HOT POT FLAVORS RECIPES

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.

Steps:

• Heat sesame oil and chile oil in a large saucepan over medium; add garlic, ginger, and scallions. Cook, stirring often, until scallion mixture is wilted and ginger is caramelized in spots, 5 to 7 minutes. Add star anise and cardamom; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chile bean sauce, and stir to coat. Add chicken broth, and bring to a boil over high.
• Reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring and scraping bottom of pan occasionally, until broth is spicy, aromatic, and has a slight smokiness from the cardamom, about 20 minutes. Strain broth; discard solids. Stir in soy sauce, adding more to taste.