Starting 2010 on the Right Track

Happy New Year everyone! It’s a new year, and a new look for my blog! I hope you like the makeover and will find it a bit easier to navigate your way through my blog in the future. I’m still getting used to it myself and still working out some kinks, but any feedback is always welcome.



So what are everyone’s New Year’s resolutions for 2010? I don’t know if I believe in them anymore, considering I have a hard time falling through with them. But I always think it’s a good idea anyway to set some goals for one’s self at the start of a new year (hey, a new year, a new you, right?). Some food-related resolutions I hope to follow through on:

1. Use my cookbooks and food magazines more often. Yes, they do look pretty sitting on my shelf, but I’m sure that wasn’t their sole purpose in life.

2. Cook more Asian! I’m seriously hoping to get back to my cooking roots by making some of my favourite home-cooked Chinese foods. This will probably mean many calls home to mom for help!

3. Eat less sugar. Yeah…enough said.

4. Eat healthier. I throw this in every year. Really, I only say it as a reminder, but after a month-long fiesta of holiday-indulgences, I’m so looking forward to getting back to my salads and tofu (no, really, I am!!). This will probably keep me going until summer rolls away, when we’re greeted with all sorts of festivals, and then I sort of roll off the wagon again…



At least my year got off to a healthier start with a Seafood Miso Hotpot. Inspired by a seafood nabe we had a few years back (in all places) Jasper, Alberta, my family has been making a miso-based hotpot for some time now, gently flavouring delicate seafood without overpowering it.

We picked up some gorgeous fresh fish from St. Lawrence Market—tuna, black cod and salmon…



…along with some scallops and clams…



…and some head-on prawns from T&T.



My favourite part of hotpot is also the loads of vegetables that are offered at the table. My favourite is napa cabbage, which turns incredibly sweet and soft when it’s been cooked down in the broth for some time, but spinach, watercress, and Chinese chives are also popular items in our family. Crunchy lotus root is also a great addition to hotpot.



We also love to have a variety of mushrooms—very often enoki, shiitake and oyster mushrooms.



And we certainly can’t forget my favourite—tofu and fried tofu puffs!



Near the end of the meal, I love to cook some noodles in the broth, serve it with some of the poached fish and seafood, and then add a lightly poached egg on top. The egg yolk drenching the noodles and running into the broth is an incredible thing, and so delicious!



Nothing beats sitting around a pot of simmering broth as you pick and you choose what you like and cook it at the table. Certainly a nice break from all the meat I’ve been eating lately, and perfect for these chilly winter nights. Makes for a fun dinner party meal as well, where your guests get to participate in "cooking" their own food!