A love for intense flavours coupled with an aversion to waste, first led me to create concentrated high-value flavour bombs from what most people would consider cooking by-products.
At the top of my family’s list of favourite culinary weapons is a “hot pot fond,” a deeply delicious, extraordinarily complex, rich and silky concentration of the many flavours and memories created over and around the communal table hosting our annual New Year’s Day feast.
The word “fond” is a contraction of the French term fonds de cuisine, “the foundation and working capital of the kitchen,” and refers also to highly reduced, flavourful base liquid stocks, broths and gravies.
In the professional kitchens of my classically trained chef friends and clients, fond making is foundational. Precise methodologies are followed to ensure that traditional flavours and exacting standards are met, time and again. In my kitchen, not so much, but I cherish the idea, and I love that as with sourdough starter, our hot pot fond cultivates flavour and nutrients in small doses over time.
Our annual cook-your-own feast, referred to simply as “hot pot,” is a multi-cultural, heart-healthier West Coast hybrid of traditional Alsatian raclette, Swiss court bouillon, Mongolian grill, and Chinese hot pot. Our raclette grill(s) and hot pot(s) have travelled with us to alpine and seaside holiday destinations, and their appearance each year is cause for celebration.
Without a doubt there is prep time involved in both the slow-build of a mother stock for the fond, and in the sourcing and preparation of select produce, meat, seafood and cheese. Ultimately, it is a privilege a ritual that invites quiet contemplation of family, and of one year folding into the next.
Preparation begins with the somewhat uniform slicing of home-grown and market root vegetables like beets, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, kohlrabi, and watermelon radishes. I will harvest some winter greens from the cold frames – this year some sprouting broccoli, kale, kalettes, and bok choy. If I’m lucky, I can source fancy specialty mushrooms from Whistler Harvest, but if not, most north shore grocers carry locally-grown shiitakes and oysters.
My family loves seafood, so I will pull spot prawns in sea water from the freezer, and scour fish markets for sustainably harvested Dungeness crab, scallops, salmon, and other treasures.
Thinly sliced organic chicken breast, pork loin, and marbled beef (slices easily if partially frozen) satisfies meat lovers.
We are careful to not cross-contaminate uncooked proteins, offering each in its own serving dish. Cut vegetables are arranged in a nutritious rainbow on platters, and tiny pre-steamed potatoes are piled high in a bowl, ready to sink into miniature shovels full of molten raclette or gruyere cheese.
If our table is long, as it is this year – shared by our grown children and their friends – we divide the offerings among several smaller bowls, to minimize the passing of dishes around hot surfaces.
Over the course of several hours, guests fill, empty and re-fill their own raw bowls, cooking the small bites on hot grills and in hot pots filled with broth. Squeeze bottles full of homemade Thai peanut, curry, Korean barbecue, aioli, and other sauces encourage DIY experimentation and enthusiastic sharing of “pairings.”
Hot pot is an investment in time, but if you prepare extra everything at the outset, the rewards far outweigh the effort. Imagine on Day 2, enjoying a virtually prep-free seafood paella or frittata, and then on day three feasting on deep dish roast vegetable pasta. The best bit though, is the hot pot fond that adds greatness to mediocre meals throughout the new year.
To make the fond, start with an awesome mother stock made from vegetable broth, white wine, fresh herbs, shallot, garlic, ginger, dried Persian limes, cardamom, star anise, fennel, peppercorns, lime and bay leaves, and anything else you fancy. Make plenty, as the broth pots require topping-up throughout the evening.
At the end of the meal, combine remaining stock from all pots. Strain out the solids and reduce the liquid to a syrupy fond for use as a flavour bomb base. Freeze in containers or ice cube trays.
Suggested wine pairing: Gentil d’Alsace by Hugel.
Laura Marie Neubert is a West Vancouver-based urban permaculture designer. Follow her on Instagram @upfrontandbeautiful, learn more about permaculture by visiting her Upfront & Beautiful website or email your questions to her here.
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