How To Make Chinese Hot Pot
Nov 11th, 2007 by admin
Here’s a wonderful recipe for colder weather, as it will keep you nice and warm for hours. I don’t know how other Chinese people prepare their hot pot (or steamboat), but this is how my mother does it, so I’ve described it the way we’ve always had it at home. Naturally, there are many variations based on personal preferences and regional differences, but ours follows the Hong Kong Cantonese style. I’ve had Beijing and Mongolian hot pot in China and these were definitely different. There is also the fiery Sichuan style, which you can read about in my post What is Sichuan Hot Pot?
Once you’ve prepared it a few times, you can experiment with different ingredients and condiments, depending on what you like. It’s perfect for family and friends, and a lot of fun as it will keep your guests entertained and busy for hours.
Hot Pot Equipment:
An essential is a small portable gas ring, usually run on small gas cylinders. Make sure you place it on something that is completely heat-proof (as I learned today, when a thick plastic chopping board underneath the gas ring ended up all warped!). My mother used to use an old-fashioned electric rice cooker (the ones with completely detachable lids), but as modern rice cookers usually have lids that are connected, they are not as practical for this purpose. There are also shallow pots specially designed for hot pot that you can buy. I use a large Columbian clay pot on the gas ring, but you can use any large pot or container that can withstand a lot of boiling.
You’ll also need personal sets of chopsticks for each person, small bowls to eat from, small dishes for the dipping sauces, wire sieve ladles (you’ll find these in any large Chinese supermarket), a larger sieve ladle and several pairs of longer wooden chopsticks for communal cooking.
Hot Pot Preparation:
This is all in the cleaning and chopping of the ingredients. Larger, chunkier pieces are better, otherwise they will simply disintegrate during the cooking process.
With hot pot, anything will work, but typical ingredients include meat (lamb is excellent, as is beef), firm types of fish like salmon or hake (chopped up chunks of boneless fillets rather than whole fish), squid, prawns, mussels, Chinese fish balls (the spicy ones are delicious), Chinese fish slices, any mushrooms including shitake and enoki, any type of Chinese leafy greens (Chinese tong ho, or edible chrysanthemum, is perfect for hot pot), tofu (the rougher Chinese version will survive the hot pot more than the delicate Japanese one), fried tofu puffs (see photo above), ho fun noodles (the wide, flat rice noodles that you can buy fresh), and Chinese vermicelli or glass noodles (usually sold in dried form). Any meat should be thinly sliced so that it cooks quickly, as you really don’t want to be fishing out chunks of overboiled meat! It can also be bought thinly sliced.
How To Make The Hot Pot Base or Broth:
Chop peeled carrots and white radish (Japanese daikon) into large chunks. Add to the boiling water with chopped spring onions and ginger and let it simmer for a while. If you are using Chinese cabbage or lettuce, then chop the head off and add to the base, as this will add a lovely sweet flavour. Season with salt and white pepper. The longer you let this simmer, the more flavoursome the soup base will be. A little vegetable oil can be added before the cooking starts, although the fish and meat will release plenty of natural oils. We allowed the base to simmer on the stove for about 20 minutes before transferring the pot to the gas ring (otherwise the gas canister will run out more quickly).
This varies according to region, but at home, we always have a very simple mix of soya sauce with a bit of vegetable oil, sesame oil and chilli sauce (optional). I also like hot pot with XO sauce (a spicy seafood sauce from Hong Kong that’s great for cooking as well as dipping). You can buy this in jars at Chinese supermarkets. It’s expensive but you don’t need much. Alternatively, you could make it yourself as one of my uncles used to, but I think the shop-bought version tastes a bit stronger (with added preservatives?!). Today when we had hot pot with friends, we all experimented with different condiments and I think I’ve finally found my favourite dipping sauce! See my post How To Make Hot Pot Dipping Sauces.
