Hot Pot At Home: A Beginner's Guide To This Comforting Feast

Hot pot is a fun and social meal to share with family and friends. It's an interactive dining experience where everyone cooks their food in a simmering pot of soup at the table.

To make hot pot at home, you'll need a heat source, a pot, chopsticks, sauce bowls, and ladles. For the broth, you can use a simple combination of stock, scallions, ginger, and dried ingredients, or opt for a spicier option with chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, and fermented ingredients.

The best part about hot pot is choosing your ingredients. Select a variety of meats, seafood, vegetables, tofu, and noodles to cook in the broth. You can also add unique ingredients like hot dogs, spam, or chicken wings.

Prepare your dipping sauces by mixing and matching from a variety of options, such as soy sauce, sesame oil, Chinese BBQ sauce, and chili oil.

Now you're ready to cook! Bring the broth to a boil and add your chosen ingredients. Don't forget to use your ladles to scoop out your delicious creations and enjoy!

Choose your broth: go for homemade or store-bought

When it comes to hot pot broth, you have two options: making it from scratch or buying a store-bought broth base.

Homemade Broth

If you want to make your own broth, you can choose between a spicy broth and a mild broth.

Spicy Broth

A spicy broth is typically made with a concentrated, flavourful soup base and water or stock. The most popular type is the Sichuan spicy broth, which has a high content of fat (usually beef tallow but can also be cooking oil), a strong aroma, and a distinctive mouth-numbing and spicy taste.

To make the soup base for a spicy broth, you will need:

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

Mild Broth

A mild broth is typically a non-spicy broth made with stock, aromatics, herbs, and sometimes vegetables. It is light in taste and easy to prepare. You can make a simple version with water, scallions, and ginger, or a more flavourful version with stock made from pork, beef, chicken, mushroom, or tomatoes.

To make a mild chicken broth, you will need:

• A whole chicken or chicken legs/thighs
• Rehydrated shiitake mushrooms
• Scallions
• Chinese dates (optional)
• Goji berries (optional)
• Ground white pepper

Store-Bought Broth

If you don't have the time or energy to make your own broth, you can buy a store-bought broth base. These typically come in powder or sauce form, and you simply need to add them to water or stock and bring it to a simmer. Here are some popular options:

• Fly By Jing Fire Hot Pot Base (spicy)
• Haidilao Hot Pot Seasoning and Haidilao Hot Pot Soup Base (herbal and clean-tasting)
• Little Sheep Mushroom Soup Base (umami-rich)

Prepare your ingredients: wash and cut your vegetables, slice your meat, etc

Preparing your ingredients is a crucial step in the hot pot process. Here's a detailed guide to help you get started:

Wash and Cut Your Vegetables:

• For leafy greens such as baby bok choy, simply wash them thoroughly and leave them whole. For larger leaves like napa cabbage, cut them into smaller, manageable pieces (around 1-2 inch pieces).
• For vegetables like pumpkin, kabocha squash, tomatoes, and corn, peel and slice them into manageable sizes. For example, cut tomatoes into wedges and corn into 1-inch pieces.
• Clean and prepare mushrooms by removing any dirt or sand. For enoki mushrooms, separate them into smaller bundles, while for king mushrooms, trim the ends and slice thinly.

Slice Your Meat:

• For beef, choose cuts like brisket, short rib, ribeye, or flank steak, and slice them thinly against the grain.
• Pork shoulder, loin, or belly can also be thinly sliced for hot pot.
• If you're using chicken, opt for boneless breast or thighs and slice them thinly as well.
• You can also partially freeze your meat before slicing to make the process easier.

Other Ingredients:

• Seafood options include whole shrimp, thinly sliced fish fillets, squid, scallops, and seafood balls.
• For tofu, choose firm or medium-firm tofu and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
• Noodles are a great addition to hot pot. Options include udon, mung bean noodles, rice noodles, and shirataki noodles.

Remember to wash and prepare all your ingredients in advance, cutting them into bite-sized pieces for easy cooking. This way, you'll have a variety of tasty options ready to be cooked in your hot pot broth!

Set up your equipment: a portable heat source, a pot, chopsticks, plates, bowls, etc

Setting up your equipment is the first step to a successful hot pot meal. The most important piece of equipment is a portable heat source. You can use a butane burner, which is cordless, quiet, and works with non-magnetic pots, or an induction burner, which is safe, efficient, and electric. If you opt for a butane burner, remember to stock up on butane canisters.

Next, you'll need a pot. Chinese stainless steel hot pots are ideal due to their round shape and depth, but any wide, relatively shallow pot will work. If you want to offer two types of broth, consider using a pot with a divider.

Each diner should have their own set of chopsticks, preferably bamboo or wooden, as plastic can melt and metal conducts heat. You'll also need plates and bowls for serving and eating. Small bowls, such as Chinese rice bowls, are perfect for each person to assemble their dipping sauce. Metal hot pot baskets or wire ladles are useful for cooking and retrieving food from the pot, but you can also use chopsticks.

Cook your food: add your ingredients to the broth and cook until done to your liking

Now that you've got your broth ready, it's time to cook your food. Place your raw ingredients on plates or trays around the pot, keeping similar things together. For example, keep meats, seafoods, dumplings, balls, vegetables, and noodles on separate plates.

When you're ready to cook, use a pair of tongs to place a few pieces of your chosen ingredients into the pot. You don't want to add too much food at once, as this will lower the temperature of the broth and result in undercooked food.

Use a hot pot strainer, ladle, or chopsticks to scoop out your food and place it in a bowl. You can then dip your food in your chosen sauce and enjoy!

Different ingredients will require different cooking times. Here are some guidelines for cooking times:

• Meat: Beef and lamb will take around 30 seconds to cook, while pork, chicken, and lamb can take up to 2 minutes.
• Seafood: Seafood generally cooks quickly and should be ready in 1-2 minutes.
• Vegetables: Leafy greens can be cooked quickly, while starchy vegetables like potatoes will take longer, up to 15 minutes.
• Dumplings: Cook dumplings according to the package instructions.
• Balls: Pre-cooked balls are usually ready in a few minutes, but give them up to 5 minutes to heat through.
• Noodles: Cook noodles according to the package instructions.
• Tofu: Tofu can be cooked for as long or as short a time as you like.

Remember to keep the broth boiling throughout the meal, and top up with hot water as needed. Enjoy your hot pot!

Enjoy your meal: dip your cooked food in your chosen sauce and savour the flavours

Now for the best part: eating!

Once your broth is bubbling away, it's time to start cooking your ingredients. Use a pair of tongs to gently place a few pieces of food of your choice into the pot. If you're starting with meat, be sure to let the broth come back to a simmer before removing anything. For thinly sliced beef, you can swish it around in the bubbling soup and pull it out immediately. Use a scoop to place the cooked items in your bowl, then dip them in your chosen sauce and enjoy!

Repeat this process, cooking your desired ingredients in small batches. If you're cooking starchy foods like potatoes or noodles, be aware that they can thicken the broth, so it's best to add them towards the end of the meal. You can also leave tofu and meatballs to simmer in the broth while you cook other items.

Different ingredients will have different cooking times. Meat, seafood, and thinly sliced vegetables should only take a minute or two. Leafy greens can be left in the broth for a quick dip, while starchy vegetables like potatoes will need around 15 minutes to become tender. Dumplings and meatballs should be cooked according to package directions. Tofu can be left in the broth for as long as you like.

Frequently asked questions