Hot Pot — the Ultimate Meal to Bring Your Crew Together
“Lunar New Year is all about reunion and gathering with family and friends, new beginnings with plentiful food, prosperity, and joy,” says Judy Yao, Wulf’s Director of E-commerce. “In Mandarin, a hot pot meal during the holiday is also called 圍爐 ‘wéi lú’ which literally translates to gather around the stove, symbolizing reunion.”
The only other things you need for a hot pot party are a pot, water, some veggies and noodles of your choice (optional), and your favorite dipping sauces.
For seafood, we recommend flounder, lobster, shrimp, squid, and use green crabs for building a flavorful broth.
How To Hot Pot
The Setup
- A pot! Deep enough for about 6 qts of liquid but not so deep that it’s hard to fish food out
- Pots that work: Dutch oven, Bouillabaisse Pot, braiser
- Traditional: split pot that allows for two kinds of broth (usually 1 spicy, 1 non-spicy)
- Heat Source: For an authentic hotpot experience, you need the pot and heat source at the center of the table, so everyone can access cooking the ingredients and fishing out the food, so a portable stove (butane or induction) works best.
The Broth
For a simple, yet flavorful broth (6-8 qts)
- Start with stock of your choosing, we recommend our green crab stock to start (recipe link), but water will do since hotpot broth builds flavor as we cook our ingredients. You can always add a few crabs to the pot for a flavor jump start. Cut them in half with kitchen shears to let the fat and flavor out quickly and throw the whole crabs in.
- 3-4 slices of fresh ginger root
- 2 whole scallions cut into 2 inch pieces
- ½ cup of sliced shiitake mushrooms (fresh or rehydrated from dry)
- Tomato, quartered (optional)
- Corn on the cob in 2 inch pieces (optional)
- 1 Daikon radish peeled and cut into half inch slices (optional)
Note: The tomato, corn, and daikon are optional but highly recommended to add depth and sweetness to the broth. You can also easily find prepared hot pot soup bases in Asian markets.
Nifty Tools
- Ladle: for enjoying the flavorful soup.
- Skimmer/ handled strainers/slotted spoons: for scooping up cooked ingredients
- Chopsticks: designate a pair of chopsticks for handling raw meats vs. seafood vs veggies.
- Tongs: this helps pick up individual ingredients one might be looking for.
Dipping Sauces
Hot pot dipping sauces are highly important and very subjective. The best way is to assemble a little sauce station so everyone can concoct their personalized sauce.
Here’s an easy guide that we love from Woks of Life for your base sauces, and other ingredients to spice things up. There are no rules here!
Ingredients
- Your Wulf’s seafood
- Veggies like bok choy, spinach, watercress, nappa cabbage, mushrooms (enoki, shiitake, oyster and popular varieties)
- Something starchy like udon noodles, ramen noodles, glass noodles and/or have rice on the side
- For the carnivores around the table, you can source thinly sliced meats at your local Asian grocer
- Honestly, there are no rules, so if you have a favorite ingredient, include it in your spread!
The Process
- Cut larger ingredients into bite sized pieces. For the blackblack flounder, slice into 2-inch pieces for ease of handling in the broth.
- Assemble your broth ingredients in the pot and bring to a boil.
- Put an assortment of ingredients for dipping sauces on the table for guests to blend their own in individual sauce bowls.
- When the broth boils, turn the heat down to a light simmer and start adding the ingredients. You don’t have to add everything at once; add a little bit as you go - think of it as a cook-as-you-eat process.
- All food should cook within 2-3 minutes. Once the ingredients are done cooking, you can scoop them out with a slotted spoon, skimmer or pick them out with chopsticks or tongs.
- Dip the cooked food in your sauce, combine it with rice or noodles if you’d like, and enjoy!
