Hot Pot

Ingredients

Mala broth base

• 150 gbeef tallow
• 80 mlrapeseed oil
• 120 gPixian doubanjiang (fermented broad bean chilli paste)
• 40 gdried chillies (erjingtiao and facing-heaven), soaked 10 min and roughly chopped
• 25 gSichuan peppercorns, red and green
• 30 gfermented black beans, rinsed
• 1thumb ginger, sliced
• 1 headgarlic, cloves crushed
• 2star anise, 1 tsp fennel seed, 2 bay leaves, 1 small piece cassia, 3 sand ginger slices, 2 tsp cumin seed
• 30 grock sugar
• 60 mlShaoxing wine

The pot

• 2 litresbone or vegetable stock
• 1 litrewater
• 1tomato, quartered, and 4 jujubes (for the mild side of a yuanyang divided pot)
• 1 handfulgoji berries

To cook at the table

• 300 gbeef short plate, sliced paper-thin (frozen 40 min, then sliced)
• 200 glamb shoulder, paper-thin
• 200 ghoneycomb tripe, cleaned and cut in strips
• 200 gfresh shrimp, shell on
• 300 gfirm and frozen tofu, cubed
• 300 glotus root, potato and daikon, thinly sliced
• 300 gleafy greens, enoki and wood ear
• 200 gsweet potato noodles, soaked

Dipping sauce, Chongqing style

• 4 tbsptoasted sesame oil per person
• 3garlic cloves, crushed to a paste
• 1 tbspchopped coriander and spring onion
• 1 tspoyster sauce, salt to taste

Directions

1. Render the beef tallow with the rapeseed oil in a heavy wok over low heat until liquid and clear, about 5 minutes; the tallow is what makes the broth cling to everything you dip.
2. Fry the ginger, garlic and whole spices in the fat over low heat for 8–10 minutes until fragrant and lightly coloured, keeping the heat gentle so nothing burns bitter.
3. Add the doubanjiang and soaked chillies and fry very slowly for 20–30 minutes, stirring often, until the fat turns deep brick red and the paste smells sweet and toasty rather than raw.
4. Stir in the black beans, rock sugar and Shaoxing wine and cook 5 minutes more, then let the base cool; this cooled block of chilli fat is the base you can freeze in portions.
5. Melt the base into the stock and water in the hot pot, bring to the boil and simmer 20 minutes so it becomes one broth. For a yuanyang pot, fill the other half with stock, tomato, jujubes and goji.
6. Set the pot over a table burner and keep it at a steady rolling simmer throughout the meal; a dying flame is the most common hot pot failure.
7. Have each diner mix their own dipping bowl of sesame oil, garlic, coriander and spring onion, which cools the mala burn and stops the chilli oil stripping your palate.
8. Cook in order: dense items first (tripe, lotus root, potato, daikon) for several minutes, then thin meat, swished 8–15 seconds only until it just loses its red, then shrimp and tofu, and leaves and noodles last.
9. Finish the meal by cooking the noodles in the now deeply flavoured broth, and drink a spoonful of it if you can still taste anything.

Technique

• Mala is two sensations: la (chilli heat) and ma (the tingling numbness of Sichuan peppercorn). Buy peppercorns fresh, from a shop with turnover; stale ones are just dusty and sour.
• Chongqing hot pot is traditionally ‘old oil’, with the tallow strained and reused; at home make a fresh base and freeze it in blocks instead.
• Thin meat is done in seconds. Leaving it in until it curls hard is the sign of a beginner and ruins both the meat and the broth.

Substitutions

• For a vegetarian pot, replace the beef tallow with rapeseed oil and use mushroom stock; keep the doubanjiang and peppercorns and it still tastes Sichuan.
• Doubanjiang from Pixian is worth seeking out; a generic chilli bean paste is saltier and thinner, so use less and add a spoon of miso for depth.

Variations

• Beijing shuan yang rou is the opposite school: a plain broth with ginger and jujube in a brass chimney pot, lamb only, dipped in sesame paste sauce.
• Yunnan wild mushroom hot pot and Chaoshan beef hot pot are both clear-broth traditions built entirely on ingredient quality.

History

Chongqing dockworkers on the Jialing River cooked cheap offal in spiced ox-fat broth in the 1920s, spreading numbing mala hotpot nationwide.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hot Pot?

Hot Pot is a main from China: communal bubbling broth, often Sichuan-spicy, for cooking sliced meats, tofu and vegetables. Chongqing dockworkers on the Jialing River cooked cheap offal in spiced ox-fat broth in the 1920s, spreading numbing mala hotpot nationwide.

How long does Hot Pot take to make?

Hot Pot takes 40 min of preparation and 1 hr for the base, then cooked at the table of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Hot Pot?

Yes, within limits. For a vegetarian pot, replace the beef tallow with rapeseed oil and use mushroom stock; keep the doubanjiang and peppercorns and it still tastes Sichuan. Doubanjiang from Pixian is worth seeking out; a generic chilli bean paste is saltier and thinner, so use less and add a spoon of miso for depth.

What is the most important thing to get right in Hot Pot?

Add the doubanjiang and soaked chillies and fry very slowly for 20–30 minutes, stirring often, until the fat turns deep brick red and the paste smells sweet and toasty rather than raw.