Looking for Adventures: September 2012

My husband and I got bored of eating out and the regular meals that I cook at home. That got us thinking of having something that was easy to prepare and yet delicious and hopefully healthier that eating out. The weather has also gotten cooler with the bouts of sudden heavy thunderstorm like rain for the past week. That’s when we decided to have steamboat! It would the perfect meal on a cooling day.

Steamboat normally refers to an array of dishes where the ingredients are cooked in a simmering pot of broth at the table usually communally, similar to a fondue. The term Steamboat is mostly used in Malaysia and Singapore while Hotpot is more commonly used in other parts of the world.

Steamboat dinner

Soup/Stock Recipe

If you are planning to have fresh seafood and meats during the meal, you don’t really need to have any flavour enhancing soup. For my soup, I made something healthy and simple.

2 chicken bones
1 corn (cup into smaller pieces)
1 clove of garlic
2 litres of water
3 table spoon on soya sauce
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Soup

Put everything into the pot and bring to boil. Once reached boiling temperature, reduce fire to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour making sure that the soup does not dry up. Top-up the water where necessary.

Dipping Sauce

Everyone has their preference when it comes to dipping sauce. For me I prefer the simple yet healthier sauce that actually enhances the taste of the meal rather than overpowering it.

½ clove of garlic (minced)
4 Small chilli - chilli padi (finely sliced)
Soya sauce (enough to drench the garlic)
Sesame oil (a few dashes)
Coriander leaves (finely chopped).

Just mixed all the ingredients together and your dipping sauce is ready. For those who don’t like the raw garlic taste, you can opt to lightly fry it first and then mix all the above ingredients together.