Nothing better than a hot steaming soup to gulp down on a cold winter day. And what's better than Chinese Cuisine? Special feature
hot pot from Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Hot Pot, defined by
wikipedia as "several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table." In a simplified way, it is like a oil based fondue, a European popular cuisine with variety of cheese, chocolate, oil, and meat. Hot Pot is mainly spicy and oil based.
Disclaimer: This is NOT the traditional way of cooking hot pot. The traditional way is much more delicate and requires many more tools. This tutorial is an easy fix for people who are homesick or simply want to try something new and easy.
How to make an easy Hot Pot at home:
The most important part is materials, which includes the hot pot base, any kind of meat you want, any kind of vegetables you want. Optional: chicken/beef bouillon cubes, red pepper powder (found from Korean stores usually), Olive Oil (Walmart).
Cookware requires - a rice cooker or a pot, a pair of chopsticks or a ladle
The short version:
1. Put base in the pot.
2. put all kinds of stuff you want to eat in the pot.
3. Add water to emerge all.
4. Cook
at least 30 minutes. (you can cook as long as you want, but no shorter than 30 minutes) I have once cooked this for like three days, I just kept adding stuff, until I was tired of the flavor. It is surprising how lazy people can get.
5. Done.
The long version:
Hot Pot Base:
I used something like this found from the local Hong Kong market. Easy to make, and the flavors are pretty good. Of course, if you are going for the grand appeal of authenticity, you might want to find this brand called "Hai Di Lao," (海底捞）, which is the most popular hot pot base right now. However, resources are scarce in the US.
(Hai Di Lao Base)
1. I fry the base a little bit in a pan first with a little of olive oil to simmer the pepper spice out. If you wanted to go all the way, (which I did), have some olive oil in the pan first, heat up to medium high, and put red pepper powder down, and instantly, the oil will simmer and fry the pepper to this unbelievably lovely spicy pepper smell. Please note, don't use Pam spray, it is not enough oil.
2. After the base is a little fried, transfer it into a rice cooker or a pot. Rice cookers are easier, press "cook" and it will just cook for you. No fire, no hassle. No need to stand over it and stare while it cooks. This works very well for me. A pot is good also. Make sure put the fire on medium (or medium high before boiling).
3. Find all the ingredients you want to put in hot pot. Usually, it is EVERYTHING. However, here are some tips I follow.
(1). Don't put potatoes in until you are ready, they only cook for about 20 minutes, and they will melt into nothing if you cook it for an hour.
(2). Don't put greens in until you are almost finished. Greens will suck all the spice and flavor out of the hot pot, which will taste good. But it will ruin your base afterwards because whatever you put after the greens is not going to be as tasty.
(3). Put noodles as the LAST item, they will expand and take up the whole pot. It should be the last thing to put in, if you wanted it.
(4). Ribs usually takes more than 1 hour if it is raw. If you don't like to wait, cook the ribs in room temperature water first, bring it to a boil and cook at least 30 minutes afterwards. If you like the "fall off the bone" effect, cook at least 1 hour on medium high.
(5). Ground stuff doesn't work well free styling in a pot. So no ground pork, ground beef, unless you know how to make meat balls.
(6). Mushrooms always go with everything
(7). Tofu needs to be the fried kind, not the soft baby skin kind from Walmart.
(8). Sausages are ALWAYS so good by itself, and even better in the hot pot.
(9). I found fish balls from Korean and Japanese market very good with the hot pot also.
4. Put all the ingredients into the pot, and add water to emerge all the goodies. Press cook on rice cooker. Or if you are using a pot, put the fire as high when trying to bring it to a boil. Then turn it down to medium high and remains the boiling for at least 30 minutes. Usually, in the authentic process of Hot Pot making, we add chicken stock instead of water. If I feel fancy one day, I shall follow the instructions exactly. Make sure to taste the soup before eating to see if it is salty enough. Sometimes adding one or two chicken or beef bouillon cubes will make it even better.
5. Wait for 30 minutes after boil - DONE!
Nagging: usually hot pots are cooked differently than the instruction above. However, the instructions above does not require supreme cooking skills, and does not require precise timing and temperature. It is much easier to make. Real hot pot will taste different if you ever go to China. They are served with "oil dish" to tame down the spice. It is usually a social dinner and will last more than 3-4 hours, with drinking. Please don't go to Beijing and say you've eaten authentic Hot Pot. Chengdu is where hot pot originated. There are many places in Chengdu that has great hot pot. They are usually restaurants dedicated to hot pot only. Chengdu is also the ONLY city in the world that has Pandas, the last city before you go up to Tibet, and voted "the leisure city" of China. Please refer back to food channel and Andrew Zimmern (
Chengdu episode) for more information.
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