BEST CHINESE HOT POT RECIPES

Steps:

• Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add half of beef, browning on all sides. Remove from pan. Repeat the procedure with remaining oil and beef. Add onions, ginger, aniseed, and garlic to pan; sauté 30 seconds. Stir in broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Return beef to pan. Add 2 3/4 cups water and next 5 ingredients (2 3/4 cups water through cinnamon sticks), and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour.
• Add the turnips and carrots; simmer for 45 minutes or until tender. Combine 1 tablespoon water and cornstarch; add to beef mixture. Bring to a boil; cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add spinach; cover and cook for 3 minutes or until wilted. Discard the cinnamon sticks.

Steps:

• Partially frozen is significantly easier to cut into thin slices, since it holds its shape when you cut it.
• Wash and rinse your vegetables / mushrooms. If you're using tofu (make sure it's firm), then cut it into cubes.
• Before my dad starts cutting meat (or anything), he usually puts a towel underneath the cutting board so it's more stable. Speaking from decades of experience, this helped him avoid many cuts (but not all) in the kitchen.
• This is much clearer in the video, but here are my dad's steps to preparing fresh squid for hot pot:
• We'll cut our about half of our tilapia fillets into ~1 cm slices, and marinate it with salt, cornstarch, water, and white pepper (to taste).
• My dad's epic homemade fish balls deserve their own recipe page (will be live soon).
• All we need to do is peel our daikon, cut it in half, and then cut it up into about 1 cm slices. We'll start boiling our hot pot broth with daikon, and then eat it at the end after it's soaked up all of the delicious flavors from the other foods.
• For my dad's dipping sauce, we'll be mixing light soy sauce, Shacha sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, chicken bouillon, chili oil, and boiled water.