Hotpot is a very diverse dish. It is wildly consumed in Asia and each country has its own twists and flares to make a pot of food, with more or less the same ingredients, uniquely theirs. Truth be told, I am not a fan of soy milk, let alone using it in a dish. But, there was leftover chicken breast and soy milk in the fridge and it was during the quarantine so I decided to be creative.
To start, we need to make Dashi. What is Dashi? It's the backbone of Japanese cooking. Dashi is made from boiling water, kumbu, and katsuo flake (or bonito fish flakes).
Kumbu is dried kelp, when soaked in hot water, it releases a taste of ocean to broth in a matter of few minutes. It looks kinda weird and black. Don't be intimidated by it. It's the base of many Asian dishes.
Katsuobushi is a kind of tuna in Japan. When the fish is dried and smoked, the flesh becomes a wood-like block and then shaved into little pieces to make broth. However, katsuobushi is expensive so most of the time, a cheaper alternative, bonito fish flakes is used. Bonito flake made from a dried mid-size fish. Its shavings is usually used to make broth or decoration on dishes. It's made from fish so it's cat friendly. I have given cats a little bonito flakes as treat and they loved it.
Ingredient
2 pieces of chicken breast
½ Tsp grated Ginger
Salt and Pepper
1 Tsp Corn Starch
2 Scallions, chopped
500 ml Dashi
300 ml Unsweetened Soy Milk (Flavorless. Please don't use chocolate or vanilla soy milk.)
1 ripe Tomato, sliced
1 Leek, only the white part, cut diagonally
1 pack Beech Mushroom (or any mushrooms you like)
¼ a small head of green cabbage, cut to bite size
Some shaved Carrot ribbon (use a peeler to make long carrot strips)
1 pack of Konnyaku
Instruction
Cut chicken breast into 1x1 inch cubes. Add chicken cubes to a food processor and blend till smooth. Carefully remove blade from centre and put ground chicken in a large bowl with S&P, corn starch, ginger, scallion, and ¼ cup of water. Use your hand to mix everything together till the mixture is well combined and sticky, about 5-7 minutes. If it feels too dry/not sticky, add a little water. Set aside.
Start a pot of boiling water on stove. Once boiled, turn heat down to med-low heat.
Take a palmful of chicken mixture, make a circle with your thumb and index finger, squeeze out a pingpong ball size of meatball and drop it in the pot of water. Continue till all chicken mixture is gone.
Turn heat up to med-high heat and let meatballs cook for 5 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside.
In a clay pot or a Dutch oven or just a pot, add dashi and soy milk over med-high heat till boil. Season the broth with salt. Add cabbage, carrot, mushrooms, leek, konnyaku, tomatoes, and chicken meatballs to the pot and cook till everything is done. Serve hot.
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