how to hot-pot

When the weather is hot, and the humidity is high, the thought of slaving over a hot stove is somewhat less than appealing. Unless, of course, everyone else is too. And unless that hot stove is sitting in the middle of the table and contains a pot full of boiling stock in which you can dunk whatever you wish. Then it's just tummy filling fun :)


For those of you wanting to hot-pot (or "steamboat" as my family calls it) at home, you'll need a couple of basics.

1. A portable stove top (preferably gas) on which to cook.

2. A pot, in which to cook. (Ours has a special vent in the middle to keep everything as hot as possible but with minimum energy!)

3. Stock, which goes into the pot. (Or water. We normally use a watered down stock from a previous day's soup).

4. Stuff to eat! Ours (below) come from a combination of asian grocers, an afternoon's wonton making and assorted cans (whilst tinned nushrooms aren't so good straight from the tin, they are once hot-potted).

wontons, beef & noodles

lettuce, prawns & seafood balls

5. When the water's boiling, dump the frozen items in and wait for them to float (which signals their cooked-ness). Swish thinly sliced bits of raw meat around in the boiling stock to cook them - these only need a couple of seconds. And... VOILA!

And just to beef it up a little, because this how-to is fairly lacking in how-to, some photos from the Chinese New Year festival that was held at Chatswood some weeks ago.