The Art Of Crafting A Hot Pot Base: A Guide To Customizing Your Broth

Making a hot pot base is a simple process. The basic ingredients are chicken broth, garlic, ginger, mushrooms, green onions, and soy sauce. You can also add sesame oil, beef tallow, or sesame seeds for extra flavour. For a spicier broth, add dried chilli peppers, cinnamon, cloves, or Sichuan peppercorns. If you're short on time, you can use a store-bought chicken stock and add your desired spices and aromatics.

Chicken broth as a base

Chicken broth is a great base for hot pot, and you can make it as simple or as complex as you like.

The basic ingredients for a chicken broth are chicken, water, and aromatics. You can use a whole chicken or just leg and thigh pieces. For aromatics, ginger and scallions (spring onions) are the most common, but you can also add garlic, white peppercorns, and mushrooms.

Here's a simple recipe:

Boil a whole chicken (or leg and thigh pieces) in water with some sliced ginger. Skim off any froth that appears on the surface, then lower the heat and simmer for 1-2 hours until the water becomes a little milky. You can then add rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, scallions, Chinese dates, and Goji berries. Season with white pepper and salt, to taste.

If you want to get more creative, you can add other ingredients to your chicken broth base. Some options include:

• Tomatoes
• Celery
• Corn
• Red dates
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Star anise
• Szechuan peppercorns
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Beef meatballs
• Corn on the cob slices
• Green onions
• Jujube and goji berries
• Beef tallow or sesame oil

Spices and aromatics

Spices

Toasting your spices in a little sesame oil before adding them to your broth will intensify their flavour. Spices you could use include:

• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Star anise
• Szechuan peppercorns
• Dried chilli peppers
• Bay leaf
• Scallions
• Ginger powder
• Garlic powder

Aromatics

Aromatics will add depth of flavour to your hot pot. Here are some options:

• Mushrooms (particularly shiitake and enoki)
• Green onions
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Corn on the cob slices
• Goji berries
• Jujube
• Soy sauce
• Fish sauce
• Beef tallow
• Chicken broth

Meat and seafood

When preparing meat and seafood for a hot pot, it's important to slice the meat thinly so that it cooks quickly in the broth. For beef, consider cuts such as short ribs, ribeye, brisket, or flank. Lamb shoulder, leg, or any well-marbled slices of lamb are also good options. For pork, loin, sirloin, shoulder, or pork belly can be used. If using chicken, slice boneless breasts or thighs thinly. White fish, such as tilapia, bass, or flounder, also work well. Other seafood options include shrimp, squid, scallops, and mixed seafood balls. It's best to have a variety of meat and seafood options available for your hot pot, so your guests can choose their preferences.

When cooking the meat and seafood in the hot pot, it's important to ensure that the broth is boiling before adding the raw meat. The meat should only be cooked for a few seconds, depending on the desired level of doneness. For example, beef slices will take about 8 seconds to cook for a medium-rare doneness, while lamb slices will take around 90 seconds for a more well-done texture.

In addition to meat and seafood, a variety of vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, and starches can be added to the hot pot. It's important to strike a balance between the different types of ingredients to create a well-rounded and flavourful hot pot experience.

Vegetables

Crunchy Vegetables

Bamboo shoots, lotus root, cauliflower, radish, broccoli, and carrot are all good options for adding crunch to your hot pot.

Starchy Vegetables

Starchy vegetables such as squash, potato, sweet potato, and taro root will help fill up your guests.

Leafy Greens

Napa cabbage, pea shoots, baby bok choy, Chinese broccoli, yu choy, and Swiss chard are all great choices for adding some greenery to your spread.

Other Chinese Vegetables

Winter melon, celtuce, and bean sprouts are less common but can add a unique touch to your hot pot.

When preparing your vegetables, wash and chop them into bite-sized pieces. Some vegetables, like root vegetables, will take longer to cook, so be sure to add them to the pot first. Others, like leafy greens, will cook more quickly. Keep an eye on everything you put in the pot to avoid overcooking.

