WHAT TO PREPARE FOR YOUR ULTIMATE HOTPOT EXPERIENCE AT HOME

Doing hotpot is a great at-home dining experience, may it be with family or friends. You can be creative and make every hotpot experience unique and special with all different variants of ingredients that you can mix and match.

EQUIPMENT YOU’LL NEED:

BASIC

Portable stove: Can be the electric type or gas type
Pot: Highly recommended to have the one with partition to enjoy two soup flavors at the same time
Chopsticks
Strainer Ladles
Dipping Bowls
Plates

UPGRADE

Specialized portable hotpot cooker set that comes with a burner and pot with partition. Best such as Joyoung Hoptot Induction Cooker.

ALTERNATIVE

If you have an Instant Pot at home, you can set it to “Saute” mode and adjust temperature as needed. Increase temperature if you need to boil the soup and lower down to simmer.
You can also use Saladmaster stock pot and adjust temperature as needed.

SOUP BASE

LIGHT OR CLEAR SOUP BASE

This type of soup base is the most common and this can be achieved by boiling pork bone, chicken, fish or shrimp then optionally throwing in a bit of Dried Shitake Mushroom, Red Dates, Goji Berries, ginger and/or sliced scallions. But if you want a more convenient and fail-proof way, you can opt to save the trouble and purchase readily available soup base produced by renowned brand like Lee Kum Kee and Haidilao (famous hotpot restaurant chain in China). Here’s some of the recommendation you can try:

Haidilao (HDL): Pork Bone, 3-Ingredient, Mushroom
Lee Kum Kee (LKK): Pork Bone, Black Pepper & Pork Bone, Chicken, Drunken Chicken, Fish & Cilantro, Thick Pork Bone

SPICY SOUP BASE

Adding a spicy kick in the soup base adds another layer of flavor. Check HOME-MADE SICHUAN HOTPOT SOUP BASE RECIPE BY THE WOKS OF LIFE for your DIY spicy soup base. For a more hassle-free alternative, you can try:

SATAY SOUP BASE

Another all-time favorite soup base is satay-flavored which is also very popular in Taiwan. To make a satay soup base, you can add spoonful of Bullhead Satay Sauce to your clear soup base or use

LKK Satay or LKK Thick Satay soup base.

SEAFOOD SOUP BASE

For seafood lovers, you can make a broth by boiling shrimp, clams, Dried Scallop and other seafood then optionally add a bit of Dried Shitake Mushroom, Red Dates, Goji Berries, ginger and/or sliced scallions. More easy way, you can use LKK Seafood, LKK Fish & Cilantro.

TOMATO SOUP BASE

One unique and a must try soup base flavor is tomato soup base. It’s also a good choice for vegetarians. It might be a strange choice for a hotpot soup base to many but it’s a popular hotpot choice in China for a reason. Highly recommend to try this out for a new taste of hotpot and shift away from the commonly used flavor. Easiest way to make this is to use

HDL Tomato Soup Base and just add in some water.

HOTPOT INGREDIENTS

There’re unlimited choices of ingredients you can throw into your hotpot. You’ll want to pick a few items from each category to have a balance and diverse hotpot meal. Best to prepare the ingredients in bite sized pieces for quick cooking.

MEAT

For meat category, choose thinly sliced meats for quick cooking. Here’s some pre-sliced meat to consider:

Pork Collar Sukiyaki
American Beef Sukiyaki
Premium Angus Beef Sukiyaki
Australian Beef Slice
Australian Lamb Slice
Sliced Lamb Roll
Chicken Tender
Luncheon Meat (same concept as cooking it in Korean Army Stew)
Sausage

You can also opt to buy meat slab and sliced it thinly. If you prefer this option, a useful tip for easier slicing is to have the meat partially frozen. You can also check out the preparation guide from Made With Lau blog.

For healthier option, you can choose a leaner meat. If you want a tender and juicy meat slices, you’ll want to buy well-marbled meat. Slight fat in meat slices will add umami to every bite of it. You can choose:

Allow meat slices to be cooked in boiling hotpot soup for around 30 seconds to a minute. Overcooked meat slices will result to chewy meat.

Also a good addition to your hotpot ingredient list is raw egg. There’s a multiple use of egg in hotpot. You can beat the egg, then dip the meat slice into the beaten egg before dropping into the soup. Another way, you can also poach the egg in medium heat soup using the ladle.

INNARDS

Offal is a classic hotpot ingredient in China. It is best cooked in Sichuan spicy mala soup base which is abundant in fragrant spices.

