Tuesday, July 6, 2010

When the dog bites, when the bee stings...and it's freezing cold!

Steamboat or hotpot has got to be one of my favourite things of winter (the other being the chance to wear luxury woollens)! Nothing like having a crowd of favourite people around 2 or 3 portable gas stoves or electric hotpots full of chicken or abalone stock and lots of nice things to dip into them, taking hours to cook and eat slowly and catch up with the gossip!

This one took 2 full days to organise - cleaning and decluttering the house (happy reading to the lucky person who picked up 2 years worth of Empire magazines), buying 101 ingredients, making sure all food groups (including dessert) were covered and reconfiguring every table and chair to ensure all could sit around the food!

Chicken stock on one side, abalone on the other

Thinly sliced lamb, wagyu beef, chicken, pork, calamari -




prawns, scallops, mussels, salmon, fish balls, bulgogi beef and chilli pork and 3 different types of dumplings!

Lots of greens, baby corn, capsicum, eggplant, asparagus and watercress

Fungi of all kinds and lotus root

Quails eggs - shells are prettily blue when peeled

And lots of condiments to please every palate

Vermicelli, rice noodles and not pictured but delicious Indian rice made by Wags and a garlic and pandan rice if anyone needed carbs

La chouquette sucrée's Chiffon Cakes and Wacky Cupcakes

Bisycl's Cranberry Starfish and Apple Jelly - summer on a spoon

AND

David Chang's Crack Pie
made by Shanks
Sweet, salty, creamy, crispy and caramelly - heaven on a plate!

Ahhh, how I LOVE winter
 
And what does one do with the leftover quails' eggs the morning after steamboat? The "biggest" omelette I've ever eaten!

11 comments:

  1. Lots of fun and the soup afterwards was yummy. In spite of the volume of food that started out on the table because it's a slow dining experience you didn't have to waddle away from the table!

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  2. Oh yes these kidns of dishes are the best things about Winter! I can't imagine eating them during Summer but come Winter, I'm all there cutlery at the ready to cook! :D

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  3. Awesome spread of food and a great night..perfect for this kinda weather :)

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  4. Love steamboat, especially during winter! Is the abalone stock a typical thing you do? First time I've seen it done for steamboat.

    Crack pie, excellent choice for dessert :)

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  5. I'm a steam boat junkie. If anyone near me mentions it I would be the first to put my hand up.

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  6. woww hello hotpot! and when we're having hot pot at home, we always over purchase...like crazy!!! :D

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  7. What a feast! Looks awesome!

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  8. Thanks for a great night yaya.... food was excellent as usual. Wags

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  9. omg I love steamboat / hot pot!!! its soo good for winter weather and of course catching up on group gossip hehe ^_^

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  10. Our family steamboats have never been like this. I feel deprived. Your family are obviously better at feasting! Connie

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  11. Thanks for all your comments!

    @Simon - it was originally fish stock but tasted a bit insipid so I sloshed in a big gloop of Yummy House Abalone Sauce and some ginger infused oil and that lifted it up a notch!

    @Shanks - I hope you're going to post about the Crack Pie with more pics! I'm still working on my last piece, a sliver at a time to make it last!

    @Connie - it's been so long since we did one I only had vague memories so I googled steamboat and basically made a list of everything that I came across and added it to the shopping list and then added any vegies that were in season!

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