[CH] Death by Hotpot /&/ Mary-Anne says hello
ChileBuzz (chilebuzz@earthlink.net)
Thu, 1 Sep 2005 23:10:38 -0400
Hi all, I want to share a post I greatly enjoyed on another list and
thought you might enjoy as well: Death by Hotpot, posted by Simon
Bao, whose posts to Mary-Anne's lively Yahoo group, Gastronomique,
are always a pleasure to read. Simon gave the greenlight to share
this with CHs and added a few more notes for you [at end of his
original post].
First, though, let me just mention that I also obtained Mary-Anne's
permission. Mary-Anne said she is greatly frustrated that she cannot
get a post through to the Chile-Heads list. She's ready to chat and
share more of hers and Steve's recipes (which we all know means good
eating). With a little help a while back, she finally managed to get
re-subbed to the list and she does receive CH posts -- but cannot get
anything through to the list herself.
As I understand it, the problem is some ISPs do not provide a way to
send plain-text email and you can only post to CH in plain text. She
can find no way to change the ISP's email-format preference. She has
also tried using Firefox, but still cannot get a message through to
the list. She thinks this email-format problem is why some long-time
CH members are no longer posting as well. They just cannot get through.
She misses chatting with everyone. If you know how to solve the
posting prob for her, I am sure she'd be grateful to hear from you.
"Mary-Anne Durkee" <shantihhh@sbcglobal.net>
By the way, I don't recall whether this has been mentioned onlist
before, but Mary-Anne is the Thai Food Editor at Bella Online. You
can catch some of her Thai recipes there.
And now:-) ... for Simon's Death by Hotpot !
Enjoy!
ChileBuzz
"--- In Gastronomique@yahoogroups.com, Simon Bao wrote:
Since we've been talking about canned coconut milk, I thought I'd
share this. Coconut milk is used in both sweet and savory Vietnamese
dishes, but it usually doesn't play such a prominent role as in this
hotpot dish. If you enjoy hot chiles and food prepared with them, you
may enjoy this hotpot. If a jalapeno popper makes you uncomfortable,
however, you really must avoid this. Personally, I prefer this to
every version of tamarind broth lau or hotpot I've ever had.
This is a kind of party dish. At my house, its served with everyone
seated around a large table, with lots of beers for guys and that
sweet Chardonnay Peach Blush blend for the Viet females, my
housemates' choice of Woodstock era rock music playing. At other
houses, this is served with the furniture rearranged so everyone can
sit on the floor, with much more beer being drunk, served on the
rocks, a Vietnamese music DVD on television... and at some point
Vietnamese Karaoke will start.
You can serve this without Karaoke.
DEATH BY HOTPOT
This is a kind of "lau" or hotpot dish, but none of us know what its
real name is. Not in any language. I know several Vietnamese people
who make this, but all live in or near Philadelphia, and nobody seems
to know where it comes from. When I ask people, well where did you
first see this made, the same people's names or Philadelphia
neighborhoods get mentioned. I know many more Vietnamese who have
never had it, never heard of it, and seem skeptical, so I imagine it
is not "authentic" Vietnamese food. It may be Thai, but nobody seems
to know.
It is far spicier than most people will be accustomed to, but most
people also seem to get used to it pretty quickly.
You need a very large electric skillet or wide, shallow hotpot,
placed somewhere that guests using chopsticks can easily drop pieces
of food in and take pieces out. The electric (non-stick) skillet or
hotpot you use needs to be extremely wide. You can cook this in a
very wide skillet set on a high powered, portable electric burner, as
long as you are extremely careful.
Everyone who will be eating this needs to be able to sit within arm's
reach of both the raw food and the skillet or hotpot. If that's not
possible, be a good host and sit near the pot - keep filling it with
raw food, and keep removing the cooked food to a large plate and pass
it down to those far away - just make sure those far away from the
pot are always having their own small bowls filled with whatever food
they like best.
The ingredients below are listed as "portions" because how much you
need depends on how many people are partying and eating. But, if you
use 1 pound of beef, use 1 pound of shrimp, 1 pound of squid, etc. -
if you use 2 pounds of beef, 4-6 pounds of greens, etc.
* 1-2 cans full fat coconut milk
* 1 jar chile paste (ground hot chiles packed in oil)
* 1 portion beef eye round, thinly sliced (see Notes)
* 1 portion shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 1 portion squid, cleaned, sliced into rings or strips
* 1 portion sea scallops, cleaned, side muscle removed
* 2-3 portions of mixed tender green leaves (see Notes)
* water and fish sauce as needed
The only "work" here a little bit of peeling or cleaning and a lot of
slicing. Assemble one platter with the beef and seafood and another
platter with the greens.
