The Ultimate in DIY Cooking

IN THIS month's Cooking Corner we are going to cook a seafood steamboat. All you need is a pot of stock, a variety of seafood and vegetables to poach in the stock, and array of dips to compliment the flavour of the seafood.

Steamboat is the ultimate form of ‘do it yourself’ cooking. Although Mongolian in origin, it is easy to develop your own touch of any type of Asian flavour to the steamboat by varying the type of foods, seasonings, spices, and sauces that you put into your steamboat. If you have a look in the freezer section of the larger seafood distributors such as Sam’s at Hamilton, you’ll find a variety of frozen seafood treats that will poach beautifully in your steamboat.

Steamboats usually come with a single pot over the flame to use for poaching, although I have seen a version with a double pot to enable you to use two different stocks to poach your seafood and vegetables. You can also use a fondue pot.

PREPARATION

Use either a basic fish stock (commercial or homemade) or dashi (a Japanese soup stock) as the poaching liquid for your steamboat. Use both if you have a double-bowled steamboat. Dashi soup stock can be made from granules to be dissolved in hot water. The granules (dashi-no-moto) are available from most Asian supermarkets.

The quality of seafood used is very important to the end result. Prawns can be used either with the shell on or peeled, and either threaded onto skewers or placed whole into the stock. Green prawns are the best to use in terms of flavour and texture.

Fish pieces need to be skinned and any bloodlines removed from the flesh (if you are using freshwater fish remember to remove any fat from the fish pieces). Soak any shellfish in freshwater to remove grit. Cut crabs into pieces and crack the claws to allow the poaching stock to reach the crab flesh. Squid can be cut into strips or rings. Don't discard the tentacles - use them as well.

The variety of Asian vegetables available in fruit shops is huge and most are excellent to use in the steamboat. Other vegetables such as baby spinach and fresh asparagus also taste great when poached. When all the seafood and vegetables have been eaten, add a few chopped shallots and a diced chilli to the stock and voila: you have a delicious soup rich with beautiful flavours to finish the meal.

To cook, bring the stock(s) in your steamboat to a simmer. Then each guest simply places the seafood and vegetables of their choice in the simmering stock and allows a few minutes for cooking time. How easy is that?

Both of the following sauces only need to mixed and placed in bowls for dipping your seafood and vegetables.

Soy and Sour Dipping Sauce

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 shallot, finely sliced
• couple drops sesame oil
• Asian Dipping Sauce
• 4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons fresh coriander, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar

The seafood used in the this recipe was supplied by Sam’s Seafood at Hamilton (ph. (07) 3633 4700).