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.

Guay Tiew Reua (Boat Noodles)

Boat Noodles are a Bangkok speciality; a spicy bowl of aromatic broth, filled with rice noodles, meat and/ or fish, raw veggies and herbs before being adjusted to the taste of the eater with lime, fish sauce and sugar. They are usually served up in small bowls and it’s common to order up numerous bowls during the course of a meal! These aren’t totally authentic due to my squeamishness; the real ones usually contain liquid pig’s blood to thicken and darken the broth. Once the broth is made, everything else is literally dipped into the broth for a few seconds to heat through before being piled into a bowl. This is a recipe for the committed; it takes a while to make and prepare!

For two people ( a few bowls each) use:

For the broth:

• half of a pork tenderloin


• 1 litre water


• a big splash of light soy sauce


• a small splash dark soy sauce


• a big piece of galangal (available in some supermarkets) or ginger, in slices


• 2 or 3 lemongrass stalks, bashed up and left whole


• a small handful coriander stems/roots, ripped up


• 4 garlic cloves, bashed up


• a big pinch sugar


• a big pinch pepper


• 5 star anise (supermarkets sell this in the spices section

Fillings:

• The cooked pork tenderloin (see broth)


• Two nests/packets of dried rice noodles


• A packet of pork or fish balls (only available in Asian supermarkets- substitute more meat, veggies or seafood


• half a bag of bean sprouts


• a handful a green leafy veggies (pak choi, choi sum, spinach) 


• 4 spring onions, finely sliced


• a small handful of coriander leaves

Toppings:

• 1 lime, cut into wedges

and mix together:

• a big splash of nam pla (fish sauce)


• red chillies, chopped fine


• 1 clove garlic, chopped

Start with the broth. Put all the broth ingredients into a very large pan. Bring it slowly up to the boil before turning it down and letting it simmer gently for an hour or so. Top up with more water if needed. After an hour, take out the pork and put to one side. Sieve out all rest of the solid broth ingredients and get rid of them, they’ve done their job. Slice the pork loin thinly and leave for the assembly stage.

Assembling the noodles. Put the pork or fish balls into the simmering broth and let these cook through for 5 minutes. In the mean time, prepare the dried rice noodles as per the packet instructions, usually they need soaking for a few minutes first. For this next bit you’ll need a small sieve or metal slotted spoon or a Chinese spider utensil in which to dip and cook your filling ingredients in the broth. Place half the noodles into your utensil and lower them into the hot broth until they are just submerged. Swirl them about in the broth for about 20 seconds to cook before turning them out into 2 bowls. In turn, repeat this process with the half the leafy veg, then half the bean sprouts. Next the sliced pork loin- dip and place a few slices over the noodles. Scoop out a few of the floating pork or fish bowls and add these to your bowl before sprinkling over some of the sliced spring onions and a few sprigs of coriander. 

Finally (breathing a sigh of relief) sprinkle over some of the chillies in fish sauce and squeeze a lime wedge over before sinking in to your well deserved bowl of boat noodles (don’t forget you still have equal amount of ingredients for bowl number 2!)