Basically a large metal pot filled with delicious pork or chicken stock in the center of the table sits on a butane fueled burner with dishes of raw ingredients placed around the table. We and our guests sit around the table, place the ingredients into the soup, turn up the heat, bring the soup to a boil, and then start fishing. Each person gets his/her own ladle, bowl, and small dish(es) of dipping sauce(s) of their choice. It's warming and delicious, and what better way to spend a cold winter night than sitting around a table with friends eating delicious soup, sipping on wine?
The Soup Stock:
We start with a large stock pot of broth that we pre make using either pork or chicken bones.
Start the soup base by par boiling the chicken or pork carcass (whatever you choose) in a medium pot. Pour off the water, and remove the bones placing them into a larger stock pot - this removes the "impurities" from the meat and makes for a cleaner broth. Now add fresh water, a little sea salt for taste, and various vegetables including celery, carrotts, and yellow onions. This is let to boil for the better part of a day (top up with water as it boils down), then we strain the broth, discard the solids, let the broth cool, skim the fat from the top, and away we go, soup base is ready.
The Ingredients:
We then prep the raw ingredients, and these are based on personal preference. They are displayed nicely for presentation. We usually use the following:
- thinly shaved lamb, beef, pork (frozen, from chinese supermarket)
- chicken breast cut into 1" strips, lightly coated with corn starch and marinated in sesame oil, soya sauce, and white pepper
- shrimp (frozen, unpeeled - any supermarket)
- squid (frozen, pineapple cut - chinese supermarket)
- abalone
- an assortment of mushrooms including straw, enoki, shitake (these are dried and must be soaked prior to soften), oyster, king, and white fungus (this is also dried and must be soaked prior to soften)
- dulp pock (fried tofu balls, found in refrigerated section with other tofu preparations in chinese supermarket)
- baby corns
- fish noodles (chinese supermarket seafood department)
- white fish of your choice (frozen)
- wontons
- dumplings
- chinese meat balls (fried fish, pork, crab, lobster, beef balls)
- green leafy vegetables (bok choy, watercress, and nappa are our faves)
- shitake brand noodle bundles (low carb, can be found at Loblaws in Asian section, or chinese supermarket)
- udon noodles
- quail eggs
Dipping Sauces:
- Chinese BBQ Sauce mixed with preserved bean curd in sesame/chili oil
- Hoisin sauce
- Vietnamese red chili sauce (Sriracha)
- Satay Sauce
- Chopped green chillies mixed in dark Soya Sauce
- Tempura Soya Sauce
We love this dish so much, that we had to devise a way to of course downsize it and make it a quick and easy after work meal. Here's how we do it:
We periodically pre-make the soup stock on a weekend when time permits as this is a long process. We then freeze approx. 8 cup portions of it, and take it out whenever needed. 1 stock pot of soup makes approx. three 8 cup portions. Once the soup base is prepared, the bulk of the prep for this dish is done!
All you have to do when you get home from work is:
1) Take out the frozen stock, and bring it to a boil stovetop in a medium sized pot (ie. a dutch oven)
2) Prep the raw ingredients
3) Boil them right on the stove, and voila!
4) Serve and enjoy!!
Obviously we don't have the full variety of ingredients (way too much food), or serve this dish fondue-style (too big a production) when it's just us after work. "Quick Pot" gives us the flavor of hot pot that we love so much and we can have it any time with ease!
Hooray for Quick Pot!
