The Art Of Splitting Costs At Chinese Hot Pot

Chinese hot pot is a fun and social meal to share with friends and family. It's a great way to spend an evening eating and chatting, as everyone cooks their food in a hot pot at the table.

The cost of a Chinese hot pot can be split in a few ways. You can ask everyone to chip in a set amount, or calculate the cost per person based on the ingredients used. If you're providing the hot pot and ingredients, you can set a price per person and ask guests to RSVP and pay in advance. This will help cover the cost of the food and any other expenses, like renting a hot pot or buying disposable chopsticks and plates.

Another option is to ask each guest to bring a dish or ingredient, which can help reduce the overall cost for everyone. This can also add variety to your hot pot, as guests can bring their favourite foods or ingredients.

Finally, if you're hosting, you may choose to cover the cost yourself and treat your guests. This can be a nice gesture, especially if it's a special occasion or you're celebrating something.

No matter how you choose to split the cost, Chinese hot pot is a fun and interactive dining experience that's perfect for groups.

Broth: the backbone of your hot pot

The broth is the heart and soul of a hot pot. It's what makes this communal dining experience so special and flavoursome. There are two main types of broth for hot pot: spicy and clear.

Spicy Broth

A spicy broth is the most popular choice for hot pot. It's a must-have for most hot pot dinners and there are a few types to choose from: Sichuan, Chongqing, and Mongolian. The Sichuan style features a red chilli oil base, balanced with numbness from Sichuan peppercorns and various herbs. Chongqing broth is thicker and richer, made with beef fat and chilli peppers. Mongolian broth is less spicy and lighter, with a cumin-heavy flavour.

To make a spicy broth at home, you can follow this recipe for Sichuan Spicy Hot Pot:

Ingredients:

• Beef tallow (or cooking oil for a vegan alternative)
• Dried chilli peppers & Sichuan pepper
• Other spices: star anise, cassia cinnamon, bay leaves, Chinese black cardamom
• Aromatics: scallions, onion, coriander, garlic, ginger
• Sichuan chilli bean paste & fermented black beans
• Shaoxing rice wine & sugar

Method:

• Melt the beef tallow with cooking oil and infuse with the spices.
• Remove the spices and add the aromatics to fry.
• Add the dried chilli paste, Sichuan chilli bean paste, fermented black beans, minced garlic and ginger. Simmer to release their flavour.
• Finally, add sugar, Sichuan pepper, and rice wine.
• Transfer to a container and refrigerate. This will create a solidified soup base that can be stored and used whenever you want hot pot.

Clear Broth

A clear broth is the default type of hot pot in northern China. It's a mild and light option, usually made with simple ingredients such as water, scallions, ginger, peppers, shiitake mushrooms, and jujubes.

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Shiitake mushrooms
• Scallions
• Chinese dates (jujube)
• Goji berries
• White pepper & salt

Method:

• Boil a whole chicken with some sliced ginger. Skim off any froth and simmer for 1.5-2 hours until the water becomes milky.
• Pour the broth into your hot pot and add rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, scallions, Chinese dates, and Goji berries.
• Season with white pepper and salt.
• Bring to a boil and you're ready to start your hot pot!

Tips for a Great Hot Pot Broth

• You can use a divided Yin Yang Pot to serve both spicy and mild broths at the same time.
• If making your own broth is too time-consuming, you can buy pre-packaged hot pot bases online or from Asian stores.
• Always keep the water level in your hot pot at around 75% to avoid overflowing.
• As the hot pot progresses, the broth will reduce. Simply add more hot water to top it up.
• If you have leftover broth, it's not recommended to use it again as it's considered unhealthy due to the high oil content.

Meat: the thing that hot pot is for

Hot pot is a Chinese cooking method and social event, where a big pot of boiling broth sits on a heating element in the centre of the table. Raw ingredients, including thinly sliced meat, are served on plates around the pot. Guests cook the ingredients in the broth and eat them with a dipping sauce.

Meat Options

When it comes to meat, there are plenty of options to choose from. Here are some popular choices:

• Lamb or mutton shoulder or leg, thinly sliced
• Beef short ribs, ribeye, flank, sirloin, or other marbled cuts, thinly sliced
• Pork loin, sirloin, shoulder, or pork belly, thinly sliced
• Chicken breast or thigh, thinly sliced

If you're looking for something a little more exotic, you could try beef balls, pork balls, or even fish balls. These are usually pre-cooked and just need to be heated through in the hot pot.

