97. 98. SOUPS - STEAMBOAT & HOT POTS - Recipes & Soup Bases - July2021

July 2021 

STEAMBOATS & HOT POTS

(with bad photos and recipes LOL)

omg one of my favourite meals!

my pictures look unimpressive and homely, but i assure you, any steamboat or hot pot meal is always exquisite... if it's your thing...

almost anyone familiar with local cuisines in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, (and other parts of Asia) has had steamboat or the hot pot. 

so many combinations...

so many soup bases to choose from...

so many different varieties of meats, seafood and vegetables...

so many types of dips and sauces...

so google "steamboat" or "hot pot" and the photos that turn up from all over the world look amazing!

below some bad pics i took and comments of the many steamboat or hot pot meals i've had at home!

13 May 2020

Dinner - Steamboat with Udon

steamboat 

- fresh sotong - fish sauce & lemongrass

- toman fish - ginger juice, light soya sauce, shaoxing wine, salt and pupper, sugar

- chicken thigh cubes - salt, pepper, paste - ginger garlic onions, shaoxing wine, light soy

- fishballs 

- chinese cabbage

- macaroni soup

- udon

RECIPES

Marinades for Meats & Seafood

CHICKEN (Thighs are best)

- light soya sauce and/or 

- japanese soya sauce

- shaoxing chinese wine and/or 

- mirin

- salt & white pepper

- ginger

- optional - sesame oil

- if using chicken breast meat, add cornstarch and flavoured oil

BEEF / PORK (SUKIYAKI OR SHABU SHABU)

- light soya sauce and/or 

- japanese soya sauce

- shaoxing chinese wine and/or 

- mirin

- salt & white pepper

- Cornstarch & flavoured oil

SEAFOOD - FISH

ikan kurau, red grouper, batang/mackeral, 

red snapper, toman (snakehead fish)

- light soya sauce

- fish sauce

- salt & white pepper

- ginger paste and shreds

- shaoxing chinese wine

- sesame oil

FRESH SEAFOOD - 

PRAWNS / SOTONG OR SQUID OR CUTTLEFISH

- light soya sauce

- fish sauce

- salt & white pepper

- lemongrass or serai

- optional - garlic paste or chopped garlic

VEGETABLES & TOUFU/TOFU

- Chinese Cabbage

- Mushrooms - Enoki, Shitake, Button, etc

- Spinach - Puay Leng or round/sharp leaf spinach (bayam)

- Tang Or (like a chrysanthmum type leafy veggie)

- lettuce - pang chye or ice berg lettuce

- zucchini, yellow squash

- leaks, spring onions

- lotus roots

- corn on the cob and baby corn

- seaweed

- kim chi

- any other vegetables of choice

- tofu, toufu 

- & other bean curd products

OTHER INGREDIENTS FOR HOT POTS

- dumplings

- meatballs

- fishballs, crab sticks, fish cakes

- fish maw

- noodles - tung hoon, udon, ramen, etc etc

- eggs, quail eggs

- other types of meats, like lamb, etc 

- other types of seafood, like shellfish, jellyfish, crabs, crayfish, lobsters, etc

POPULAR SOUP BASES & SOUPS

- creamy chicken or pork or fish/shark collagen soup

- chinese chicken soup

- chinese soup stock with Brandy like XO

- chinese herbal soup

- pork soup

- sukiyaki broth

- seaweed / bonito & kelp / shabu shabu soup

- vegetable soup

- teochew style fish soup

- teochew kiam chye & sour plum soup 

(usually for pomfret or red grouper)

- tomato soup

- fish / ikan bilis / fish head / fish soup

- prawn soup

- tom yum soup

- mala flavoured soup

- laksa soup

sometimes, i just use water and make a soup with the ingredients i have at hand.

very fresh - ikan kurau or threadfin fish

sotong or squid
seasoned with fish sauce, lemongrass, salt, white pepper, garlic oil

boneless chicken thigh pieces seasoned with
ginger paste, light soya sauce, chinese shaoxing wine,
sesame oil (optional), salt & white pepper

fresh fishballs (raw)

snapper -

snapper seasoned with pounded ginger, chinese wine, light soya, sesame oil and chinese shaoxing wine

baby squids and prawns - seasoned with fish sauce, salt and white pepper

14 May 2020

Dinner
we made dumplings and the remaining pork minced filling became meatballs for the steamboat! Lol

below - kids made meatballs and dumplings

kids making pork dumplings!

