“Mala Hot Pot” (麻辣火鍋)

I received a packet of "Mala" (麻辣) paste from a friend from China. Frankly I never had "Mala" steamboat before, all I know was from watching the food show on Chinese TV. It is called "Mala" because it is made with Sichuan peppercorns which tends to give a numbing effect and lots of chili peppers which gave the hot/spicy effect. I precooked the paste in a big pot of water as the soup base for our hot pot/steamboat.

Getting the table ready for the steamboat of three adults and two kids. Yeah my non-traditional steamboat pot, whatever works right? ;-)

I just prepared some basic such as marinated chicken breasts, marinated pork slices, shrimps, fish fillets, napa cabbage and baby bok choy.

This side we have canned enoki mushrooms, canned button mushrooms, baby corns, cut regular tofu, tofu fish cake, fried fish balls, fish balls and bee hoon (noodle).

The “Mala Hot Pot” (麻辣火鍋) in action. When the "Mala" soup is boiling, just add the ingredients to cook. Let it boiled for few minutes before dishing it out to individual bowls to enjoy. Normally people eat a few rounds of this and chit-chat until late at night. My hubby and guest had Bailey and cold beer with their steamboat. I had lots of water because it was real spicy for me. Imagine whatever you took out from the pot coated with a layer of the numbing and extremely hot chili oil. You would probably scream for milk to cool it down instead of water. Haha... Oh, my kids had the chicken soup version if you are wondering.

The "Mala" (麻辣) soup base. The soup is really oily with a layer of chili oil and very hot/spicy! I prepared a big pot and we ended up having hot pot for two days in a row, with the leftover soup and leftover ingredients.

The Chili sauce that I made, but was too spicy to eat with the already spicy "Mala" soup. We only used the soup base to cook the ingredients, according to our Chinese friend, the soup is not supposed to be consumed, they only used it to cook the ingredients. First I heard of it because we Malaysian Chinese drink the soup, but not sure people drink the "Mala" soup or not because it's really hot. My hubby ate it anyway, but it was too spicy and oily for me.

The vinegar soy sauce that I liked. I added some thinly sliced gingers and it went well as dipping sauce.

Free flow of crispy fried shallots to add in the broth while cooking or in your own bowl.

In conclusion, “Mala Hot Pot” (麻辣火鍋) is really HOT/SPICY and oily. I actually dished out the layer of chili oil for our hot pot the next day. Without the layer of oil it was actually not bad at all, at least it was not that hot anymore. Next time I want to try the herbal soup base version.