Dinner is served. And it’s quite interactive.
When you’re nursing the January sniffles, hot, steamy, swirly broth is always a good idea. Paired with savory fixins and spicy condiments, it’s comfort food at its most nurturing.
Hotpot is one of the most fun and interactive ways to achieve a warm, comforting dish on a wintry night as well. We were recently in Flushing, Queens—a.k.a. the “other” Chinatown here in NYC—and got our own set. The portable stove and stainless steel pot were about $17 each(!) along with $5 for a pack of four butane gas canisters.
This was inspired by many hotpot nights/dinner parties with our friends Mark, Jimmy, et.al., the most recent of which were New Year’s Eve AND New Year’s Day. 🙂
First comes prep, then dinner.
First is prep, as always…
Get your seafood, meat, and vegetables ready. The same Asian supermarket where we got the tools also had pre-sliced chicken and lamb specifically for hotpot. We also got lobster balls, fish balls, squid, yu choy greens, and enoki mushrooms. We already had baby bellas in the fridge and FYI, they don’t go that well with hotpot other than flavoring the broth. Shitake mushrooms pair better in this scenario.
Assorted oriental condiments. Be ready to concoct your own “base flavor” combo in a bowl.
In a separate station, gather all your condiments and here is where you swirl your own concoction in a bowl, this is your “base” to dunk and flavor the cooked food in. You can make as many trips as you want. In our kitchen, we now have the following: this absolutely amazing Chinese barbecue sauce that comes in a gray can (have no idea what the name is, but when you see it, you’ll know it), Sriracha, soy sauce, sesame oil, and another unidentified yet fantastic chili sauce.
Name that condiment.
A flavor party in your mouth.
Then, dinner commences with boiling water set atop a portable stove (adds to the fun). Don’t worry—as you start adding assorted toppings from seafood, meat, vegetables, mushrooms, etc., the broth is infused with flavor.
Lobster balls, fishballs, and a whole lot of other fixins.
As you begin to feel satisfied and full, the broth is now ready for the “closing”—which are the noodles and egg. Any oriental noodles will do, the ones we got looked like fresh Singaporean noodles, really skinny. And don’t be fooled as they look small in packaging, but EXPAND once dunked in hot soup. Then, if like Mark, you own a sous vide immersion circulator (here’s what one looks like on Amazon
Noodles and eggs are added towards the end. You want the eggs to be soft and runny. This first batch went a bit past, so I actually made another (not pictured).
