rice: place the rice in a saucepan that has a lid and add 1 1/4 cup cold water. Cover and bring to a boil. Let boil for 2 minutes, then reduce heat to medium and let cook 5 minutes. Then reduce heat to your very lowest setting and let cook 15 minutes. Remove lid, cover with a clean tea towel and let stand on element for 10-15 minutes. Pour on rice vinegar mixture and fluff lightly with a fork. Its now ready.
- Meanwhile, chop your vegetables, and tofu, set aside.
- Slice the beef deli-thin.
- Combine the peanut butter with 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sambal oelek, and 2 tbsp water. Set the sauce aside. Check taste and consistency and adjust to suit you.
- Combine the mayo and 1 tsp sriracha (or to taste). Stir well. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in your pot. Saute the dried chilis until fragrant.
- Add the ginger and stir 20 seconds.
- Stir in the chili paste for 30 seconds.
- Add the black bean paste and stir well.
- Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
- Add the dry sherry, reduce heat and simmer until serving time.
- Arrange the vegetables and meat on your table, along with the dipping sauces and bowls of rice.
- Transfer the pot to a tabletop heating element. Cook your food by dipping in the hot liquid. The meat will only take about 20 seconds or so but your tofu and mushrooms taste better the longer they are in there. The rice is delicious with the meat and veg, especially if you pour a little of the stock on top. Yum.
Notes
- Serves 2-4 (you’ll want to double the beef and vegetables for 4). Your hot pot can probably only comfortably give four people dipping room and you don’t need to increase the liquid amount for that size of a group.
- For the beef, some marbling is yummy, but you don’t want giant chunks of fat.
- In addition to mushroom and cabbage, other vegetables that work well in the hot pot are thinly sliced daikon, potatoes, and zucchini. We have also had hot pot with lamb and it was amazing. In Japan we cooked noodles in the hot pot as well but we haven’t been able to find the right noodles. Let us know if you come up with your own recipe or other ingredients of your own to try because we would love to keep expanding our hot pot horizons!
Wow, this looks SO yummy, I’d love to be eating that tonight. But no video? So sad! If you know the right type of noodles, I’d be happy to mail some south!
Haha thanks! This entire post was actually created with the sole purpose that someone who actually knew what kind of noodles to use would volunteer that information…if that happens I will take you up on it:)
Oh, that looks and sounds delicious! It reminds me a lot of a recipe a friend posted b/c the hot broth cooks the meats and veggies in that one too, but it’s done in individual bowls. http://bisayajudkaayo.blogspot.com/2009/10/pho-tai-gan-rear-steak-tendon-pho-oct.html It’s something I would like to try! What is sambal oelek and sriracha?
Sriracha is a Thai chili sauce and Sambal Oelek is an Indonesian Chili sauce…couldn’t live without them!
That’s awesome, on Wikipedia the Hot Pot entry just says “Chinese noodles”. How helpful. On the NPR website article, it says cellophane or glass noodles. I also read ho-fun noodles, sort of like what you eat in pad thai, but it seems that skinny vermicelli noodles are more traditional.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellophane_noodles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahe_fen
http://userealbutter.com/2007/11/21/chinese-hot-pot-recipe/
Haha thanks for the detective work!
this looks sooo good. ive always wanted to have this and have my mouth fall off from the burning spices.lol.i should try this and trick my hubby into eating it
hes very picky and i am soooo not
That is so weird… You just enlighted me to the origin of the name of a meal very popular in Quebec, eaten by almost every family : fondue chinoise (Chinese fondue). It has to come from this hot pot because it is almost identical : fondue pot, metal mesh, fondue sticks on which we stick the meat (paper thin beef -sold as is in grocery stores-, sometimes chicken). The beef broth is also sold in stores as “fondue chinoise broth”. We usually serve it with roasted potatoes and with some different sauces, like yours. After everybody is done, we sometimes crack an egg in the remaining broth and whisk it. It makes a great soup.
Ooooo the egg soup idea is great! We will definitely try that next time!
oh man that is the best idea ever. i love hot pot, my parents take me for my birthday meal every year.
makes a lot of sense to do it up at home. the egg in the broth in the end is money also
…
We’ve been missing out on the egg thing, need to try that! Hot pot would be a perfect birthday meal!
Just popping into say that I LOVE your blog.
Nicole and David! Well this is my birthday meal!! It has been such since moving to Calgary. Mainly because after cooking for all the fall birthdays of my family, I would rather stay at home then go out for a birthday meal and frankly I do not want to cook, so this became the perfect solution. Secretly I feel slighted as my birthday fall on a feast day of great importance when we were on the old calendar ( Jan 18th). Nicole your great grandmother Anna would prepared the twelve meatless dishes for this “vechera”. All of her children and their children (your Mom included) would drive from all parts of Manitoba to be part of celebration some called Little Christmas or Schedrij Vechir. My birthday was never the focus when everyone was there, in fact I don’t ever remember it even being mentioned. But when we began to celebrate Christmas on the new calendar, I truly missed this family celebration at my grandparents’ home.
I must add that after Sean worked in Japanese restaurant in Canmore, Alberta while training at the Nordic centre, he had no tolerance for the slow, leisurely place of the Hot Pot and ended up throwing everything in at the same time! I prefer pork, chicken, shrimp and scallops in my Hot Pot!
Keep cooking and posting!
The hot pot looks AMAZING! I can’t wait to try it! A friend just told me about your site. I’m salivating looking at all your fabulous photos!!! Thank you!
You guys are amazing. Few friends of mine actually enjoy hot pot, but your photos just give me a food tease and make me nostalgic quite a bit. Hello from Edinburgh.
Keep writing and experiencing Asian cuisine.
Am chinese so I have hot pot all the time esp. during the winter time. My mom usually just goes to an asian supermarket and buys these little pouches with a ready made hot pot based paste, so all you have to do is add water and enjoy. It’s a purple and white pouch and there are different types of hot pot…hot, chicken based, beef based etc.