SEAFOOD

Here are some basic options you can choose from for seafood category:

Shrimp
Fish Fillet (thinly sliced)
Mussel
Clam
Squid

For a more interesting experience, you can try some of these:

MEAT BALL & SEAFOOD

There’s a lot of variety of ready-made meat ball and fish ball available. It’s also one of the most anticipated ingredients in hotpot. It can be categorized into:

Meat Ball
Fish Ball
Fish Cake
Fish Tofu
Stuffed or with Filling

You should also try freshly made hotpot balls using any from:

This is best experienced using the slider plate you see in hotpot restaurants. Just mold the paste into the plate then use the slider to cut into the paste into bite size and slide it into the hotpot. Alternatively, you can serve it in a ball shape already.

VEGETABLE & MUSHROOM

It’s best to choose a few from each variety of vegetable and mushroom such as:

Root Vegetable: Taro, Radish, Corn, Potato, Lotus Root, Bamboo Shoot
Green & Leafy Vegetable: Bok Choy, Choy Sum, Spinach, Watercress, Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower
Other Vegetable: Pumpkin, Tomato, Okra
Mushroom: Enoki/Golden Mushroom, Brown Shimeji, White Shimeji/White Beech, King oyster, Shitake, Black Fungus

TOFU & BEAN CURD

This is a highly recommended category in hotpot. Soy bean products works like sponge wherein it absorbs the soup flavor adding layer of flavor into it. These just need some reheating so cook it for a few seconds or minute only.

Soft Tofu (put in strainer while cooking to prevent breakage)
Firm Tofu
Bean Curd Skin / Taoapo / Taope
Bean Curd Stick (need to soak first to soften)
Fried Dried Bean Curd
Fried Bean Curd Roll
Youtia / Betso-Betso
Tofu Puff

NOODLE & DUMPLING

For hotpot meal, you can have rice though noodles would be the popular choice for hotpot. Dumplings, wanton and thinly sliced rice cake are also good inclusion for hotpot.

NOODLE

HOTPOT DIPPING SAUCE INGREDIENTS

Part of the fun having hotpot meal is to come up with a perfect concoction of sauces using different condiments and spices. You can have mini sauce bar for customized hotpot dipping sauce. Here are some elements for your mini sauce bar:

Main Sauce: Satay Sauce, Sesame Paste, Peanut Paste/Butter, Light Soy Sauce, Dark Soy Sauce, Black Bean Sauce, Black Vinegar, Oyster Sauce, Hoisin (or Seafood) Sauce, Lao Gan Ma Chili Bean Sauce, Shallot Sauce, XO Sauce
Oil: Sesame Oil, Chili Oil
Others: Sugar, Fermented Bean Curd, Cilantro, Spring Onion, Crushed Peanut, Toasted Sesame Seeds, Salt, Minced Garlic, Red Chili, Green Chili, Chili Flakes, Fried Shallot, Fried Garlic Crisp

For readily available hotpot dipping sauce, there’s Haidilao Peanut Sesame Sauce which is a combination of Peanut Paste, Sesame Paste, Leek Flower Sauce, Sugar, Chicken Bouillon, Salt, Fermented Bean Curd, Oyster Sauce, spices and herbs. If you want to try a bit of Japanese style hotpot, you can try Ponzu Sauce, Sesame Sauce or Yakiniku Sauce.

You can check DIY HOTPOT DIPPING SAUCE RECIPE for some guide on how to mix and match these ingredients to create your own dip.

SIDE DISH

Hotpot meal is a test of patience so better to prepare some side dish that you can chew on while waiting for the hotpot to boil. Some of the side dish that you can see hotpot restaurants offer are:

DRINKS

Of course, don’t forget the refreshments to accompany your hotpot.

Tea (i.e. Oolong Tea, Chrysanthemum Tea)
Fruit Tea (i.e. Lemon Tea, Peach Tea)
Cold Herbal Tea (i.e. Wang Lao Ji, Jia Duo Bao, Grass Jelly Drink) (the best to combo with hotpot)
Juice
Smoothie
Soda
Soy Milk
Beer

DESSERT

To complete the hotpot experience, wrap it up with a sweet dessert like:

Ice Cream
Glutinous Rice Roll with Brown Sugar
Fruit Platter
Almond Jelly
Mango Pudding
White Fungus Dessert Soup
Buchi

That’s it for your complete hotpot guide! Most importantly happy cooking and enjoy your hotpot meal!

LI-AN Hotpot Mart