Hot Pot with New Ingredients To Me- "Soul Pho"

They say, "Sylvie, that sistah will cook anything". I present to you- Soul Pho, pronounced "soul fuh" or as I would say it soulful. Maybe a better name would be Pho Soul as in "for the soul" because this hot pot was comfort food full of fresh veggies, homemade broth, good protein and it brought a heartwarming vibe which soothed my inner being.

What made this sooo good was the labor and time intensive process of making the broths. Three sources which included simmering a whole chicken, simmering chicken feet and simmering beef tendons and combining the broths. These broths are combined in a Japanese Danabe Clay Hot Pot.

The recipe was "intuitive" to me. I just combined ingredients and amounts to suit what I had and my taste. Chicken chunks, thinly sliced ribeye, kale, spinach, mushrooms, onion, garlic, fresh sliced ginger, cabbage, parsley, julienned carrots and green onions. The chicken feet were used just because I saw them in the Asian grocery store and the beef tendon used as thats what I find is used in a number of Vietnamese Pho recipes. Soul Fusion combined these ingredients to make this wonderful meal.

Hot Pot- Sylvie Style

G and I have been frequenting a very good Korean Hot Pot restaurant on Washington Blvd, On Dal 2. They specialize only in flavorful hot pots brewing right at your tableside with varying levels of spicy heat and choices which include, huge shrimp, crab, seafood and a whole lot more. It is recommended that you wear the bibs provided and jump into the messy, tasty family style broth.

Anyway, I have been obsessed with trying to create such a meal at home. Their's is a family guarded recipe which up front I acknowledge I couldn't come close to recreating. With the help of the internet and a couple of Korean cookbooks I happen to own, I prepared my Soul Fusion Kitchen rendition of a Hot Pot cooked tableside using an electric frying pan.

Sylvie's Brewing Hot Pot


















I didn't really follow a recipe but instead relied upon taste for the amounts of each ingredient I added. I started with a chicken broth base to which I added Korean Chili Pepper paste (Kochujang)(1-2 T) and chili powder (Kochukaru)(1 T) along with some soy sauce (2 T), sake (2 T), sesame oil(2 drops), garlic (4-6 cloves minced), soybean paste (1 T) and anchovy paste (<1 T).


















I rummaged through my refrigerator and freezer for items to add to the hot pot. I chose to add some scallops, shrimp, chicken cubes, fish, bok choy, broccoli rabe, mushrooms and zucchini.

















With a bowl of rice, G and I indulged in my rendition of messy, tasty, spicy hot pot.