Chinese Hot Pot (火锅 Huo Guo)
My guide to having hot pot at home. It's great for gatherings and holidays!
- Prep time
- 55 min
- Cook time
- 5 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- soup base
- thinly sliced fatty beef slices
- thinly sliced lamb meat
- thinly sliced pork belly
- beef balls
- assorted fish balls
- shrimp paste or balls
- fish tofu or fish cakes
- fresh clams and mussels
- fish fillet (cut diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices)
- raw shrimp (peeled and de-veined)
- napa cabbage leaves
- Shanghai baby bok choy
- yellow potato
- dried shiitake mushrooms
- fresh mushrooms
- quail eggs
- eggs
- tofu
- sweet potato vermicelli
- 2 tablespoons Sha-Cha Chinese Barbecue Sauce (沙茶酱)
- 1 teaspoon creamy peanut butter (花生酱)
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Chinese black (Chinkiang) vinegar (optional)
- 1 teaspoon chili crisps or sauce (optional)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic or garlic paste (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon fermented bean curd (腐乳) (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Soup base: for a tomato flavored hot pot soup base, follow my recipe in Hot Pot Soup Base (Tomato Flavor). For a simple homemade pork bone stock or chicken stock soup base, simmer the stock with some slices of ginger and chopped green onions for 20 minutes in a hot pot pan or sauce pan . Then add some goji berries, a splash of ground white pepper, and salt to taste. There are also store bought soup base options if you are pressed for time.
- 2
Ingredients: neatly lay ingredients on plates according to their categories. For seafood—like fish balls, fish cakes, fish tofu, and shrimp balls—you do not need to thaw it before hand. Only rinse and separate them into individual pieces. For vegetables, wash and cut according to the recommendations in the ingredients section.
- 3
Dipping Sauce: mix 2 tablespoons of Chinese barbecue sauce with 1 teaspoon of creamy peanut butter, and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil. For optional added flavors, add ½ teaspoon of Chinese black (Chinkiang) vinegar, 1 teaspoon of chili crisps or sauce, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic or garlic paste, and/or ½ teaspoon of fermented bean curd.
- 4
Center the hot pot on the table. If you have a countertop butane stove, put the pot with the soup base directly on top of the countertop butane stove. If you have an electric hot pot, prepare the soup base first on the stove then add it to the electric hot pot. Surround the hot pot with the plates of prepared ingredients. When the soup base in the hot pot starts bubbling, add a few ingredients from each category (or whichever you prefer to eat first) to the hot pot. The meat and seafood (like raw shrimp and fish fillets) become edible when they change color, which takes very little time. Ingredients like beef/fish/shrimp balls and fish tofu become edible when they float on top. Most vegetables do not require much cooking time. There are, of course, exceptions like potato and pumpkin. Tofu can either be cooked for a short period or for a long time based on personal preferences. Dip the cooked ingredients in the prepared dipping sauce and enjoy your hot pot! You can also serve yourself a bowl of the soup, straight from the pot, either at the beginning or towards the end. Note that the soup does tend to become more salty as more ingredients are cooked over the course of your meal.