Big thanks to Kian for a beautiful meal, Jeff for organizing, and Talisa for this recap of the rooftop Hot Pot Ambassador Dinner.  Oh boy, I’m getting hungry again.
- Veronica

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When Jeff’s email blast arrived in my inbox announcing the next Ambassador Dinner — an evening of traditional Asian hot pot dining with Kian Lam Kho — it took me about fifteen seconds to send in my RSVP.

I love hot pot. It’s something I grew up doing with my family at home (somewhat infrequently, but with zest — usually in conjunction with a slew of sweet and savory fondue nights, the better to make use of the cooking equipment needed for such endeavors).

The concept of Hot Pot is simple: a pot of hot broth sits in the center of the table on a burner which keeps the broth simmering. Everyone at the table partakes in adding a variety of uncooked items (like veggies, meat, seafood, dumplings, and noodles), and fishing them out as they’re ready to eat. Since most of the ingredients aren’t seasoned, additional flavor is added via the broth during cooking, as well as with dipping sauces after cooking. At the end, everyone slurps up the remaining broth, which has been infused with the flavors of everything that’s been cooked in it throughout the night.

For me, Hot Pot embodies some of my favorite aspects of food: it’s engaging, it’s interactive, it’s social, and it’s a group effort, where everyone gets to be part of the cooking process, play with their food, and eat for hours and hours. And, if the chef on duty happens to be Kian, a master of traditional Chinese Cooking, it’s really, exceptionally delicious.

Kian and his partner, Warren prepared a magical night for the 25 lucky RSVP’ers, on Veronica’s rooftop in Long Island City, Queens. All the ingredients were freshly prepared and thoughtfully presented on beautiful tableware.

Kian

Menus! And delicious snacks of pickled vegetables, boiled peanuts, and ginko nuts. We were so spoiled.

Before the dinner, Kian prepped in the kitchen and held a cooking demonstration: making Southern-style egg dumplings. Kian had already prepared a batter of egg and cornstarch, which he then cooked and filled with a mixture of pork, scallions, and sesame oil, and sealed with finesse. According to Kian, the egg dumplings, which are often served in soup, are a common item at Taiwanese Chinese New Year Celebrations because of their golden color.

We onlookers also gave it a shot, with mixed results. Kian makes it look so easy! Apparently they are traditionally made in a shallow ladle over a flame — we definitely would have failed.

Egg dumpling action

Ta-da! No problem.

Veronica’s Attempt

Deborah

Jeff, under Kian’s watchful eye.

Okay, okay. Enough with the teasers. Time for dinner!

Before digging in, we each made our own personal dipping sauce, a combination of wet ingredients: peanut sauce, sesame paste, sesame oil, chili oil, soy sauce, black vinegar, and chili paste, as well as additional goodies: toasted sesame seeds, fresh garlic, fried garlic, scallions, cilantro, pickled peppers, and fermented tofu.

Dipping Sauce Spread

My first sauce attempt. Peanut-y, sesame-y, and spicy. YUM.

Then, we divided ourselves up into tables, each one with a pot divided in half to accomodate two broths: one Szechuan-infused, and one Chrysanthemum-infused. I know, I know. Aren’t you jealous already?

Prepping the spicy Szechuan soup stock

Hot Pot Stocks

Then it was time to get cooking!

Assorted Greens and Shrooms

Vegetable and Crab Dumplings

Rib-eye, chicken, and lamb

Fried Tofu Skins

Veronica with more shrooms and tofus!

Shrimp and Crab

Crab wonderment. Gary, Jeff, and Veronica

How can so many good things be in one pot?

Kian put fish paste into pastry bags. Pipe into simmering broth et voila! Fish Noodles! Here, Jim executes for the table.

Fish paste noodles! Airy and delicious.

Similar to the fish paste, we spooned shrimp paste into the broth and out came magical, squishy shrimp balls!

Hot pot means business.

Chowing Down.

NOODLES? There are noodles?! Two kinds?! This night keeps getting better.

And to finish… the best fruit platter you’ve ever had. Rambutan, starfruit, apple, longan, and dragonfruit.

Thank you to Jeff, for organizing, Veronica, for hosting, and especially Kian, for sharing such an amazing night with us and stuffing us with such delicious morsels. It truly was an experience. I can’t wait to go home for the holidays and have hot pot with my family.

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See all the photos from the World to Table flickr set here.

