Rejoice the weekend is here! What better way than to celebrate with some hot pot at home? Especially since the weather has suddenly become nasty cold. While I’m no professional, but I have eaten enough at home to be somewhat savvy at it.

There’s a few things that I use at home when we hot pot at home and that’s a portable stove burner, split pot, and hot pot scoop ladles to which all of these can be found at your local Asian supermarket. You will also need a few essentials of ingredients that I find one always needs when hot potting.

Ingredients List:
1 Head of napa cabbage, cut
1 Plate of thinly sliced meat (usually comes in chicken, beef, pork, or lamb)
1 Pack of enoki mushroom, cut and cleaned
1 Pack of tendon meatballs
6 Popping fishballs
1 Box of Tofu, cut
1 Tbsp Soup base
Green Onions
Dipping Sauce

Other Various Ingredients Suggested:
Broccoli, Spinach, Fishballs, Egg Dumplings, Dumplings, Eggs, Frozen Tofu, Kamaboko, Tofu Skin, Tempura, Pork Blood, Tripe, Baby Corn, Corn, Squid Balls, Shrimp, Udon (or any types of noodles).

Next is to select your soup base! Now this comes in a very wide variety from tom yum, miso, mala, pork broth, and the like. Generally at home we go with miso and mala (spicy), both forms can also be found in small tubs at the market. Miso base is a soy based soup, great for vegans and vegetarians while the mala base is a chili spicy soup that literally translates to “numbing spice” from its Chinese definition.

Fill the pot with water and let it come to a boil before putting the soup bases in. One scoop with a tablespoon should do the trick for the perfect balance of a soup base. Stir with a whisk until paste is dissolved. At this point we generally put some vegetables to boil over the fire before we take it over to the burner. Almost ready! For the meat, remember to defrost it before eating. Frozen meat to direct heat usually yields hard and tough meat as opposed to letting it sit and defrost in room temperature.

Prepare dipping sauce before starting to eat! Our personal favorites are (Kikkoman) lemon ponzu and (Mizkan) goma shabu sauce with a dash of chopped green onions. Ponzu typically works very well with lamb meat, it’s tangy and savory with a hint of tartness. It’s a vinegar based and very delicious. Goma sauce on the other hand is made out of ground sesame seeds and complements beef with it’s delicate nutty flavor.

There you have it! The art of hot potting at home! Hope you give this a try at home and let me know how it goes in the comments section! 🙂

See more photos of the stuff we bought for our hot pot dining at home here!