cook: hotpot breakfast and cook what you have

It’s winter break, and I've time to cook breakfast as well as clean out my refrigerator and freezer. Enter soup for one. It starts with homemade bone broth and Lee Kum Kee hotpot soup base which is very mala (tingly spicy). In my freezer, I had the chicken cilantro won tons, sweet Chinese sausage, and spicy tofu. In the fridge, a hard boiled egg, some scallions and lots of bok choy.                     

 

From the couple times I visited the Seapot restaurant, I learned I had to have extra flavor from fresh crushed garlic, some kind of addition like my Japanese Mentsuyu (which has kombu though I wouldn't be averse to miso paste) and sticking with the Japanese theme, shoyu. And oh yeah, mustn't forget toasted sesame oil and having chili crunch at the ready.

 

Alas I didn't have mushrooms, neither enoki or oyster. But once I got the soup base boiling, in went the sausage and tofu. And then the bok choy and won tons and hard boiled egg which only need at the most 3 minutes to get the vegetables tender and the egg warmed through. 

A lashing of chili crunch on the egg and a scattering of scallions, and it's a very warming and filling breakfast.