About the Ambassador Program: The Ambassador Program has one expert of a cuisine lead a group of people for their dream meal in their favorite eating environment. The menu is entirely chosen by the ambassador. Guests pay for the ambassador’s portion and the results are written up somewhere on the internet. Everyone wins.

About Me: I like stories, science, and snacks. You can find me on the interwebs at Rocketships, Jellyfish.

On our trip to Vietnam in 2005, we made sure to try as much of the local food as possible.  Aside from the more conventional offerings, we had coffee, freshly brewed on a boat, made with the deliciously muddy waters of the Mekong River Delta and roasted rat served to us on a river cruise, which another chef tricked us into believing was a “really small baby pig”.

So, when a box filled with jars of WorldFoods sauce arrived at my doorstep, I pulled out the tabletop grills, set up the tables upstairs and gave Cedric a call.  A rooftop cooking session was in order.

A signature Cedric look — tending to the grill with ear buds slung around his neck and a cold beer in hand.

Beginning in the kitchen, we prepped all the ingredients, which included a few lavender-hued fairy eggplants freshly plucked from the rooftop garden.  The rest of the ingredients were bought at either Costco or KeyFoods.

We opened the box and lo and behold, safely nestled within bubble wrap were three bottles of sauce: Creamy Chili Kaffir Lime Stir-Fry Sauce, Malaysian Rendang Curry Ready to Pour Sauce, and Thai Ginger Lemongrass Stir-Fry Sauce.

Cedric first grilled the different components of the dishes.  The green beans (or haricot vert, as Cedric refers to them), eggplant, and tofu sizzled in a mixture of canola oil and minced garlic.  Since we were cooking outdoors, skewing the chicken helps to make it easier to flip on the grill.  If you are cooking indoors, simply pan fry the chicken tenders.

When they’re halfway done, sprinkle on salt and pepper.

After our afternoon of grilling and chilling came to a close, my friends Claire and Ellen came over later that night.  Together we successfully polished off the leftovers.

The aftermath.

For the vegetable-inclined, this recipe just requires stir-frying the vegetables, then placing them a ladle-full of Thai Ginger Lemongrass Sauce.  The tangy sauce is enhanced by the aromatic lemongrass and ginger undertones.

Vegetarian Thai Ginger Lemongrass Tofu Stir-Fry

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:
3/4 bottle of WorldFoods Thai Ginger Lemongrass Stir-Fry Sauce
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 teaspoons of Canola oil
1/2 block of medium firm tofu, cut into 1/2″ small rectangles
1 medium Japanese eggplant, cut into 1/2″ slices
1/2 pound of blanched green beans (cooked in salted boiling water for 2 minutes, shocked in cold water then padded dry)
2 Tablespoons of crushed croutons
2 sliced scallions

Method:
1. Heat up 9 ounces of WorldFoods Thai Ginger Lemongras Stir-Fry Sauce and keep warm
2. In a non-stick pan, add garlic and canola oil and cook for 20 seconds
3. Lightly caramelize both sides of the eggplant and tofu, season with salt and pepper and set aside
4. Saute green beans for 2 minutes with garlic, oil, salt and pepper
5. In a bowl, pour the WorldFoods Thai Ginger Lemongrass Stir-Fry Sauce equally in the botom of each bowl
6. Add the green beans, then the tofu and eggplant topped with the scallions, cilantro and crushed croutons

My personal favorite, the Malaysian Rendang Pita Sandwich, a combination of crunchy lettuce, scallions, and crushed cashews, all enveloped in a soft pita, explodes with flavor thanks to the Malaysian Rendang Curry sauce.  Although it’s categorized as a curry, this sauce has a more robust flavor that I wouldn’t exactly place under the curry category.

Malaysian Chicken Rendang Pita Sandwich

Makes approximately 40 skewers

Ingredients:
1/2 bottle of WorldFoods Malaysian Rendang Curry Ready to Pour Sauce
12 chicken tenders
6 pitas, halved
2 sliced scallions
1/4 bunch of cilantro
12 leaves of lettuce
2 Tablespoons of crushed cashew nuts
Salt and pepper
12 toothpicks

Method:
1. Marinate chicken tenders with 1/3 of WorldFoods Malaysian Rendang Curry Ready to Pour Sauce and season with salt and pepper
2. Heat 2/3 of WorldFoods Malaysian Rendang Curry Ready to Pour Sauce in a separate pan
3. Cook the chicken tenders on the griddle of non-stick pan over medium to high heat
4. Place cooked chicken on a piece of lettuce leaf on the pita bread
5. Add a Tablespoon of warmed rendang sauce, scallions and cilantro
6. Fold pita in half and pin together with toothpick