Tips for Preparing Meat

When preparing meat for hot pot, it's important to slice it as thinly as possible. This will ensure that it cooks quickly and remains juicy and tender. If you're using frozen meat, it's easier to slice it when it's still partially frozen.

Another tip is to not leave the meat in the hot broth for too long. Thinly sliced meat usually only needs about 30 seconds to cook through. Keep an eye on it and remove it from the broth as soon as it changes colour.

So, there you have it! Hot pot is a fun and interactive dining experience that's perfect for social gatherings. With a variety of meat options to choose from, it's a great way to customise your meal and try new things.

Vegetables: Mike's favourite part of hot pot

Mike could eat hot pot with just a head of lettuce! He loves the variety of vegetables that can go into a hot pot, and the fact that they cook so quickly.

Mike's favourite vegetables for hot pot include leafy greens like spinach, watercress, and lettuce, cabbages like siu choi/napa and kole, mushrooms like enoki, shiitake, and oyster, crunchy vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and lotus root, and starchy vegetables like potatoes, taro, and sweet potato.

Mike likes to pop the vegetables into the hot pot, let them cook, and then pull them out immediately. No one likes sad, soggy, forgotten vegetables in the pot!

• Gai lan
• Chrysanthemum leaves
• Napa cabbage
• Chinese broccoli
• Yu choy
• Chinese cauliflower
• Winter melon
• Bamboo shoots
• Daikon radish
• Squash
• Corn on the cob
• Oyster mushrooms
• King oyster mushrooms
• Shiitake mushrooms
• Wood ear mushrooms
• Enoki mushrooms
• Shimeji mushrooms

Dipping sauces: the fun part where you get creative

Dipping sauces are a key part of the hot pot experience. The fun comes from getting creative and mixing your own unique concoctions.

• Chinese sesame paste or peanut butter
• ShaCha / Chinese BBQ sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Oyster sauce
• Sesame oil
• Chinese black vinegar, rice vinegar, or rice wine vinegar
• Fish sauce
• Hoisin sauce
• Chili oil, chili garlic sauce, or Sriracha
• Chopped scallions
• Chopped cilantro
• Minced garlic
• Chopped red or green chillies
• Roasted chopped peanuts
• Toasted sesame seeds

Some more unusual ingredients you could include are:

• XO sauce
• Fermented bean curd
• White pepper
• Sichuan peppercorn powder
• Sugar
• MSG
• Light Sesame Soy: sesame oil, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, minced garlic, and chopped spring onion
• Chilli Oil Vinegar Dip: chilli oil, black vinegar, light soy sauce, minced garlic, and chopped spring onion
• Creamy Dashi Garlic: peanut butter, minced garlic, and chopped coriander
• Honey Miso Dip: chopped spring onion, chopped coriander, and miso paste
• Spicy Peanut Dip: peanut butter, spicy bean paste, and chopped spring onion
• Classic Spicy and Sweet Chilli: spicy bean paste, sweet chilli sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and chopped coriander
• Hot and Sour Garlic: McDonald's garlic chilli sauce, black or rice vinegar, and light soy sauce
• Creamy Garlic Sesame Paste: sesame paste, dashi powder, black vinegar, minced garlic
• Taiwanese Shacha Sauce: minced garlic, chopped red chilli, chopped green onion, Taiwanese Shacha sauce, and black vinegar

Noodles: save these for last

Noodles are a staple of Chinese hot pot and are a must-have if you're celebrating Chinese New Year. However, it's best to save them for last.

There are two ways to serve the noodles. You can either serve them with the hot pot broth or with hot pot dipping sauce. If you're serving them with the broth, it's best to do so at the beginning of the hot pot party. This is because the broth gets too cloudy after all the cooking. It's also more common to serve the noodles in the non-spicy hot pot broth.

If you're serving the noodles with a dipping sauce, it's best to do this at the end of the meal, when the broth has had a chance to infuse with the flavours of all the ingredients that have been cooked in the pot. Noodles are excellent at soaking up flavour, so you want to make sure the broth is as flavourful as possible before adding them.

Some noodle suggestions include udon, glass noodles/mung bean noodles, shirataki noodles, hand-pulled noodles, packaged dried noodles, and fresh spinach noodles.

Frequently asked questions