Homemade Steamboat Meal

We thought we'd take a break tonite from posting our travel entries, which seem to be unending, and talk about hardcore food. I have always wanted to blog about steamboat at home but most of the time I don't quite remember the exact ingredients I threw in.

With His Royal Highness Sharp Tongue Roger at home from Melbourne, we had a session at my place tonite with family. The special thing about steamboat is when you can have everyone sitting around, talking near yelling level, while dumping in whatever you want to eat. Homemade steamboat is devoid of salt and msg. And it always feels cleaner and less fattening than the typical lard-loaded Chinese meal cos it uses lots of fresh raw ingredients of the best quality. I LOVE steamboat.

Anyone who has steamboat before would understand that a good steamboat session is about 2 things:
1)Freshness of ingredients
2) Quality of the stock

This recipe for stock is my own secret concoction, which sides towards a clear chicken herbal mix but it turned up slightly dark this time, probably too much longan meat and red dates. Usually it is clearer. That is what I meant by i always forget exactly what I put in the last time.

Feeds 8-10 people:

For the stock:

8 -10 litre of water
1 small chicken
4-5 no of chicken bones, better to parboil them to rid smell and blood if any
2-3 no of pork big bones , better to parboil them to rid smell and blood if any

Chinese ham (Jin Hua Hou Tui)

Some dried scallops

1-2 no of medium mengkuang

For the following herbs, please refer to the picture above for rough estimation of quantity:
Red dates (not too much, otherwise the stock will be a little sweet)
Thornberry (Gou zhi)
Solomon's seal (yu zhu)
Yam Root (huai san)
Dried longan meat (cut down by half, otherwise the stock will be on the sweet side)
Mit Zhoa (honey date)
Dang shen
Ginseng slices

pine nuts
2 stalks of leeks

1 no of garlic bulb

Some chinese peppercorn (Hua Jiao) (Optional)

1) Boil water in the big pot. Add ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer for at least 6 hours. I normally cook the night before and continue simmering for about 6 hours before serving.

2) Sift before using.

Raw ingredients to be cooked:

The balls series ~ Fish, prawn, pork and beef are our favourite. Always do your own fish balls and prawn balls. Nothing beats it.

But if you are tight with time, finding a good supplier will have to do.

Our must have also. It's called the sandwich, available in most wet market.


Our favourite is this fish cake called Sweet Not Spicy which Joyce brought from Melbourne. Locally this is close but still not as good.

The yong tofu series, which is really good homemade.

The noodles series: If I am really hardworking, I will make my own noodles.

But vermicelli is usually a must. The photo shows the buckwheat noodle from Korea.

The sliced beef, lamb and port shabu-shabu style. These never fail. Without them, steamboat is just not good enough. They need to be pre-ordered at Choice and Butcher's Deli.





Seafood series like mussels, oysters, fresh fish slices and huge prawns.





The mushroom series ~ oyste mushrooms, abalone mushrooms, needle mushroom, black fungus

The seaweeds and beancurd sticks and tofu.

The vegies series ~ QQ chai, chinese wombok, sweet corn.

The sauce ~ my favourite is soya with cut chillis and the chilli garlic sauce. Greg's favourite egg with some Taiwanese sauce Al introduced him called Sha Cha Jiang which is available at Ta Kiong.

Once everything is clean and washed, get ready the carbonated drinks and beer and we are all ready to swish-swash. Everyone cooks their own favourite food while the conversation get louder and louder and at the end of it, everyone falls flat on the floor, rubbing their tummies. To us, with good company, it is a meal that never fails.

But please be very careful with quantity. I am really bad that. I always have a bad habit of going overboard. A little of this, a little of that and KABOOM! we have have a whole ten seater table full of food.