I’ve also been to my cousin’s home for hot pot, where raw egg was added to the dipping sauce, to reduce the ‘heat’ absorbed by the food and to avoid developing a sore throat afterwards (according to Chinese health philosophy).
Hot Pot Cooking and Eating:
Once everything has been chopped up and laid out on the table, then the fun begins. Everyone can do his or her own cooking (the handles of the wire ladles can be bent so that they hook over the edge of the pot to stay in place), keeping an eye on the ingredients they have placed into the pot. Fish, seafood, tofu and meat are best cooked in the wire ladles, otherwise they will get lost in the pot and end up overcooked. Often though, one person will place larger amounts of food like vegetables and fish balls into the pot, so that people can help themselves. There are no hard and fast rules!
It’s important to use the general chopsticks for placing things into and fishing them out of the pot, to avoid the spreading of germs, particularly from uncooked ingredients. Then use your personal chopsticks to eat the food, dipping it into your own sauce bowl. Also try to avoid adding other ingredients while waiting for meat to be cooked, so that you’re not eating things that might be coated with uncooked meat juices. Wait until you’ve eaten the meat and the soup has started boiling again before adding more food.
As the soup stock decreases, more boiling water from the kettle can be added. Don’t worry about it becoming watery, because you’ll be constantly adding ingredients to it. Wait for the water to boil before adding more ingredients. I don’t really know why, but we always save the ho fun noodles until almost the end of the meal, and we eat them with the rest of the tasty soup base. And once in a while, we throw in a small handful of chopped fresh coriander.
You’ll be amazed at how much you can actually eat during this meal. Because the food is eaten slowly over the course of a few hours, you can take digestive breaks, then have some more! And it really isn’t as complicated as it might sound. Let me know how it goes when you try it, and if you have any suggestions to improve the experience!
If you feel it’s all too much for you to prepare (and you happen to live in London), you can have Sichuan hot pot (very spicy, so you’ve been warned!) at Snazz Sichuan near Kings Cross or another Sichuan restaurant called Angeles (405 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7QE, Tel 0871 4746681). My post on What is Sichuan Hot Pot? has more details.
Click for all Chinese recipes on World Foodie Guide
My friend Susan S. Cheung has sent me some helpful tips, based on her own hot pot experiences:
‘If you have no vegetarians for dinner, you can make hot pot stock with vegetables and chicken stock. You can add some Maggi chicken stock to your basic stock or make fresh chicken stock by boiling chicken bones for a while. I add a little salt as well.
You suggested that lamb or beef as excellent choice of meats. In my experience, many Chinese, especially from Southern China and Hong Kong, don’t like the strong taste of lamb and in both of our parents’ households, beef is hardly cooked because most people don’t like the taste of it. If you have vegetarians and meat eaters together, then have two hot pots going. If you physically only have one pot, then cook the meat separately on the stove and add to your bowl when the vegetables are cooked.
Try fried tofu as well as soft tofu and dried bean curd sticks, though they have to be soaked for a while beforehand. Leave shells and heads of prawns on for flavour.
Don’t forget garnishes for your dish. We always have a plate of finely chopped coriander, spring onions and some fresh uncooked small bean sprouts for scattering onto our bowls.
A personal preference – I like a cube of spicy fermented bean curd with my dish, as well as other dipping sauces. And I like chilli oil instead of chilli sauce.
Finally, don’t forget the karaoke – hot pot and karaoke fit like a horse and carriage, or else I’ve been tortured by my cousins in Hong Kong!!!’
Thank you Susan, I’m having hot pot next weekend, so will definitely bear your tips in mind! Helen Yuet Ling
Helen, your hotpot looks delicious. Love the fact that there is a vege option. Love your pot too.
Thanks VegeYum! My diet consists mostly of delicious vegetarian food cooked by my husband. Once in a while, I get to eat a bit of meat when I eat out. Hot pot can definitely be purely vegetarian, and super healthy. Let me know if you give it a try! Helen Yuet Ling
I need a husband like that!
