麻辣與泰式鴛鴦火鍋/Sichuan Spicy and Thai Tom Yum Soup Based Hot Pot

Have you ever tried hot pot?  Especially the Sichuan spicy style?  Hot pot is my favourite, that's why I have a Hot Pot section in my Recipe Page.  I grew up in Chongqing which is the city in China that is the most famous for hot pot.  Hot pot is Chongqing's local culinary specialty.  Tables in hotpot restaurants usually have a central pot where food ordered by the customers is boiled in a spicy broth. You can order beef, pork, lamb, seafood, wontons, dumplings and any other vegetables.  What makes Chongqing spicy hot pot so famous is a special spice known as Sichuan peppercorn. It creates a sensation on the tongue that is spicy and both burns and numbs slightly, almost like carbonated beverages.  A Chongqing hotpot is markedly different from the types eaten in other parts of China. Quite often the differences lie in the meats used, the type of soup base, and the sauces and condiments used to flavor the meat.


I made two types of hot pot soup base, one is a Chongqing/Sichuan spicy soup base and the other is Thai Tom Yum soup base.  If you want to have two types of hot pot at the same time like I did, you can buy a special hot pot that divides in two from any Chinese supermarket or Chinatown.  This time I made a hot pot video so you can see how it's done.

Spicy soup base soup ingredients:

• 4 oz Spicy hotpot soup base.  4oz spicy hotpot sauce can be used for every 1 liter of water.  You can buy a spicy hotpot soup base from any Chinese supermarket.  I’m using a Chongqing spicy hotpot soup base.
• Half cup green onion

Thai Tom Yum soup base ingredients:

• 1 tbsp Thai Tom Yum sauce (you can find this sauce at most Chinese supermarkets)
• 3 tomatoes
• 5 - 6 white mushrooms
• 2 lemon leaves and 2 stalks of lemon grass
• 5 prawns in shell

Dipping Sauce:

• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp vinegar 
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp chopped green onion
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp cilantro
• ½ tsp roasted sesame seed
• 1 tsp Shacha sauce 
• 1 tsp Fermented bean curd
• 1 tsp sesame seasoning vinegar

Directions:

1. Cut the green onion approximately an inch and half long.  Add the spicy hotpot sauce and green onion into one side of the pot and add water to fill up 3-quarters of the pot.
2. Cut the tomatoes and mushroom into small chunks and add all Thai Tom Yum ingredients into the other side of the pot.  Add water to fill up 3-quarters of the pot.
3. Add all dipping sauce ingredients into a small bowl and mix everything evenly.  Now you can start cooking whatever you like.  Enjoy your homemade hotpot.