HOT POT BALLS RECIPES

Steps:

• We'll start by finely mincing our tilapia. Beat it down with the blunt edge of our knife to flatten it. Repeat this 1-2 more times to tenderize the fish. We want this to be as tender and paste-like as possible.
• Just like our fish, we'll finely mince our shrimp.
• With the blunt side of our knife, spatula, paddle, etc, we'll mix the tilapia and shrimp together, and flatten it. Make sure to do this thoroughly.
• We'll finely chop some cilantro, green onion.
• Mix salt, sugar, white pepper, chicken bouillon, egg, cornstarch in a bowl.
• Add the fish paste and greens to the bowl, and mix thoroughly for 2-3 minutes.
• This is a traditional technique - we'll take clumps of fish paste and slam it down on the bowl.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

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.