I think I want to start of fun new tradition for my blog, “Tutorial Tuesday”, they could be cooking tutorials or craft ones…I’m always making something or another so now I’ll just start taking pictures so I can share. Blog show & tell if you will. I love when the craft blogs I read give good tutorials so now I’ll start paying it back. (:

Now to the hot pot…

Chinese hot pot is this incredibly awesome, incredibly healthy and incredibly easy method for cooking meats and veggies that P’s Chinese stepfather taught us. It’s kind of an Asian fondue & is also called “Shabu–Shabu“. It’s great for entertaining too, we make it whenever we have friends or family over & they always LOVE it!

First off you’ll need a Hotpot. Now if you have an Asian supermarket in your area (which you most likely do) this is going to make everything much easier and SO cheap!

You’ll also need a butane cooktop for the table. Hotpot starts off on the stove but then moves to the table and needs to be kept hot for tabletop cooking. If you don’t have an Asian market here’s one on Amazon but if you dug around you could probably find one more like mine…

The other thing you’ll need are the little baskets that you cook your meat in, they look like mini-strainers. (I actually use mine all the time to fish out ravioli or veggies when I don’t want to dirty a big strainer; very handy little gimmicks)

Now the ingredients:

Feel free to substitute but here’s what we use..

Veggies- Watercress (a couple of bundles), Chinese broccoli (looks kind of like broccolini) Baby Bok Choy (I can only find the really small ones at the Asian market) & Shitake mushrooms.

Meat- Sliced beef, Salmon, Tofu, “Beef Balls” (in the Asian market they sell packages of different pressed meat balls, buy whatever meat you like and toss them in) & Pork Dumplings (frozen)
*A Beef Note-there really isn’t a good substitute for this if you can’t get to an Asian market. This beef is sliced very thin and is really fatty so it’s full of flavor. You might be able to cube filet mignon in a pinch but then it gets a bit pricey.

Sauce- Soy Sauce, Ponzu Sauce, Hoison Sause, Sate Sauce, Chinese BBQ Sauce, Sesame oil, Cilantro, Ginger, Garlic

Directions:
Fill both sides of your hot pot 3/4 of the way full and place on high heat on your stovetop. I like to throw some big pieces of sliced ginger, sliced garlic & scallions in the water to start giving it flavor at this point.
While that’s going start preparing your veggies. The greens will each get swished around in big bowls of water to get the dirt out and the mushrooms should have stems trimmed off and be placed in their own bowl of water. Also at this point you can go ahead and cut your salmon filets into large cubes.
(Sorry these first pics are so blurry, I didn’t realize my camera was on the wrong setting)

*Now you should drizzle a little sesame oil on the top of the water (by this point it should be starting to simmer) Drop around 4-6 dumplings in on each side of hot pot, the oil will help to coat them so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.

*Go ahead and add your baby bok choy, mushrooms, chinese broccoli, beef balls, tofu cut into large cubes and any other tough veggies you want. (sometimes we’ll throw big onion slices in there) Save the watercress until right before you get take the pot to the table, it’ll wilt quickly.

*While those are getting going make your sauce. In a large measuring cup add equal parts soy sauce and ponzu sauce (Ponzu is like a milder, citrus soy sauce). Around 1/2 cup each for enough sauce for 4 people. Then you’ll want to mix in 2 tablespoons of hoison, sate & chinese bbq sauce. Add 1/4 cu chopped cilantro, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tbs minced ginger and 2 tsp sesame oil. Mix well with fork or wisk.

*Set table. Each person will have a small plate, bowl, dipping sauce bowl, chopsticks & mini-basket. Also set sliced beef & salmon on their own plates with their own forks. (You don’t want to be using your eating utensils to be grabbing the raw meat and putting it into your basket)

*Carefully transfer hotpot to tabletop cooker and lite. Hotpot should be kept at a light boil. Add watercress.

Eat up!

Grab veggies out & place in your bowl with chopsticks as you go. Dumplings & tofu will be scalding hot so let them sit in your bowl for a minute before taking a bite. Meat should be cooked in your basket in the hotpot. (Like fondue) Beef only take 1-2 minutes whereas the salmon will take more like 2-3. Either pour sauce directly into your bowl or dip in sauce as you go. (My preferred method but P likes to put it all in his bowl and swish it around)
Add veggies, dumplings, beef balls & tofu as you go and they run out. One of the great things about hot pot is you just add as you go, it’s a nice leisurely dinner. I hope you enjoy, give it a try and feel free to post any questions!