Chinese Hot Pot (Base + Dipping Sauces) - Seasonal Recipe

Chinese Hot Pot (Base + Dipping Sauces)

🌍 Seasonal, Winter Difficulty: ●●●○○

Hot pot traces to nomadic Mongolian cooking, where riders cooked meat in their helmets; the format spread through China and evolved regionally, with Chongqing's mouth-numbing Sichuan style emerging as the globally recognised standard.

Ingredients

• 1.5 litres (6 cups) chicken or beef stock
• 3 tbsp doubanjiang (spicy bean paste)
• 2 tbsp chilli oil
• 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
• 4 dried whole chillies
• 4 slices fresh ginger
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 3 star anise
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1.5 litres chicken stock
• 4 slices ginger
• 4 green onions
• 2 tbsp rice wine
• Light seasoning with salt
• 3 tbsp tahini or peanut butter
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp chilli oil
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 tsp sugar
• Warm water to thin
• Thinly sliced beef (ribeye or chuck roll, semi-frozen for easy slicing)
• Thinly sliced lamb
• Peeled shrimp/shrimp
• Tofu, firm and silken
• Mushrooms: enoki, shiitake, king oyster
• Napa cabbage, thinly sliced
• Bok choy
• Glass noodles or rice noodles
• Corn on the cob, cut into rounds
• Lotus root, sliced thin
• Fish balls, shrimp balls

Method

1. Making — Make spicy broth: fry doubanjiang in a pot with a little oil until fragrant, 3 minutes. Add remaining broth ingredients; simmer 20 minutes. Strain if desired; adjust seasoning.
2. Making — Make master stock: combine all ingredients; simmer 10–15 minutes.
3. Making — Make dipping sauce: whisk all ingredients, adding water until pourable. Adjust seasoning. Divide into individual bowls.
4. Setting — Set up a portable induction burner or hot pot cooker at the table. Pour broths into a divided pot or use two pots.
5. Step 5 — Bring to a gentle boil. Each diner cooks their own ingredients in the broth with chopsticks or a wire basket — thin meats in 30 seconds, vegetables in 1–3 minutes, noodles per packet instructions.
6. Dipping — Dip cooked morsels in sauce. Add seasoning to broth as needed throughout the meal.

Tags: litres chicken or beef stock, doubanjiang, chilli oil, sichuan peppercorns, whole chillies · Source: Brittani's Almanac