Steamboat with dumplings and meatballs made by the kids

8 & 9 july 2020

steamboat dinner

Sat 17 Oct 2020

Steamboat for Aidan. 

tomato soup (lunch) & herbal soup (dinner)

Sun 18 Oct 2020

Sukiyaki Beef - with leftovers from steamboat Lol

Recipe

Sukiyaki Sauce

- light soya sauce

- mirin

- sugar

- shaoxing chinese wine

- fried garlic & garlic oil

PRAWN & FISH MEATBALL - HOMEMADE

homemade prawn ball with fish paste

- fresh prawns - chopped (not too fine)

- fresh fish paste

- coriander & spring onions - chopped

- salt, white pepper

- light soya sauce, fish sauce

- cornstarch

- fried garlic

below: sept 2018

30 May 2021 Sun

simple steamboat - with sukiyaki beef & pork, chicken thigh, pork meatballs, chinese cabbage, mushrooms, baby spinach and macaroni chilli! wow. i had more than 2 bowls of rice!

15 July 2021

pic of my rice bowl not great. 

but the meal was just incredible!

15 NOV 2020

steamboat for dinner 

(we missed lunch as we were at woodlands)

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MY FAVOURITE CHILLI DIP

14 June 2020

Alow's Recipe - Macaroni Chilli

Homemade Chilli Sauce

i used to drown my macaroni soup with this chilli. 

now i use it for steamboat & hot pots or sukiyaki.

my cousin eugene would watch me make this chilli sauce (with 1kg of fresh red chillis) when we were studying in perth in 1993-1994 - he always said it's got a fruity smell and then ate up a large jam glass bottle of this macaroni chilli within a week! 

to be fair, jamie & i helped eugene eat up that huge jar of chilli sauce LOL - we had hotpot or steamboat all week for our dinner - never fails to please! 

steamboat is the most practical meal... because we - eugene, jamie and me - we all liked different ingredients so hotpot/steamboat assures us of eating food that we like!! jamie wanted sotong, prawns and fish, eugene hated prawns but eat everything else, i love chicken and almost everything else ... one thing we all enjoyed together was veggies - yup. we never complained or got tired of the veggies used for our steamboat meals - chinese cabbage, zucchini, squash... and a lot of zucchini's Lol 

oh, and for our steamboat, i didn't even bother using a chicken stock. i used plain water but our soup at the end of the meal tasted so good that we drank every drop of it!! and we finished up the macaroni chilli and steamed rice as well!! happy days!!

these days, i prefer to have the chilli sauce as a dip or as a seasoning. i do eat a lot of this chilli sauce when i'm eating home cooked steamboat, sukiyaki or hot plate bbq (all these with hot steamed rice)!!

(some people even use sambal belachan for steamboats... i think my own blend of sambal belachan is more popular than this macaroni chilli sauce hehe)

Alow's Recipe - Macaroni Chilli

ingredients

- chicken skin

- blend/griund/pound red chillis (mix big chilli and chillipadi)

- lime juice

- light soya sauce

- salt to taste or salted chicken stock

OTHER KINDS OF HOT POTS & STEAMBOATS:

you could have many other types of steamboat...

- pomfret steamboat with kiam chye or salted vegetable soup (teochew style)

- creamy fish collagen fish head steamboat (seems to be cantonese style)

- tom yum steamboat

- mala steamboat

- batang or ikan kurau / threadfin fish steamboat

with chinese cabbage soup or ikan bilis stock

POMFRET FISH STEAMBOAT

the teochew chinese migrants brought the fish soup or steamboat to south east asia - so you can get this amazing pomfret steamboat in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Featured in the videos below is a very authentic teochew pomfret steamboat... the ingredients, pomfret fish and the taucheo-chilli dip is just so... teochew LOL omg it looks amazing and i love this kinds of steamboats!

     

SOUP BASES

6 May 2021 dinner 

& 7 May 2021 Lunch

Recipe - Fish Soup 

(using ikan bilis and dried sole fish powder)

1. season batang fish slices with

(can also use threadfin/ikan kurau, red snapper, grouper, pomfret or toman/snakehead fish)

- salt, 

- white pepper, 

- light soya sauce, 

- shaoxing wine, 

- cornstarch 

- oil/garlic oil

- sliced fresh ginger

2. then boil seasoned fish in chicken stock or 

stock made with mixed ikan bilis/grilled fish powder - 

(grind roasted ikan bilis & dried/grilled ti poh or tee poh into powder)

ikan bilis is a small anchovy type fish.

tee poh/ti poh is a dried fish - could be flounder or sole fish.

you'll need to grill both types of dried fish before grinding into a powder.