Thai Creamy Chili Kaffir Lime Stir-Fry with Shrimp, Sweet Peppers and Rice Noodles

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:
1 bottle of WorldFoods Thai Creamy Chili Kaffir Lime Stir-Fry Sauce
12 ounces of peeled and de-veined shrimp (defrosted if frozen)
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 teaspoon of canola oil
8 ounces of cooked rice noodles
1/2 cup thinly sliced sweet mini bell peppers
2 sliced scallions
5 sprigs of cilantro
1 lime wedge
Salt and pepper

Method:
1. Add chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon of canola oil in a non-stick pan on medium heat and stir for 20 seconds
2. Bring WorldFoods Thai Creamy Chili Kaffir Lime Stir-Fry Sauce to a simmer in a separate pan
3. Reheat rice noodles with a teaspoon of water and 1/2 teaspoon of canola oil in another non-stick pan
4. Add the shrimp to the pan with garlic and oil and turn up the heat to high
5. Add sliced sweet mini bell peppers and stir for a minute
6. Add scallions and stir for a minute
7. Pour the sauce on the bottom of each plate in equal amounts
8. Portion the noodles in the middle of each plate and place shrimp stir-fry on top
9. Garnish with cilantro and serve with a wedge of lime

When it comes to cooking (and eating), I am a big fan of the one-pot meal. From my mother’s “famous” tomato ox-tail stew to made-from-scratch chicken soup, there’s something about throwing a bunch of fresh ingredients into a pot, stirring them around, and inhaling that steady flow of aromatic steam that is extremely satisfying. It’s how I imagined cooking would be when I used to play house with my sister, and as I’ve grown older, I’ve discovered the joy of only cleaning one pot after dinner.

Last night I turned to the tried and true one-pot cooking method to feed my whole family.  I planned to use two packages of chicken drumsticks from the fridge and sifted through the vegetable drawers for additional ingredients, managing to find a loot of carrots, onions, and a handful of snow peas.

Since I didn’t have much time to do any intensive stewing, roasting, or broiling, I used a jar of WorldFoods Thai Coconut Galangal Stir-fry Sauce I had in stock in the pantry.  These little jars of sauce have been put to the test in many past dinner parties and neighborhood potlucks. Not once have I ended up with dry, flavorless chicken.  Better yet, I can pronounce all the ingredients in the sauce. It surprisingly has no MSG, gluten, or weird preservatives yet still is potent enough to steep the chicken with flavor and give the dish a whole lot of TLC without having to stew it for hours.

The carrots and the snow peas had crisp texture that contrasted with the tender, juicy chicken.  Biting into the chicken, I could taste the tart tamarind, piquant dried chili, creamy coconut milk, and traces of lemongrass.  But what still remains a mystery to me is the taste of galangal, which I had trouble detecting in the sauce.   A relative of the ginger root, this rhizome is described by Wikipedia as having a “citrusy, earthy aroma, with hints of pine and soap in the flavor,” while the Epicurious Food Dictionary claims it to have “a hot, ginger-peppery flavor”.  Does anyone have a better description?

For this recipe, use chicken drumsticks, instead of boneless chicken breast, to get a more moist, flavorful result (bones are actually packed with flavor).  Since drumsticks take a longer time to cook through, add the snow peas and carrots last, cooking them just slightly to keep them sweet and crunchy.

WorldsFoods Thai Coconut Galangal Stir-fry sauce is available at MyBrands.com.

Thai Coconut Galangal Chicken with Onions, Snow Peas, and Carrots

Total Cook Time: 40 minutes (10 minutes prep)

Serves 4 people

1 bottle WorldFoods Thai Coconut Galangal Stir-fry Sauce
8 chicken drumsticks
1 medium onion
1-2 cups of snow peas
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 lime
Dash of salt and pepper

Equipment:
1 large simmering pot

Instructions:
1. Dice onions and set aside
2. Slice carrots at a diagonal into 1/2 inch slivers
3. Heat up the simmering pot with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
4. Saute the chicken drumsticks for 15-20 minutes until cooked thoroughly
5. Add onions and saute them until they start to turn transparent
6. Pour in WorldFoods Thai Coconut Galangal Stir-fry Sauce
7. Squeeze the juice of half a lime
8. Add the snow peas and carrots
9. Stir and cover the pot and let it simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
10. Serve over rice or noodles