hotpot

How to home-make a hotpot meal?

Posted by

Hotpot is one of my favorite party meals, there are lots of varieties, and very easy to prepare.

What is a hotpot?

Hotpot is a flavorful broth traditionally served inside a large metal pot. The broth is brought to a boil and left simmering for the duration of the meal. Raw ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, are placed into the simmering broth and thus cooked. The cooked pieces are dipped into dipping sauces for additional flavor. Hot pot is considered a main course and is usually served without rice or noodles on the side.

A hotpot party usually lasts for hours, and while the ingredients are being cooked, the soup also gets tastier and tastier with the ingredients adding extra flavor to it.

Final product served on the table:

hotpot/hot pot table

Preparation of the broth

In the middle of the table sits the pot containing the broth for cooking the raw ingredients. There are a few ways to prepare the broth:

  • Buy the packaged broth from the shop, you can find many on Ochama, use invitation code “linjiang” to get 15 euro vouchers!
  • Make your bone broth with your favorite spices (I usually make the broth from one of the following ingredients – beef bone with marrow, spare ribs, chicken soup, or seafood )
  • The broth can also be made of veggies! I made a mushroom-based broth recently when welcoming a vegetarian friend for a hotpot lunch.

A very typical setup for a hotpot is a pot with separation from the middle, to enjoy 2 broths at once, you can get such a pot here.

hotpot with 2 different broth

Preparation of the ingredients

The best part of having a hotpot is that you can make it as simple or as fancy as you want. Like most meals, it consists of a few building blocks: protein, fiber, and carbohydrates, for a simple version, you can buy all the raw ingredients from an Asian shop or on Ochama, you just need to pre-cut them as preparation.

ingredients for hotpot
Ingredients I bought from the Asian market for hotpot preparation

Protein:

As building blocks for protein, you can have access to thinly sliced meat (the best is beef or lamb), tofu, tofu skins, homemade or ready-made meatballs, etc.

Tofu Skin Recipe: How to Make Your Own Beancurd Skin - Utopia
Tofu skin roll (made of soya)

Fibers:

Mushrooms:
All kinds of mushrooms go well with the hotpot, as they absorb the taste from the broth well, and also give extra taste to the pot, my favorite ones are Chinese black mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, enoki, etc.

A vegan guide to black fungus - Chinese recipes and more — Celestial Peach
Chinese black mushrooms
What Are Oyster Mushrooms?
Oyster mushrooms
What Are Enoki Mushrooms?
Enoki mushrooms

Leafy greens:

The most popular one is Chinese cabbage, bok choy, and spinach, for super spicy broth, it is suggested to add them a bit at a later stage, otherwise, the leafy greens absorb the spice dramatically, making it tastes very spicy. On the other hand, also makes the soup a bit diluted.

Image Result
Fresh Chinese cabbage

Winter melon:

Winter melon is a typical hotpot veggie that tastes very soft.

Radish

Carbohydrates

Typically I prepare potato, lotus, and potato noodles as part of the source of the carbs.

Potato slices for hotpot
Lotus Root Recipe
Lotus root for hotpot
Hot pot Sichuan noodles, wide noodles, sweet potato noodles, authentic  Sichuan noodles, instant casserole, spicy and hot dishes, handmade Sichuan  noodles, wholesale: Buy Online at Best Prices in SriLanka | Daraz.lk
Potato noodles in hotpot

Dipping sauce for hotpot

During the meal, we usually also prepare our dipping sauce in a ball. Depending on the region, the dipping sauce can also be quite different.

A typical dipping sauce in my region is minced garlic, (lots of) sesame oil, and oyster sauce, in the northern regions, they like to add sesame paste also. There are no big rules, just do what you like!

5 Hotpot Dipping Sauces to Try (Updated for 2023!) – Good Maison
Hotpot dipping sauce

Hotpot preparation:

If you prepared the broth yourself already, just serve the broth pot on the induction hotplate on the table.

11 Best Hot Pot Cookers
Hotpot with portable induction hot plate

If you buy the spicy butter pack from the shop, it is recommended to pre-bake it, to have the maximum flavor out, before adding boiling water to it.

hotpot spicy brooth
Pre-heat the spicy broth before adding boiling water

The preparation of the ingredients and sauce is really simple (for a simple hotpot version of course), you just need to pre-soak some of the dry ingredients, cut the fresh ones, and then put them in plates on the table.

During the meal, the guests can prepare their sauce, and cook their favorite food in the pot.

Pre-soak some dry ingredients beforehand to save the cooking time

A small tip – use hotpot scoops!

Usually, in mainland China, the group uses the eating chopsticks directly to fetch the content from the pot. Since the pandemic, and also with the increasing hygiene standard, the Hotpot scoops have become essential when serving hotpot, both at home and in the restaurant, make sure you get them for yourself and your guests!

hotpot scoops

After the meal:

After the meal, the soup is usually very dense, it can be used as a sauce for the next meal. For the non-s spicy soup, you can also drink it directly, the soup contains so much flavor now, super delicious!

Tip! – If you used the store-bought spicy butter broth, don’t throw the hot spicy soup directly in the drain, as it is so greasy, that it will for sure block the pipe! The trick is the let the soup cool down until the butter solidifies on top, then you can scoop the fat from the top and through it to the garbage bin, then the soup can empty to the drain.

At the end, wait until the fat solidifies and throw them away in the garbage bin

To sum up, the essentials for a successful hotpot:

An induction hotplate, or a portable stove to be placed on a table
Hotpot scoops for a more reassuring experience
Chopsticks for an authentic experience

I hope this article is helpful for you to try some other ways of eating! Check out other food topics such as:

Chinese fast food – 中式快餐

Chinese E-commerce is in Europe!

A bite of Belgium – My favourite Belgian sweets

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pot

https://myfoodbook.com.au/tips/12-different-types-of-mushrooms

https://goodmaison.com/blogs/recipes/5-dips-for-your-next-hotpot

Facebook Comments

Leave a Reply