3. serve hot with spring onions 

& a dip made with cut chillis in light soya sauce

(left) fish soup - mummy made tonight

(right) photo of fish from june 2020 blog post.

OTHER SOUP BASES FOR STEAMBOATS & HOT POTS:

chinese cabbage soup as a soup base...

- chinese cabbage

- round cabbage

- fish maw / her peor

- fish balls, fish dumplings

- soup stock with chicken and/or ikan bilis/dried tee poh powder 

OTHER SOUP BASES FOR STEAMBOATS & HOT POTS:

Fish Collagen Milky Soup base

(no milk or cream added! just fish bones)

Fry fish bones that's coated with cornstarch

Boil fried fish bones in a fish stock 

Fish stock has powder from dried ikan bilis & grilled dried sole fish 

dried prawns or dried scallops can be added to make soup "sweeter"

OTHER SOUP BASES FOR STEAMBOATS & HOT POTS:

May 2020

TOM YUM Soup base

and what could go into a hot pot of tom yum soup...

ingredients from a huge pot of tom yum soup!
chicken drumsticks, straw & button mushrooms, prawns, sotong

20 March 2020
making tom yum soup with tung hoon, chicken, sotong balls, and mushrooms

Tom Yum Soup
- galangal or blue ginger
- lemongrass
- kaffir lime leaves
- onions
- chillis
- lime juice
- fish sauce
- thai palm sugar
- coriander - roots and leaves/stems
- season with salt, soya sauce & black pepper
- red chilli tom yum paste - holly farm brand

Tom Yum fresh ingredients - galangal, onions, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, palm sugar, coriander roots, chillis
other ingredients not in pic - lime juice, coriander, fish sauce, light soya sauce, black pepper, tom yum chilli paste

basic tom yum flavours

OTHER SOUP BASES FOR STEAMBOATS & HOT POTS:

Kiam Chye Soup Base

Ingredients for 

Kian Chye Soup with Pork Ribs or Duck

- pork, chicken or duck /  pork balls

- kiam chye

- sour plans

- white peppercorns

- shallots

- garlic

- assam skin

- tomatoes

- red dates

- rock sugar

  

OTHER SOUP BASES FOR STEAMBOATS & HOT POTS:

Teochew fish & seafood soup

- add panggang tee poh/ikan bilis mix, ground to powder, 

- kiam chye, 

- tomatoes, 

- sng buei x8, 

- chicken or pork bones

August 2019

below: teochew style fish soup at whampoa market

fish soup (batang fish) with rice at whampoa food centre & wet market
the tau cheo sauce is so yummy!!! 

Most teochew style fish soup come with...
tomatoes, black seaweed, bittergourd, 

pang chye (local lettuce), ice berg lettuce, 

pak choy or chye sim,

coriander, fried shallots

tau cheo or fermented brown soya bean & chilli dip

4 Feb 2020 Tues
fish soup at tekka - so good!
this bowl costs $6 for pomfret and extra $2 for batang fish

tues, 11 feb 2020 - pomfret teochew fish soup at tekka market

15 April 2023

i made fish soup with batang (mackeral)

batang fish, cut into 8 small fillet pieces

i then cut about 4 fillet pieces into bite pieces and slices.

marinated batang fish for soup

- batang fish slices (bones removed) - 

fish was soaked in salt water, then remove liquid 

- learnt this from the fishmongers when i lived in woodlands

(fish meat will become slippery and smooth!)

- salt and white pepper

- shaoxing chinese wine

- ginger water, sliced ginger

- light soya sauce

- fish sauce

- sesame oil

(remember, no need cornflour)

Recipe - Batang Fish Soup

1. Slice batang into bite sized pieces, remove bones

2. marinate batang fish for soup

- salt and white pepper

- shaoxing chinese wine

- ginger water, sliced ginger

- light soya sauce

- fish sauce

- sesame oil

3. fish soup stock

- ikan bilis (i use ikan bilis stock cube)

- ti poh / dried sole powder

- ginger slices 

(young ginger is good for eating, 

old ginger is good for flavours)

- fried garlic, bawang goreng

- salt, fish sauce, light soya sauce, white pepper

- shaoxing chinese wine

- chinese cabbage - stalks (hard part, save the leaves for later)

4. boil fishballs till they float, 

heat through crab sticks, 

remove and set aside

5. add chinese cabbage leaves and tomato slices

6. add fish and boil till almost cooked. turn off fire.

add shaoxing wine and sesame oil.

add in the fishballs, crabstick pieces.

7. garnish with coriander, spring onions, fried garlic, serve hot.