Gather for HOT POT
We break down the essential ingredients you’ll need to host a warm December party
While many people eagerly await roasted turkeys and Sunday roasts during the winter, many Chinese households are looking forward to hot pot, a form of communal dining where people gather around a big pot of boiling broth on a single burner and cook their own meats and vegetables. Think of it as Asian fondue, but rather than dipping cubes of bread in cheese we’re swishing slices of fatty beef in delicious broth. Plenty of restaurants in the GTA specialize in hot pot, but it’s easy to make your own for a party or Sunday dinner. Here’s what you need to get started.
Soup base
Asian grocers sell soup bases containing peanut sauces or hot chilies, but it’s easy to make your own. First timers can keep it simple by simmering a few slices of daikon and Chinese cabbage ( just add to a pot of boiling water and let simmer for 30 minutes). Regional variations in China (not to mention other hot-pot hot spots including Japan, Vietnam and Thailand) have tomatobased broths, herbal blends or soups filled to the brim with mouth-numbing Szechwan peppers. I recommend a light broth. It allows you to taste the food better.
Meats
The popularity of hot pot has led to Asian grocers selling pre-sliced and portioned meats including fatty beef, pork and lamb intended for the communal meal (T&T and the Foody Mart chains have become a one-stop shop for this).
If you can’t find pre-sliced meat, slice a well-marbled cut of rib-eye or chicken breast as thin as possible against the grain. These are essential because they add flavour to the broth and cook in less than a minute: as soon as the meat is no longer red or pink, it’s ready to eat. Try branching out to offal as well: Tripe, tendon, pig intestine, cubes of pigs’ blood, thinly sliced kidneys, livers and beef tongues are popular hot pot ingredients. Tripe and tendons are great at absorbing flavours, so cook them toward the end of your meal when the soup is at its most flavourful.
Meatballs and dumplings
I’m not referring to the meatballs that go with spaghetti or lingonberry sauce. Hot pot meatballs and fishballs have a dense, bouncy texture when you bite into them. It’s always good to have a few of them floating around in the pot, ready to eat while something else is cooking. These and dumplings are available fresh and frozen in the meat sections at Asian grocers.
Seafood
Shrimp, squid, mussels, shucked oysters, scallops, crab and fish such as salmon and bass cut into two-bite chunks are great for hot pot. Store the raw seafood in the refrigerator until it’s time to cook it. Fake crab (surimi) is my guilty pleasure because it’s already cooked and only requires a quick dunk. If you’re in Scarborough, check out Ho Ho Ho Food Products (8 Glen Waterford Dr., Unit 51-52, 416-332-1672) for highly addictive fried fish skins. Eat them like chips, or dip them briefly in the hot broth to slightly soften.
Vegetables
Leafy greens and root vegetables even out the copious amounts of protein you’ll be consuming. Dump handfuls of lettuces, watercress and snow pea shoots into the pot until they wilt, no longer than three minutes so they maintain a bit of their crunch. Bok choy requires an extra minute or two. Cut root vegetables — lotus root, daikon, carrots and potatoes — into inch-thick slices to flavour your broth in the beginning, or slice them into thinner pieces if you want to eat them after a minute or two of cooking. Taro requires less time to cook, and will disintegrate if cooked too long.
Mushrooms
Sliced king oyster mushrooms, shiitakes, hen-of-the-woods (maitake) or whole button mushrooms and little bundles of shimeiji and enoki are ideal to soak up the broth.
Tofu
Opt for firm or extra-firm chunks of tofu so that it doesn’t fall apart in the pot. Tofu puffs and bean curds provide a pleasant chewy texture.
Gluten
Wheat gluten (the main protein in wheat) is tofu’s meatier and more flavourful cousin made from overworked dough — a fun way to taunt your self-diagnosed gluten-intolerant friend.
Noodles
When the broth is this tasty, you have to have some noodles to go with it. Udon, ramen, rice vermicelli and glass noodles are the most common options. Put noodles into the pot for just a minute or two toward the latter stages of your meal when the broth has taken on the flavours of the meaty gristle and fat.
