Hot Pot Dinner
Now that the temperature has drop, hot pot, or lẩu as we call it in Vietnamese, is the ideal meal to share with your friends on a chilly night and it’s very simple to put together.
Rules to having a hot pot:
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You must have a large group of friends that loves to eat and talk for hours
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Have at least the following proteins:
- - thinly sliced beef, pork, chicken or lamb (***I usually choose the eye of round steak cut, because it is easy to slice and tender)
- - some sort of firm fish, we served halibut last night
- - prawns, with the head and shell on, this will flavor the broth even more
- - clams and/or mussels
- - different types of fish paste balls
- - squid, cuttlefish, octopus
- - firm tofu, fresh or fried
- Vegetables are equally as important to have
- - bok choy, I personally like baby bok choy and besides they are cute too!
- - choy sum
- - napa cabbage
- - fat choy
- - any type of mushrooms like enoki, shitake, matsutake, king oyster mushrooms
- - squash or pumpkin
- - tomato
- - corn, I sliced them into one inch chunks so they would be easier to eat, plus it will sweeten the broth as you cook it
- Noodles like rice, egg or wheat and try to find the fresh variety in the refrigerated section of the Asian grocery store.
- Dipping sauce are essential to hot pot and usually the base is soy sauce and sesame oil and some people add rice vinegar and some sort of hot sauce, like shacha.
- But the most important thing to have is a good broth. We had a good chicken broth flavored with Thai Tom Yum seasonings along with some slowed roasted tomatoes from my P-Patch.
Some more links for how to and recipes about how to do your own hot pot at your house:
Here are some recommendations for drinks with your meal. (These were the wines that we paired with last night meal)
- 2007 Rose, Spring Run, Columbia Valley, Stillwater Creek Vineyard
- 2007 Gewurztraminer, Benson Vineyards Estate Winery
- 2007 Riesling, Gerhard, Kabinett Halbtrocken
We ended the meal with a chocolate coconut layered cake with Caffe Vita coffee and Sa Japanese Hoji Cha Tea.
If you never had Sa Japanese Tea, you must try it. I ran across it when I went to the Northwest Tea Festival that was held at the Seattle Center earlier this month. By far the Sa Japanese Teas was the best green tea I have ever had. I especially adore the Genmai cha, and I can see why it won the World Tea Expo in 2008 for the best tea in the blended/flavored green tea category.
*** A secret tip for buying Caffe Vita coffee if you live in the Seattle Area, every day they have a daily special and if you love the Sumatra Blend (which I do), on Friday they are discounted down to $8 instead of $12 for their 12 oz bag.