Decide where you are putting the electric skillet or hot pot and get
it set up before putting anything into it. Put it on a large table or
on the floor, wherever. Turn it on and add 1-2 cans of coconut milk,
depending how large your pot is. You want at least 1/2 inch of fluid
in the pot. The coconut milk solids will begin to break up and melt
as soon as they become hot, but stir it with a large wooden spoon
anyway.
Next, add about 2 large tablespoons of the hottest chile paste you
can buy. You don't want any form of chile sauce, nor any kind of
chile paste that has been packed in vinegar or water/salt/
preservatives. You want a thick paste, full of seeds, that has only
been solid packed in just a small amount of oil, the kind you find on
most tables in Chinatown. Stir the chile paste into the coconut milk,
till you have a scary looking thick pale "blush pink" sauce. The
cooking liquid will get a thinner consistency as dinner progresses,
as long as you keep feeding it raw food. If you want a thinner and
slightly less spicy cooking liquid, thin it from time to time with a
few tablespoons of water seasoned with a little fish sauce.
Taste the cooking sauce and decide whether or not you want to add 1
or 2 more tablespoons of chile paste. Trust me, the hotter you can
stand this the better it actually tastes. Have lots of extra paper
napkins around for those whose faces perspire when they eat chiles.
Have the coconut/chile sauce bubbling, just about boiling, when
everyone sits and is ready to eat. The food will cook very fast, so
be ready to remove shortly after it's put in the pot. Drop in a
little bit of each food, let them stew and bubble, all the
ingredients are completely cooked within about 3 minutes. Your guests
might not have ever seen this before, just show them how to remove a
few pieces at at time, from the hotpot to individual bowls. The first
few pieces of food usually seem very overspiced, but this lau is like
drinking straight vodka. It may hit hard at first, but gets real
smooth real quick.
If you are the host, make sure that you or someone else keeps feeding
the pot, make sure there's always some of each ingredient ready to
come out and be eaten.
NOTES
You could use any tender beef, eye round works great. Slice it as
thin as you can, across the grain, then pound it thinner with a meat
mallet, rubber hammer, side of a cleaver, whatever you use.
The greens used in this can vary, according to your taste and what's
available, but they should be quick cooking (quick wilting) types.
You may want to mix and match, choose one with a tangy or peppery
flavor (e.g., watercress, arugula) and one with a cool light flavor
(e.g., baby spinach). My personal preferences are to have watercress,
baby mustard or mustard cabbage, and pea shoots/tendrils.
* Arugula: great flavor, stands up to the power of the chile paste
* Baby spinach: tastes fresh and mild, a nice contrast, cooks almost
immediately but doesn't "bleed green" as much as older spinach
leaves; you can hear the little baby leaves emit little baby screams
the moment they hit the chile paste
* Baby mustard greens, or the larger size leaves torn into pieces
* Bamboo mustard cabbage: at least, I think that is what it's called
in English, and it is incredibly good in this kind of hotpot; it's
called "rau cai" in Viet markets though that's kind of a vague term
like "hot peppers" - be sure NOT to get the "rau cai" that looks like
a kind of small choi (which they also sell pickled, as preserved or
pickled mustard) - get the one with long slender, tender leaves; I've
seen it in an American supermarket, one time only, and it was
labelled "Oriental Mustard"
* Dandelion greens: farmed raised, not from the yard; tangy slightly
bitter; wash and trim them very well
* Frisee: slightly bitter, the curly feathery stuff in mesclun,
excellent for this
* Sorrel: difficult to find but excellent to use when you can
* Pea shoots, or tendrils: the tender tips and baby leaves of a pea
or snowpea plant, look for them in spring, delicious flavor
* Water spinach (rau muong): trim down any thick stems
* Watercress: almost an absolute must; tender within minutes, nice
pepper flavor
====Aug 31, further comments by Simon:
1) If one uses an electric skillet, rather than a
traditional hot pot or fondue pot, it's much easier
for guests gathered around the pot to get food in,
watch it, and get it out when it's ready.
2) People need to use "coconut milk", not coconut
water or that "cream of coconut" that shows up in
"tropical" cocktails.
3) The dish is typically eaten as described - not
accompanied by steamed rice or starches. It really is
a kind of party dish.
4) Vegetarians can replace the meat and seafood, if
they wish, with tofu products. Tofu does well in
this.