Dipping sauces
Set bottles of soy sauce and sesame oil, as well as jars of peanut sauce, spicy satay sauce, chili paste and hot sauce at the table with a small bowl for each guest to mix their own sauce. Add green onions to your personal bowl or beat a raw egg into your bowl. The egg is supposed to add a silky texture to the sauce, but consume uncooked eggs at your own risk. Make small batches. You can always make more.
How to host a hot pot party
What to wear If you’re planning on having a fancy get-together with cocktail dresses and crisp collared shirts, hot pot is not for you. The smell of boiled meats permeates clothing and lingers long after dinner. So the dress code calls for the casual — or at least take off the blazer and fancy cardigan before sitting down at the table.
Relax
Throwing too much food at a time into the pot drastically lowers the temperature of the broth, which means everything will take longer to cook. Don’t rush. Cook a bit of food at a time, give others room to cook, and keep track of what you put in the pot so an overcooked piece of beef isn’t left swirling at the bottom. If you lose a piece of food at the bottom of the pot, use a small spider strainer to scoop it up rather attempt to fish it out with chopsticks.
Maintain the boil
Keep the broth at a steady boil or simmer or the food won’t cook properly. Have a kettle or pot of hot water ready in the kitchen to top up the broth as the water evaporates during the meal.
Ventilation
Open a window or two when doing hot pot because, one: you’re using a butane burner indoors, and two: the amount of steam from two hours of boiling is sure to cover all your windows and mirrors in a beef-scented fog. Also: close the doors to your bedroom, bathroom and any other room that you don’t want smelling like boiled food.
Leftovers
At the end of the meal, cook any remaining raw meats, let cool to room temperature and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days; same goes for the broth.
Cooking device
You’ll probably find camping stoves near to the tents and sleeping bags at Canadian Tire or Mountain Equipment Co-op. Many households use a butane camp stove for hot pot. At a Chinese supermarket, you’ll find them in the home appliance section next to the rice cookers. They’re relatively cheap ($29.99 at Canadian Tire). Always have spare butane handy in case the flame goes out in the stove. Never open a new can until you’ve completely used up the old one. You can find them at Canadian Tire.
We checked with Toronto Fire Services and it’s OK to use a butane indoors — provided the device is advertised as safe for indoor use and you use some common sense.
That means staying nearby at all times, not putting anything flammable near it and keeping kids out of its reach. Also, read the instruction booklet before you get started and make sure you’ve got a working fire extinguisher within reach.
If you want to be on the safe side, consider an inexpensive electric cook top such as one available through Amazon.
Shallow pot with a lid
A deep stockpot would technically work, but get a shallow pot with a big circumference so that there’s more surface area to keep the soup bubbling. It also prevents food from getting lost at the bottom of the pot and allows more people to cook at the same time. Stovetop-safe casserole dishes would also work. Walmarthas this perfect stainless steel “fondue pot” (well, hot pot is like Asian fondue) with a divider in the middle to accommodate two different kinds of broth ($19.97). It’s only available online.
Two sets of chopsticks
Each guest should have two pairs of chopsticks: one black and one white, or one wooden and one plastic, for example. One set is used for handling the raw meat; the other is for eating cooked food. Head to any Chinese supermarket or kitchen supply store such as Chinatown’s Tap Phong for an assortment of coloured melamine chopsticks sold in sets of 10 for $3.99.
Ladles, spiders, small bowls and strainers
Have one bowl for eating and another smaller bowl for dipping sauces for each guest. A spider is a cooking utensil consisting of a wire mesh basket with a long handle, perfect for straining food from the hot pot (it’s particularly useful when cooking noodles). You can find them in different sizes at Asian supermarkets including T&T or kitchen supply stores in Chinatown. A 3-inch (8 cm) strainer is $1.99 at Tap Phong, 360 Spadina Ave.
Have a small strainer, a ladle and holder (to protect table) for each guest. karon.lui@gmail.com karon.lui@gmail.com