Sukiyaki (Thai Hot Pot)

Sukiyaki is a beautiful marriage between a Chinese hot pot and Japanese shabbu shabbu, blended with Thai ingredients and flavours to create something that's colourful, fun, beautiful and really healthy to eat. In an ideal world, you would have a tabletop stove with a pot designed to bubble away while you sit around. Unfortunately I don't have one and you may not either; don't let it put you off; it's really not that difficult to cook in a big pot on the stove and nip back to cook and fill each bowl of ingredients you build. The great thing is the more ingredients that get cooked, the more flavour the basic stock gets.

There are no rules when it comes to ingredients, so create your own mix of meats and/or tofu, seafood, vegetables and fungi, noodles and seasonings, I've used what was available to me and what took my fancy. The sauce you serve with it should be salty, sour, spicy and sweet- put a spoon into the bottom of each serving bowl before pouring in the broth and use it as a dipping sauce to perk up each mouthful.

For two people use:

For the sauce:

• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 small red chillies, finely chopped
• a small splash of light soy sauce
• a small splash of fermented yellow bean sauce
• juice of 1 lime
• a big splash of sriracha chilli sauce
• a pinch of sugar
• a pinch of sesame seeds

For the sukiyaki: (remember you can choose whatever ingredients you like)

• 8 very large prawns
• 2 chicken thighs, sliced very thin
• a small pack of fish balls (10 or so)
• a small pack of enoki mushrooms, ripped into thin bundles
• several stalks of choi sum, cut into large chunks
• a bundle of morning glory, cut into large chunks
• 1 litre of chicken stock

Make the sauce by mixing up all the ingredients, set to one side.

Heat the stock in your largest pot/pan on a medium/high heat until gently boiling.

Using chopsticks, put in the chicken, waving around to cook in the broth. Make sure the chicken is fully cooked and then start adding combinations of whatever ingredients you want to use, cooking until just done. Pop some of the sukiyaki sauce into your bowl, ladle yourself some broth over, mixing with the sauce and top off with the cooked ingredients.