Hot Pot
Featuring a steaming pot of savory broth surrounded by platters of meats, seafood and vegetables, Chinese-style hot pot is a fun, interactive dining experience meant to be shared with friends and family. The practice likely began during the Song dynasty (960-1279), when cooking food in a communal copper pot became popular among nobility, but nowadays, a large metal pot — or double-sided pot if you want both a spicy and a mild broth — perched atop a portable burner is used so everything can be cooked at the table. Diners choose their ingredients, dip them into the bubbling soup, then into accompanying sauces. When it comes to ingredients, the more the merrier: All of the amounts below are just suggestions, so mix and match until you have a variety that makes you happy. For a vegetarian hot pot, double up on the tofu or bean curd and vegetables. The soup base and ingredients vary by region: Sichuan-style hot pot, for example, is famous for its numbingly spicy red broth spiked with Sichuan peppercorns, the Cantonese version is loaded with seafood, and Beijing-style is made with mutton. (Here’s everything you need to make hot pot at home.)
- Preparation:
- Cooking:
- Total:
- Serves: 8 persons
Ingredients
- Thinly sliced chuck, rib-eye or Wagyu beef; pork belly; or lamb, thawed if frozen (see Tip 1)
- Frozen pork or beef balls
- Frozen shrimp, lobster or fish balls
- Frozen fish cakes or fish tofu
- Fresh, white fish, such as bass or halibut, thinly sliced
- Squid, cut into bite-sized pieces
- Shellfish, such as prawns, shrimp, scallops or clams
- Firm tofu, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Fried tofu skin rolls
- Dried bean curd
- Dried bean curd threads, soaked in warm water per package instructions, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Bean curd sheets, soaked per package instructions if dried
- Napa cabbage, cored and sliced into 1-inch pieces (thicker stems separated from thinner leaves)
- Dark and leafy greens, such as baby bok choy, cut in half lengthwise; chrysanthemum greens, sliced into 1-inch pieces; choy sum, watercress or spinach
- Mushrooms, such as shiitake, enoki, bunashimeji (beech), wood ear or oyster; stems and roots removed and separated, if necessary, and reconstituted if dried
- Lotus root, sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
- Canned baby corn ears, drained
- Russet, Yukon gold or sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
- Taro root, sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds, soaked in water for 5 minutes
- Daikon radish, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- Vermicelli rice or mung bean noodles or glass noodles, rehydrated according to package instructions
- Frozen dumplings (any type)
- Thin, oval rice cakes
- 2(8-ounce) packages hot pot soup bases (if using a double-sided pot, use 1 [8-ounce] package on each side)
- Sesame sauce or oil
- Sha cha (Chinese barbecue sauce)
- Black vinegar
- Soy sauce
- Chile oil or crisp
- Toasted white sesame seeds
- Chopped cilantro or scallions
- Fried or fresh chopped garlic
- White pepper
Instructions
Step 1
Set the table: Lay out the meats, seafood, tofu and bean curds, and vegetables on platters in like groups. Transfer rehydrated noodles, if using, to a serving bowl, and place all other starches on separate serving dishes. Set out at least two small bowls per person for the dipping sauces, and make sure there are chopsticks on hand as well as multiple small mesh strainers for the meats, seafood and tofu.Step 2
Place a large, wide pot over a portable stove in the center of the table, and prepare the soup base according to package instructions. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Working in batches if necessary, add the ingredients that need a longer time to cook, such as beef or pork balls, thick-stemmed greens, mushrooms, potatoes, lotus roots and rice cakes. (The sliced meat is not added at this stage.) Cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender but not falling apart, about 10 minutes. Add the tofu, fish balls and quicker-cooking vegetables halfway through cooking. Meanwhile, have diners make their own dipping sauce. (See Tip 2.)Step 3
Remove the cover and have everyone cook their own pieces of meat by using the mesh strainers or a clean set of chopsticks to dip the meat and seafood in the broth, until cooked through, 30 seconds to 1 minute. (Make sure the broth is at a consistent boil throughout the cooking.) Dip the cooked ingredients into the desired sauce and eat. Add any remaining vegetables to the broth to cook, then add the noodles and cook until just warmed through, about 1 minute.