Chinese Hot Pot Dinner 火鍋
One of our favorite at home eats throughout the cooler seasons is the famous and fabulous Chinese Hot Pot where plates full of delectable raw seafood, meat and vegetables are arrayed in buffet style around the soup, all ready to be selected, dunked into the soup and cooked to that diner's personal satisfaction.
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 10 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1/2 liter chicken stock
- 1/2 liter water
- 2 thousand year eggs 皮蛋
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 8 tiger prawn shrimps
- 1 squid
- 8 oysters
- 10 oz thinly sliced marble beef, 300g
- 10 Oil Fried Gluten Puffs 油麵筋
- 1 box Fried Bean Curd Skim 響鈴卷
- 1 bunch enoki mushrooms
- 1 big bunch pea shoots or whatever green vegetable you like
- 2 udon noodle packages
- 3-4 tbsp soy sauce for dipping
- 2 small chili peppers, chopped
Instructions
- 1
Shrimp: Devein by snipping 1/8 inch deep along the back of shrimp and remove the black vein inside. Wash shrimp and cut off antennae. Plate and place on the dining table.
- 2
Squid: Separate the squid into two by pulling the leg/head from the mantle. It should come apart with a good tug. Reach into the mantle and pull out everything, including the cartilage bone and rinse clean.
- 3
Remove skin if you like by picking at a corner until the dark skin lifts up and then slowly keep lifting until all the skin comes up.
- 4
Slice into 1/4 inch rings.
- 5
For the leg/head section cut away the eyes and discard. Slice halfway into the top section of the legs and open to reveal the beak/mouth and remove. Slice the legs lengthwise into 4 sections. Plate and place on the dining table.
- 6
Oysters: Defrost and rinse well. Plate and place on the dining table. Beef: Defrost. Plate and place on the dining table.
- 7
Fried Gluten Puffs and Fried Bean Curd Skim: Place at dining table.
- 8
Enoki Mushrooms: Chop off bottom 1-2 inch of the mushroom to remove all dirt stained bits. Use fingers to tear into bite sized portions. Rinse, plate and place on dining table.
- 9
Vegetables: Rinse well and drain. Place on dining table.
- 10
Noodles: Have them on hand to add into the soup at the end of dinner if anyone is still hungry enough to eat them.
- 11
Prepare soup: Wash the clay/straw coating off the thousand year eggs, peel the egg, rinse and slice into eight quarters. Wash and chop cilantro roughly. Add in all soup ingredients to pot and heat until boiling.
- 12
Place hotplate in center of dining table with all the many plates and bowls of raw ingredients all around. There should be a bowl and chopsticks for each diner as well as a sauce bowl filled with a bit of soy sauce mixed with chopped chili pepper.
- 13
After heating up the soup on your kitchen stove, bring the boiling soup out to the hotplate, turning the heat high enough to keep the soup at a low boil.