Foodie Lass Creating the Ultimate Meal for Gathering and Feasting
A New Year and a new style of cooking! Everyone Hot Pot will give the reader an opportunity to try out this ancient Chinese style of cooking. You don’t have to be an experienced cook to really enjoy this way of cooking.
Natasha explains in great detail all you need to know about hot pot and provides over 50 recipes for you to choose from, enabling you to produce superb meals that are just perfect for get togethers or sharing food.
Hot pot consists of the cookery method of rapidly poaching small pieces of fresh vegetables, meats, seafood, and tofu in a broth. This style of cooking is perfect for sharing and cooking food with friends in a relaxed atmosphere.
Here are some ideas of hot-pot heat sources and what you require – do keep it simple!
Chimney Hot Pot
Electric Hot Pot
Induction Cooktop
Camping stove.
All of the above are easily available from many retail outlets.
Everyone Hotpot cookery book contains a great amount of information on getting you started with this global style of cooking – from buying ingredients, setting up your store-cupboard, to even choosing your décor.
Here is a delightful recipe to start your introduction to Hot Pot cooking:
Charred Tomato and Lemongrass Broth
Craving a delicious hot meal after a long day? This broth, full of bright, jumpy acidic notes and a low, sweet, smoky char, is perfect for sipping outdoors under the bright sun. Lemongrass adds a citrusy tang: at Asian grocery stores, you can usually find the stalks both fresh and frozen, or processed into powders, teas, and paste (you’ll need about 1 tablespoon of paste or 2 tablespoons of dried lemongrass for every 2 quarts/1.9 L of water). Instead of charring fresh tomatoes yourself, look for fire-roasted canned varieties—they’re just as delicious.
MAKES 2 QUARTS (1.9 L)
1 white onion, halved
One 14.5-ounce (410 g) can fire-roasted tomatoes
2 quarts (1.9 L) filtered water
One 2-inch (5 cm) piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into ¼-inch-thick (0.6 cm) rounds
Four 6-inch (15 cm) lemongrass stalks, halved lengthwise
2 celery stalks
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
6 Thai chiles or 1 teaspoon ground gochugaru chile flakes, plus more for garnish (see Tip)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Juice of 1 lime
1 beefsteak or heirloom tomato, for garnish
Heat a large pot over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Place the onion halves, cut side down, in the pot and let sizzle, untouched, until they are blackened, 5 minutes.
While the onion halves are charring, puree the canned tomatoes with an immersion or table top blender until smooth.
Add the tomato puree and water to the pot, along with the sliced ginger, lemongrass, celery, olive oil, tomato paste, Thai chiles, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to very low, cover, and let barely simmer, until slightly reduced and the onion and celery are translucent and supersoft, 2 to 3 hours.
Remove the pot from the heat and strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve, discarding the solids. Stir in the lime juice.
Use the broth immediately or store in an airtight container. It will keep for 1 week in the refrigerator or for up to 2 months in the freezer.
To prepare for hot pot, warm the broth, if needed, and then transfer to the hot pot topper. Slice the tomato into rounds about ¼ inch (0.6 cm) thick. Drop the slices into the broth, like lily pads, and add a few fresh Thai chiles.
Variations
To prepare for hot pot, warm the broth, if needed, and then transfer to the hot pot topper. Slice the tomato into rounds about ¼ inch (0.6 cm) thick. Drop the slices into the broth, like lily pads, and add a few fresh Thai chiles.
For extra-rich creaminess, whisk one 8-ounce (226 g) can of full-fat, unsweetened coconut milk into the warm broth, along with the lime juice, then transfer to your hot pot topper.
Lacto-fermented condiments are a powerful “secret” ingredient for many Asian soups, adding tangy complexity and depth. For an extra punchy, sour note, add ¼ cup of whey, chopped sauerkraut or kimchi, a teaspoon of hot sauce, or a tablespoon of dark miso paste to the broth.
HOT (POT) TIP: Thai chile, a small, spicy pepper that turns from green to red as it ripens, can be found in many Asian grocery stores. Keep a surplus in the refrigerator for perking up broth, slicing thinly into simple dipping sauces, or jazzing up pickle brines.
Everyone Hot Pot cookery book evokes the ideology that whereever you are in the
world you can cook up a sharing meal for a group of friends. There are so many variations of cooking styles for hot pot that there is a recipe to suit all tastes.
I hope you take this opportunity to add Everyone Hot Pot to your cookery book list for this coming year – available from all the usual book outlets.
Everyone Hot Pot is published by Artisan, an imprint of Workman Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. : Recipe – “Excerpted from Everyone Hot Pot by Natasha Pickowicz (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2026. Photographs by Alex Lau and illustrations by Li Huai.”
