Simmered Fish Hot Pot
Serves 6.
Ingredients
500 g/1 lb snapper or bream fillets
1 lobster tail
1 cup cooked cellophane noodles
1 litre/2 pints/4 cups dashi
2 tender carrots, sliced
small piece kombu (optional)
soy sauce to taste
few young spinach leaves
6 fresh mushrooms, sliced
6 spring onions (scallions), cut in bite-sized lengths
Directions
Wash fish fillets and cut into 2.5 cm (1 in) pieces. With a sharp cleaver cut lobster tail into slices, then cut each of the larger slices into halves. Drain cellophane noodles and cut into short lengths, put into a saucepan with the dashi and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes before adding carrots, kombu and soy sauce. Simmer a further 2 minutes, then add fish and lobster, spinach, mushrooms and spring onions and continue to cook for 5 minutes or until everything is just done. Serve in soup bowls accompanied by small dishes of dipping sauces.
Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)