Hot pot is a popular dish in Vietnam and is enjoyed both at restaurants and at home with family and friends. A delicious hot pot starts with a flavorful broth, and there are many types to choose from. Whether you’re using chicken, seafood, pork ribs, or oxtail, a well-prepared broth is key to a successful hot pot.
To make a tasty broth, start with fresh, high-quality ingredients and apply the right cooking techniques. Each type of broth also requires specific spices and seasonings. For example, when making chicken or pork broth, avoid using head bones as they can make the broth smell unpleasant. Instead, opt for neck bones and tail bones for a sweeter, more aromatic broth. For these broths, it’s best to use only pure chicken or pork bones without adding any sour or sweet flavors, as this will enhance the natural sweetness of the broth.
For a chicken broth, grill some dried onions and ginger, crush them, and add them to the broth along with your preferred seasonings and a bundle of scallions, tomatoes, and pineapple. You can also add a packet of Chinese herbal medicine and soaked mushrooms, as well as chili bean paste. Serve this broth with shepherd’s purse, water spinach, and napa cabbage.
When preparing broths made from cattle, it’s important to include ginger, shallots, galangal, and lemongrass. Beef broth also calls for spices such as star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and dried onions. Grill the onions and ginger until they are cooked but not burnt. The red skin of the dried onions helps to clarify and add color to the broth. Break the cinnamon and cardamom into smaller pieces, and use only the dried yellow seeds from the cardamom pods. Clean and crush these spices, wrap them in a clean cloth, and add them to the broth. A layer of fat is typically left on top of the beef broth to retain heat and capture the aromatic essential oils.
For a mixed ingredient hot pot, you can omit the Chinese herbal medicine and serve it with water spinach, various types of cabbage, and fresh mushrooms.
Seafood hot pot broth calls for pineapple, ginger, lemongrass, celery, and chili bean paste, with the exact proportions depending on your taste preferences. This broth tends to be slightly spicy, sour, and sweet. For a fish hot pot, in addition to pork bones, you can also add fish bones after removing the meat. Unlike other seafood broths, this one does not require grilled lemongrass or ginger, but it should be a bit tarter. Marinate the sliced fish with seasonings, ginger, and lemongrass, and add shepherd’s purse, celery, and chrysanthemum greens when serving.
Cooking Time for Hot Pot Broth
To prepare the broth, first blanch the bones in boiling water, then transfer them to cold water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes to allow any remaining impurities to rise to the surface before skimming them off. Continue simmering the broth over low heat.
The cooking time for each type of broth varies. Chicken and pork broths typically take 4-6 hours, while beef broth requires a longer cooking time of 8-10 hours. For seafood broths, it’s best not to cook them for more than 45 minutes, as they can become cloudy and sour.
To enhance the flavor and clarity of beef broth, especially when using beef shanks, it’s recommended to grill the bones at a high temperature before simmering.
Tips for Clarifying Cloudy Broth
If your broth turns cloudy, there are a few tricks you can try. Add beaten egg whites to the cooled broth and heat it up while stirring continuously. The impurities will cling to the egg whites, which can then be skimmed off. Alternatively, mix minced meat (depending on the type of broth) with egg whites and mushrooms, and add this mixture to the cooled broth.
For cloudy chicken broth, adding more chicken bones and simmering can help clarify and improve the flavor.
There’s nothing quite like gathering around a steaming hot pot on a chilly day, enjoying delicious broth and fresh ingredients while spending quality time with loved ones. We hope these tips help you create flavorful and satisfying hot pot broths that will impress your family and friends!
