Sichuan Hot Pot at Home
Hot pot is very popular in China especially in Sichuan. It’s always fun cooking and eating with family or friends while chatting away. You pretty much can cook any vegetables and meats in hot pot as well as noodles, wontons, and dumplings. Although there are many kinds of hot pot soup base in Asian Markets, you can make your own at home. Enjoy!
To make the soup base:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp spicy bean paste
1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
12 chili peppers (add more for more spiciness)
5 star aniseed
1 cinnamon stick
5 pieces of rock sugar (or 1 tsp sugar)
6 cloves garlic
5 slices of ginger
4 bay leaves
- Boil 10 cups of chicken stock (home made even better);
- Heat up a pan to medium, and add oil;
- Sauté spicy bean paste for about 1 minute;
- Add rest of the spices and sugar in, and stir together;
- Add 4 cups of chicken stock to bring to boil; turn the heat to low, and cover to simmer for about 30 minutes;
- To assemble the hot pot, pour boiled chicken stock to one side of pot, add some dates, goji berries, 2 stalks of green onions, tomato slices, and soy bean sprouts (optional).
- Pour the spicy base to the other side of the pot, and add more chicken stock to be even with the other side.
- Ready to cook and eat.
Some popular hot pot ingredients:
Fish filet, shrimp, imitation crab meat, fish cake, fish balls, beef slices, firm tofu, lotus roots, enoki mushroom, Wood Ear mushroom, potato slices, Napa cabbage, bean curd sticks, sweet potato noodles, lettuce leaves.
