What is Hot Pot?
Hot Pot is a varied and interesting ‘COOK BY YOURSELF’ experience. You choose what to eat and the ingredients are prepared and arrive ready to cook. The common ingredients are meat (mutton, chicken, beef) and fish, plus various types of Tofu, mushrooms, eggs, noodles and vegetables. These are cooked in a ‘soup’ that is heated by gas, electricity or flame.
Meat is prepared by being thinly sliced while frozen. When added to the gently bubbling soup, it cooks in about 30 seconds. Leafy vegetables and thread noodles cook even quicker. However, starchy vegetables, such as potato and taro slices, need a few minutes. Tofu and mushrooms perhaps 2 minutes or so.
Why is Hot Pot popular?
In the winter season, when chilly temperatures and frigid winds prevail over the land, people like to eat food that instantly warms their bodies and lifts their spirits. For that, the hot pot is a delicious and hearty choice. Families or groups of friends sit around a table and eat from a steaming pot in the middle, cooking and drinking and chatting. Eating hot pot is not a passive activity: diners must select morsels of prepared raw food from plates scattered around the table, place the4m in the pot, wait for them to cook, fish them out of the soup, dip them in the preferred sauce, and then eat them hot, fresh, and tender., they can also ladle up the broth from the pot and drink it.
While the cooking is in progress there is some waiting, so the diners may sip a little hard liquor. A togetherness ensues, which soothes their hears. It is cozy, yet informal. It is not a banquet, yet it can take as much time as one. It uses a single pot, yet is varied in ingredients, sauces, and cooking styles.
What is the history of Hot Pot?
The Hot Pot has a long history in China. It originated in the north, where people have to fend off the chill early in the year. It spread to the south during the Tang dynasty (A>D> 618-906). Later, northern nomads who settled in China enhanced the pot with beef and mutton, and southerners did the same with seafood. In the Ching dynasty, the hot pot became popular throughout the whole area of China.
The pot itself is usually ceramic or metal. In the past, charcoal was the fuel of choice. Nowadays people use mostly gas or electricity for this purpose; only the most nostalgic use charcoal. Now, induction burner is very popular for efficiency and speed.
The soup stock is prepared well beforehand and is made by boiling beef, or chicken bones. Meat, seafood, vegetables, tofu, and bean noodles are the most popular ingredients. Freshness commands. Meat should not be cooked too long; otherwise it will lose its tenderness. It is best for the meat to be cut as thin as paper, and that’s why a sizable piece of meat often shrinks to a small bite after being boiled.
What are the kinds of Hot Pot in Canada?
Hot Pot comes in basically two styles - Sichuan and Hong Kong. Both are commonly found in Canada.
Sichuan hotpot involves a sesame paste ‘dip’ made from ground sesame seeds (paste) and sesame oil. The sesame dip is often topped with coriander. Other condiments are also usually available, including garlic, spring onion and chili oil, to add either to the soup or dip.
The other distinction of Sichuan Hotpot is that the soup is often spicy, or half spicy. By ‘half spicy’ is meant a pot divided in two, with a spicy half and a non-spicy half
(Yin-yang) which is ideal if two or more people are to share the pot.
The Hong Kong style Hotpot usually includes seafood, such as shrimp, crab, oysters, clams, squid, cuttlefish, and fish fillet. To make sure the morsels do not drift away or sink to the bottom or hide somewhere, a strainer in which each diner can hold onto his or her delicacies is recommended. Meat, seafood and egg come in ball form.
Popularly used vegetables are cabbage, spinach, turnip, green onions, celery, and lettuce. Lettuce is a special favorite among diners for its tender, crispy, and sweet nature. Fresh vegetables should be boiled only lightly. Mushrooms of various kinds, dried or fresh, are widely used. As are dried lily flowerers. Bean curd and bean noodles serve as more than just fillers. They do not have much taste themselves, but they absorb the richness of the other ingredi9ents. Bean noodles are usually cooked later to help finish up the soup. Some people put rice into the last of the soup to make porridge. Consistent with Chinese culinary thrift, nothing is wasted.
How to make the dip sauces?
Sauces include ingredients of Soya sauce, teriyaki sauce, Shacha sauce, sesame seed paste, garlic and hot pepper. Chili oil and raw egg are usually added to make the dip. However, all the ingredients added to make the sauce dip are mostly a personal preference. Some likes it hot, some likes it mild, while others want to be more creative.