In addition to the vegetables listed above, you can also add corn to your hot pot. Canned baby corn or fresh corn cobs cut into 1-inch pieces are both good options.

Dipping sauces

Hot pot is a fun and flavourful communal dining experience. While the broth provides a lot of flavour, the dish is only truly complete with the addition of a personalised dipping sauce. Here are some ideas for your hot pot sauce bar.

Specialty Ingredients

• Chinese sesame paste – a common core base for hot pot dipping sauces, adding a hearty thickness and a satisfying coating to your food.
• Peanut butter – a great alternative to sesame paste, adding a nutty flavour and creamy texture.
• ShaCha/Chinese BBQ sauce – an explosion of flavour, with chilli, garlic, shallots, dried shrimp and brill fish. Bullhead is a well-known brand.
• Light soy sauce – a common seasoning sauce in Chinese cooking, which can be used as a simple dipping sauce on its own.
• Oyster sauce – a Chinese pantry essential, adding umami, sweetness and a light hit of MSG.
• Sesame oil – for extra sesame flavour without the thickness of sesame paste.
• Vinegar – a personal choice, depending on the flavour profile you want. Choose from Chinese black vinegar (dark, malty and bold), Shanghai rice vinegar (delicate and light) or rice wine vinegar (a light acidity).
• Fish sauce – only for true fish sauce lovers! Balance it out with strong flavours like garlic and herbs so it doesn't dominate your sauce.
• Hoisin sauce – made from fermented soybeans, with a sweet flavour.
• Chilli oil – a mild heat and rich flavour without being overpowering.
• Chilli garlic sauce/Sriracha – a more vinegary spice.
• Other chilli sauces – for instance, chilli crisp or lao gan ma chilli oil with black bean. Be careful with the salt levels in these.
• Chopped chilli peppers – for extra heat. Be careful with super-hot chillies!
• Roasted chopped peanuts – for added nuttiness or extra crunch.
• Toasted sesame seeds – for a light nuttiness without changing the texture.

Other Ingredients

• Leek flower sauce – a pungent sauce with a garlicky, onion-y flavour, often paired with lamb in Northern China.
• XO sauce – a luxury condiment from Hong Kong, made with dried seafood, ham, garlic, chilli and oil.
• Fermented bean curd – an unsung hero of Chinese cooking, with a cheesy flavour.
• White pepper – for those who don't like spice but want to add dimension to their sauce.
• Sichuan peppercorn powder – for those who want the signature tingle on their tongue without the heat.
• Sugar – brings out the flavours, especially with salty elements.

Recipe Ideas

• Light soy sauce, white pepper, garlic, scallion/spring onion, cilantro/coriander.
• Peanut butter, soy sauce, garlic, spring onion, coriander.
• Soy sauce, chilli oil, cilantro, scallion.
• Sesame paste, ShaCha sauce, garlic, cilantro, scallion, sesame seeds.
• Black vinegar, soy sauce, ShaCha sauce, sesame paste, garlic, scallion, cilantro.
• Sesame paste, ShaCha sauce, light soy sauce, chilli oil, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, cilantro, scallion.
• Light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, chopped spring onion, sesame seeds.
• Chilli oil, black vinegar, light soy sauce, minced garlic, chopped spring onion.
• Peanut butter, minced garlic, chopped coriander.
• Honey, miso, spring onion, coriander.
• Peanut butter, spicy bean paste, spring onion.
• Spicy bean paste, sweet chilli sauce, garlic and onion powder, chilli flakes, coriander.
• McDonald's garlic chilli sauce, black/rice vinegar, light soy sauce.
• Taiwanese Shacha sauce, garlic, red chilli, spring onion, black vinegar.
• Spicy garlic hot sauce, garlic, red chilli, green onion, Korean red chilli flakes, ground Sichuan pepper, sesame seeds, black vinegar, oyster sauce.
• Sesame paste, dashi powder, black vinegar, minced garlic.
• Creamy chicken udon.

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