I love your presentation, the photos and the details. In my blog on Antioxidants and Cooking today, I referred to this recipe of yours and your wonderful World Foodie Guide, which I am sure people will enjoy and find helpful.
Thank you Uncle! Your blog looks really interesting, and I will go through it in more detail over the weekend. I may have to consult you and Aunty for cooking tips! Helen Yuet Ling
Guess what? I am having hot pot session this Saturday!! Can’t wait to stock up all the yummy (spicy) fishballs!
Sneaking some tips from your blog, I am defo going add enoki mushroom to my shopping list.
What fun! I was only talking about hot pot with a friend yesterday. She went to Red n’Hot on Charing X Road for Sichuan hot pot recently.
Spicy fishballs are so delicious. Enoki mushrooms are great, as are shimeji mushrooms. And if you can find tong ho (Chinese vegetables), that’s lovely for hot pot. Don’t forget the XO sauce…
Hi Helen,
I’ve just found your blog and am enjoying it! By coincidence, I just ate at Angeles this Monday and had the Szechuan hot pot. At £20 a person, I thought all that fresh, beautiful food was a steal, and I’m looking forward to returning to try the “regular” Szechuan menu.
Hi R.W. Apple Wannabe!
Thanks for visiting. Just had a quick look at your blog, it seems we share the same tastes! Off to Pearl Liang on Sunday as part of my research into where to eat dim sum. I’ve been writing way too much on dim sum and must stop soon! Maybe switch to hot pot again! Thanks for your Angeles recommendation. There are so many Sichuan restaurants to try!
Keep in touch!
Helen Yuet Ling
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could tell me where i could buy the Yin /Yang pot from in London.
Hi Arti
I don’t use one, as you can see, but I think you can buy the pot from most large Chinese supermarkets (Oriental City in Colindale apparently closes next month, so hurry!, Loon Fung, Wing Yip)?
Good luck and let me know if you’re successful!
Helen Yuet Ling
[...] Hot Pot (火鍋) Jump to Comments Hot pot or steamboat is also known as the chinese fondue. You can read more about Hot Pots in Wikipedia. And more on this world foodie guide blog. [...]
How could you leave this out -
3 tbsp. Fermented bean curd
3 – 4 tbsp peanut butter
dash sesame oil
soy milk (for blending)
Blend into a smooth amazing dipping sauce for hot – pot.
Hmmm, will have to try this next time (in the autumn now, I suppose). Thanks for the tip…
Helen Yuet Ling
Amazing dipping sauce for hot-pot.
3 tbsp. Fermented bean curd
3-4 tbsp peanut butter
dash sesame oil
soy milk (for blending)
Has anyone tried this? Is this good?
Jane – Lynn has clearly tried it! Let me know if you like it…
Helen Yuet Ling
Hi Helen,
I just returned from Shanghai where I experienced my first Sichuan Hot Pot. It was served in a Ying Yang bowl where one side was similar to to what you describe here. The other side was fire hot with red peppers and Sichuan Pepper Corns. The broth was slightly salty, dark reddish brown, and oily. Do you happen to either have a recipe or know where I might obtain one?
Thanks
Von in Sandy, Utah, USA
where do i go in london to eat HOT POT. i had in Honkong once and its amazing..please suggest few places in london
ankita – I have suggested a few places to eat hot pot in London, both in this post and the Sichuan hot pot post. Please have a look!
I was praying for summer to fly by quickly when I was reading your piece on hot pot! Yes, definitely, one of our favs! I have met a family who has this rule that they only put in one type of ingredients one at a time. That sounded rather boring to me. I much prefer the Cantonese method. There is nothing better than a cold, rainy night and having family and friends around the hot pot:)
admin Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Chee Packer – one type of ingredients one at a time?! Well, there is a mini rule about not really eating from the pot while raw meat has just been added. We just wait a couple of minutes before tucking in. It’s a chance to have a quick breather too! I’m looking forward to having more hot pot this winter…