To celebrate, Corey and I had a Huo Guo (Chinese Hot Pot) with Kim last night. Anyone who has had a Chinese fondue has had a type of huo guo. In China, a huo guo restaurant has tables with holes in the middle, large propane burners inside the hole, and steaming pots of spicy broth are placed on top of the burners. The pots are 24" in diameter and a rotating platform surrounds the pot has all the little dishes of yummy bits that are put into the soup to cook. Then there is the solid table where each person has a scoop, a set of chopsticks, a small plate and a bowl of garlic and sesame oil for dipping.
While we were in China, we had all sorts of yummy and more challenging bits thrown into the soup to eat including famous Chinese white broccoli (we were very excited about this new vegetable until we received a plate of cauliflower), various Chinese greens, lotus root, tofu, mushrooms, fish, pork, beef, fish heads, freshly killed eels in their own blood, congealed duck blood, frog skin, and my personal favourite - sheep's brain. No chicken because we were there during the bird flu epidemic and we were rarely served chicken at all.
Obviously the huo guo we made last night was a vegan version (and it's hard to find good congealed duck's blood here - sheesh!) We used our new fondue set that Santa brought for us at Christmas and we each had a little netted scoop that you can buy at the Asian market as well as chopsticks to eat with. Corey made the crushed garlic and sesame oil dipping sauce and we feasted on huo guo for Chinese New Year. Yummy!
Year of the Dragon Spicy Hot Pot
For the Soup:
2 tbsp oil
6 dried cayenne peppers (or 1 tbsp crushed dried chilies)
2 tbsp korean chili bean paste (or other chili bean paste that you have)
1 tbsp sambal oelek
3 star anise
1/4 cup dried mushroom pieces (any type that you have)
zest of 1 orange
6 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 tbsp minced ginger
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
8 cups vegetable stock
Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the dried peppers, chili bean paste and sambal oelek until they are fragrant. Throw everything else into the pot, bring it up to a boil and then turn it down to simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings as you want to make it spicier or add more stock to reduce the heat. When you are ready to do the huo guo, strain the soup to only have the liquid in your fondue pot.
We eat out food spicy but if you don't want a spicy stock, don't use the cayenne peppers, chili paste and sambal oelek. The important flavours come from the star anise, dried mushrooms and orange zest, garlic and ginger.
.JPG)
Our yummy bits to throw in last night were (from left to right):
- chopped Chinese cabbage (behind the huo guo pot)
- enoki mushrooms
- brown mushrooms (yuck - totally optional)
- lotus root (buy these canned if you want but fresh are divine! Peel and slice THIN so that they soften up a bit. They can be eaten raw so it doesn't matter how crunchy they are but they are QUITE crunchy so be forewarned. They are like crunchier and harder water chestnuts.)
- more enoki mushrooms
- red cabbage
- green onions (not for me as you well know)
- tofu skin (make sure to get the vacuum pack variety that is flexible when you open up the sheets or else if you get the dehydrated variety you will have to reconstitute it first before slicing it. Not a problem, just an added step)
- baby bok choy leaves
- sliced extra firm tofu
You can really use whatever you want. Everyone places whatever interests them into the soup and then lets the soup heat up again and simmer. When you can't stand waiting any longer, you scoop out bits and pieces and put them in the bowl with the sesame oil and garlic. Anything can be eaten raw in a vegan version so you don't have to wait until the soup comes to a rolling boil before you pick out some tasty bits to eat.
Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment