Hot-pot recipes please!

February 24, 2006 4:19 PM

Recipes for our new hotpot?

We just bought a table-top hot pot, basically an electric pot that lets you cook soups or stews on the table. We got it for cooking korean dukboki, but we'd like to have a few more recipes to try out on it. We're very adventurous and have access to most possible ingredients. Any suggestions?

posted by nprigoda to food & drink (8 comments total)

Spaghetti.

Seriously, make a standard spaghetti sauce... then let it simmer away for a day or two. You'll be amazed. Same goes for chili, but up it to a day or three.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 4:48 PM on February 24, 2006

Carmelized onions: a pound of chopped onions, some butter, a dash of basalmic vinnegar. Cook on low for 12 hours. Great with pierogis, or as a side vegetable with chicken or meat.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:54 PM on February 24, 2006

Shabu shabu is really fun -- get a bunch of people together, slice up some vegetables and beef, and let everyone cook what they like in the simmering soup. Afterwards, you can all drink the broth.
posted by vorfeed at 4:55 PM on February 24, 2006

Thanks for the suggestions so far, however, the hot-pot is for cooking while everyone is at the table, and doesn't function as a slow cooker. Vorfeed is on the right track. I will certainly try the slow cooker recipes soon!
posted by nprigoda at 5:00 PM on February 24, 2006

A friend had some people over for something called hot pot Huoguo last week. I'm not sure how he prepared the ingredients, but I googled the word and this recipe seems exactly like what he did. He didn't have beef, pork, turkey, or lamb, like the recipe says - he used chicken, shrimp, some kind of white fish, tofu, some kind of egg (it was fluffy like an omelette but held together well like Egg Foo Yong) and scallops. Everyone went nuts over it.
posted by iconomy at 5:21 PM on February 24, 2006

Head down to Chinatown and get a bunch of bamboo chopsticks and wire ladles.

I'm pretty sure there're places (try the big supermarkets) that sell either pre-mixed soup or dried soup, but you can just go with chicken broth. If you have dried curry, you can add some in, too.

There are stores that will sell pre-sliced (ie., really really thin) meats (beef, lamb, &c). Chopstick them into the pot, ladle it out - it should only take a few seconds to cook.

While you're in Chinatown, get some fresh (ie., live) "big-headed prawns." Awesome.

If you like cuttlefish/squid, cut into pieces about the size of two woman's fingers side-by-side. Crosshatch the back (the bulging side) with a knife, about halfway deep.

Fresh Chinese/Shitake mushrooms are good, as are enoki (they look like a bundle of really tall & skinny mushrooms), straw, or oyster.

Other vegetables will work, romaine lettuce, gai-lan, bak-choi, &c.

You should also be able to get stuff like beef-balls, pork-balls, squid-balls, fish-balls, octopus-balls, 1/2squid-1/2octo-balls, &c. Cut in half, boil until they float.

You can infuse light soy-sauce with sliced jalapeno peppers, add a little sesame oil. Dip your freshly cooked pieces of meat in this mixture.

Alternatively, you can crack a raw egg and dip your cooked meat in that.

At the end, the left-over liquid is rich rich rich. You can buy fresh shanghai (thick) noodles at the supermarket. Cook/reheat the noodles in the broth and eat both (broth + noodles). You can substitute other noodles (like, vermicheli).

Hot-pot, Chinese-style, can be either an intimate thing between two people and candles, or a raucus affair with a roomful of people drinking beer.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 5:31 PM on February 24, 2006

Huoguo is what our family does - put chicken or vegetable broth in the hot pot to boil, toss in veggies, clear noodles, tofu, and then slice up raw meats to dip and cook in the soup.

The sauce is my favorite - crack a raw egg in a bowl, beat with sa tsa chang - a chinese barbecue sauce, soy sauce, (optional) and chopped scallions. Once you're done cooking the meat, dip into the sauce as is (it's not cooked, so this is probably not for you if you're squicked out by raw eggs) and enjoy. My favorite food from home.
posted by cajo at 5:33 PM on February 24, 2006

iconomy - those fish eggs are fish eggs; they're the roe from a certain female fish; when you buy it it'll look like a washed-out spleen (yellow-white, spleen-shaped).

Those are good for hotpot, but you can also fry it on a skillet, cut into strips, and fry with scrambled egg. Good stuff.

Also, for hotpot, there are some wierd vegetarian "bundles." Looks like vermicelli but twisted up like a really small ball of yarn. The texture is a lot stronger than vermicelli, but they're great for hotpot; the geometry is ideal for soaking up the tasty broth/dip.

You can also crack a whole egg into the hotpot and get yourself a poached egg. Leave in less long for runny yolk, longer for hard yolk.

Scallops are good, and they cook very very quickly. Clams/mussles are ok, but the shell is unwieldly and they're hard to get out of their shells when they're still raw.

While you're in Chinatown, get some "tofu puffs" - these are deep-fried tofu; the outer crust is kinda tough and deep-fat-fried-looking, while the inside is fluffy and light. Cut these in half, and wave around in the boiling broth for a couple of seconds and it's good. While you're in the tofu section, see if there are any deep-fried "stinky" tofu. Not for hotpot, and smelly, but ok-so-good (especially the ones with a hint of spice dusted on the outside).

Chicken hearts are also good, although I like roasting them better. Giblets are good too. Avoid livers - they'll break up and "pollute" your broth. So if you go with liver, wait until the very end. Cow stomache is good (the light-coloured kind with the little "dots" on them) - but you'll have to leave them in there for a good long while unless they were treated before you buy them.

If you're going for broke, maybe get a geoduck. You can have the fishmonger prepare it for you. Geoduck will cook in a couple of seconds (don't leave in too long). Ditto for abalone (although, arguably, there are better ways of preparing and eating abalone... and geoduck for that matter).
posted by PurplePorpoise at 5:42 PM on February 24, 2006