Crafting The Ultimate Hot Pot Table: A Step-By-Step Guide

Building a hot pot table is a great way to bring people together over a delicious meal. Hot pot tables are designed for social dining, where people gather around a pot of simmering broth, cooking and sharing a variety of ingredients. While you can always dine out at a restaurant for hot pot, building your own table at home allows you to customise your setup and create a unique dining experience. Whether you're a food enthusiast or simply looking for a fun way to connect with friends and family, building a hot pot table can be a rewarding project.

Choosing a pot and burner

When it comes to choosing a pot and burner for your hot pot table, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, you'll need to decide on the type of burner – butane or electric. Butane burners are cordless and offer a romantic, intuitive live flame. They are also quieter and tend to be cheaper than electric induction burners. However, the biggest drawback is having to procure and dispose of butane canisters. On the other hand, induction burners are safe, efficient, and electric. They heat up quickly and precisely, keeping your surroundings cooler, but they require magnetic cookware with flat bottoms and can be noisy due to their built-in fan.

Once you've decided on the type of burner, it's time to choose your pot. Hot pots typically use wide, relatively shallow pots made from materials such as stainless steel, cast iron, or ceramic. If you're using a butane burner, ensure you choose a flat-bottomed pot that is safe for stove use. For an induction burner, your pot must be made of magnetic materials like cast iron or stainless steel. Keep in mind that aluminium, ceramic, and stoneware pots are not suitable for induction cooking.

If you're hosting a large group, a pot with a volume of 3 to 6 quarts is ideal. You may also want to consider a split pot, which allows you to cook with two different broths simultaneously. This is perfect if you have guests with different spice preferences or dietary restrictions. Additionally, a pot with a divider is useful if you want to keep certain ingredients separate to avoid cross-contamination.

When choosing your pot and burner, it's important to consider the number of guests you'll be hosting and the size of your table. For a larger group, you may need to set up two hot pot sets to ensure everyone has enough space to cook and enjoy their meal.

Selecting the right ingredients

Proteins

Meat, seafood, and tofu are common ingredients for hot pot. For meat, thinly sliced beef, pork, lamb, and chicken are popular choices. If using lamb, you can marinate it in red wine. For seafood, you can use squid, shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, fish cake, fish balls, cuttlefish balls, shrimp or fish paste, and more. Just ensure that any seafood is thoroughly cooked before consumption. For a vegetarian or vegan option, include tofu in various forms such as plain, fried, ice, sheets, or puffs.

Vegetables

Vegetables add flavour to the broth and balance out the heavier ingredients. Leafy greens such as watercress, bok choy, spinach, Napa cabbage, lettuce, snow pea leaves, and Chinese spinach are excellent choices. Hearty greens like rapeseed vegetable, baby bok choy, and Napa cabbage will take a little longer to cook. Root vegetables such as daikon, carrots, lotus root, and potatoes can be cut into chunks or thin slices. Mushrooms are also a great addition; try button, portobello, shiitake, maitake, enoki, or shimeji mushrooms.

Carbohydrates

Noodles are a more popular choice than rice for hot pot. You can use ho fun, needle noodles, rice noodles, egg noodles, ramen, udon, glass noodles, or yam noodles. If you prefer rice, white rice is a good option.

Other Ingredients

You can also add dumplings, rice cakes, and tangyuan (sweet dumplings with fillings such as taro, sweet or salty egg, or red bean) to your hot pot.

Preparing the broth

Firstly, decide on the type of broth you want to make. There are two main types of broth for hot pots: spicy and clear. If you want a spicy broth, you can add ingredients like dried red peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, or chilli oil. For a clear broth, you can use chicken or vegetable broth as a base and add mild ingredients like tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, and celery. You can also purchase pre-made broths or broth bases from Asian grocery stores if you don't want to make your own.

To make a simple broth from scratch, start by boiling water with meat bones or fish heads, and a combination of herbs and seasonings. Some commonly used herbs and seasonings include ginger, goji berries, red dates, bay leaf, cloves, star anise, white pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, scallions, garlic, and Napa cabbage. Boil the ingredients until the water has reduced and becomes infused with flavour. Then, strain the broth to remove any solids.

If you want to make a spicy mala broth, you can use beef bone, ginger, garlic, chilli oil, dried red chillies, bay leaf, star anise, cinnamon stick, and fried tofu puffs. For a plain broth, use chicken and/or pork bone, ginger, goji berries, red dates, white pepper, and scallions. You can also add Napa cabbage and mushrooms for extra flavour.

When preparing the broth, it's important to consider the cooking time of the ingredients you plan to add to the hot pot. For example, if you're using tofu or Napa cabbage, which are flavour sponges, be prepared when adding them to spicy broths as they can absorb the heat and become overwhelming. It's also a good idea to bring the broths to a boil and then simmer them before adding the ingredients, to ensure they cook evenly.

Lastly, don't be afraid to experiment and add your own twist to your broth. Hot pot is all about customisation and tailoring it to your tastes, so feel free to add or substitute ingredients as you see fit.

Table setting

When setting the table for a hot pot meal, it's important to ensure that all the ingredients are within easy reach of everyone at the table. This is because hot pot is a communal dining experience, where people gather around the pot, cook their food, mix their sauces, and enjoy each other's company. Here are some tips to create an enjoyable and functional table setting for a hot pot meal:

• Place the pot of broth in the centre of the table, on top of a portable burner to keep it simmering throughout the meal.
• Arrange the seating so that everyone has easy access to the pot and ingredients.
• Provide separate plates or platters for each category of ingredients, such as meat, seafood, and vegetables. It's not necessary to put out all the ingredients at once; you can replenish them as needed.
• Offer a variety of noodles, as they are a popular side dish to accompany the hot pot. Place them within easy reach of guests so they can add them to their bowls as desired.
• Provide individual small dishes for each guest to mix their own dipping sauces.
• Provide chopsticks and small strainers or ladles for guests to use when cooking and fishing out their food from the pot.
• Don't forget the bibs! Hot pot dining can be messy, so it's a good idea to provide cloth bibs to protect guests' clothing.

Hot pot etiquette

Hot pot is a social dining experience, so it's important to be mindful of your fellow diners. Here are some etiquette tips to keep in mind when enjoying a hot pot meal:

Keep Raw and Cooked Food Separate

It's important to use separate utensils for handling raw food and eating cooked food. This is not only to avoid "chopstick washing", but also to prevent cross-contamination. Most hot pot restaurants will provide communal chopsticks, strainers, and ladles for handling raw ingredients.

No Double-Brothing

If there are multiple broths available, don't cook a piece of food in one broth and then finish cooking it in another. Respect your fellow diners' preferences and allergies.

Take Your Time

Hot pot is meant to be a leisurely meal, so don't rush. Cook and eat each piece of food as you go, rather than dumping all the ingredients into the pot at once. This will also make it easier to keep track of your food and avoid overloading the pot.

Cook Meat and Seafood First

Meat and seafood take longer to cook, so add them to the broth first. Use tongs or chopsticks designated for handling raw food to place them in the broth. Vegetables and other quick-cooking items can be added later.

Ask Before Refilling the Broth

The broth will become more flavourful as it absorbs the essence of the ingredients. Don't dilute the flavours by refilling the broth without checking with your fellow diners first.

Respect House Rules

At the end of the day, the most important thing is to respect the rules of your host or the restaurant. If everyone is comfortable with a more relaxed approach, feel free to adapt these guidelines accordingly.

Frequently asked questions