Mention a hotpot to a European and no doubt thoughts turn to a slow-cooked casserole. Speak to someone from Asia and it’s a broth in which one speedily cooks ingredients at the table. Either way, that pot is as much a symbol of home as the hearth on which it cooks: you gather around and eat your fill. If home cooking needed an emoji, it’d be the steaming, cast-iron casserole.
Of course, the slow-cooked dish that many Brits instantly conjure is the Lancashire hotpot. There are plenty of examples of the perfect recipe, so forgive me for excluding it here to explore the other possibilities this simplest of concepts – a meal in a pot – offers.
The winning recipe: Oxtail hotpot calypso (pictured above)
This Caribbean special has seriously undermined my resolve to eat as little meat as possible. I enjoyed first a mouthful, then another, then a bowlful. The long, slow cook that Cheryl Dudt suggested in her intro resulted in something truly wonderful. Depending on the size of your plantain, I reckon this would feed a good deal more than 4, but having more than you can eat in one sitting is no bad thing when you’re talking about a dish that only gains in depth of flavour with each passing day.
Serves 4-6
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp dripping or butter
4 large oxtail pieces, excess fat trimmed
3 tbsp dark brown sugar or black treacle
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 celery sticks, washed and chopped
2 carrots, scraped, washed and sliced
A wedge of pumpkin, with skin, washed and sliced
2 plantains or green bananas, including skins, washed and sliced
500ml stout
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400g tin kidney beans
½-1 scotch bonnet chilli, deseeded if preferred, finely chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 beef stock cube
1 tsp English mustard
2 bay leaves
1 sprig fresh thyme
Salt and black pepper
A handful of okra (lady’s fingers), washed, topped, tailed and chopped
1 Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Heat oil and fat or butter in a large pan on a medium-high heat to almost smoking. Sear the oxtail pieces, turning quickly till brown all over.
2 Remove from the heat. Put the sugar or black treacle in a casserole dish and roll the oxtail pieces in it.
3 Add the onion to the frying pan for a few minutes, until soft and golden, then spoon it over the meat.
4 Reduce the heat on your frying pan to low-medium, then add the celery, carrots, pumpkin and plantains, turning to colour them as necessary. Add the chilli and garlic for the last 1-2 minutes.
5 Remove from the heat and spoon everything into the casserole dish, season with salt and pepper, then mix thoroughly.
6 Pour the stout into the frying pan to mix with the remaining juices, then add the tomatoes and beans to the pan.
7 Dissolve the beef stock cube and mustard in half a cup of boiling water, add the bay leaves and thyme, then leave them to infuse for a few minutes. Pour the stock into the frying pan. Bring to a simmer, then pour into the casserole dish.
8 Taste and adjust the seasoning as required, then top with the okra.
9 Put the casserole in the oven for 45 minutes, then turn down the heat to 150C/300F/gas mark 2 for 3 hours. When the meat is cooked through and tender, serve.
Miso, garlic and kimchi nabe
Nabe hotpots are a steadfast winter staple in my half-Japanese household – easy and flavoursome, and endlessly adaptable. The first time you have one, there’s a 90% chance the Japanese person prepping it for you will explain that you can put anything in it, even smelly socks. Anna Thomson’s version here combines miso with Korean flavours so often used with pork, but that here sit beautifully with seafood.
Serves 4-6
2 blocks of tofu, cut into large chunks
Any finely sliced meat, fish or seafood (prawns, scallops, cod loin)
½ chinese leaf cabbage, first cut into quarters lengthways, then cut again into thick slices
1 bunch of spinach, or other green leaf, such as mizuna or kale
2 leeks, washed and cut in 3cm chunks diagonally
6-8 shiitake mushrooms, or other Asian mushrooms, such as oyster or enoki
1 carrot, cut into slices diagonally
360g bean sprouts, washed
1-2 servings of harusame (thin rice noodles)
For the broth
1.2 litres dashi stock, made from dried konbu and bonito flakes/instant dashi powder/meat, fish or vegetable stock)
4 tbsp miso paste
100g kimchi, or chilli paste/fresh chillies
2-3 garlic cloves, grated
A dash of sesame oil
1 First, make the broth. Fill your stock pot or nabe crock pot three-quarters full with dashi stock and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, then mix in the miso paste and add the kimchi to taste (depending on how hot you want it).
2 Add the tofu and vegetables (and meat or fish, if using). Arrange your ingredients in groups around the pot, rather than mixing them up.
3 Cover and raise to a medium heat, then simmer until bubbling and all the ingredients are cooked.
4 Add the grated garlic and a dash of sesame oil just before serving. Add more kimchi to your bowl before serving, if you like it spicy.
Vegan shepherd’s pie hotpot
The Whole Ingredient’s take on the trad British hotpot is as meaty as vegan fare gets. As last week’s vegan pesto proved, nutritional yeast is where it’s at.
Serves 4
2 tsp olive oil
1 red onion
6 garlic cloves
250g chestnut mushrooms
1 small carrot
15g fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp each of smoked paprika, ground cinnamon and coriander seeds
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
125ml red wine
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp tamari/soy sauce (or a handful of olives)
2 tbsp tomato puree
400g tin chopped tomatoes, plus ¼ of the tin’s water
600g potatoes
400g tin puy lentils (drained weight 240g), rinsed
250g spinach
Black pepper, to season
Nutritional yeast, to season
1 Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Put a casserole on the hob and heat the oil on a moderate to high heat. Chop the onion, garlic, mushrooms, carrot and rosemary leaves and add these to the oil, stirring. Leave to saute for 5 minutes, or until the onions soften.
2 Stir in the chilli flakes, smoked paprika, cinnamon, coriander seeds and pumpkin seeds, followed by the red wine, vinegar, tamari, tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and water. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3 While this is bubbling away, slice the potatoes as thinly as you can. Add the lentils, spinach and black pepper to the sauce and give it a good stir. Remove from the heat and arrange the potato slices to cover the dish in any pattern you like. If you are using nutritional yeast, sprinkle it on to the potato topping.
4 Cover the dish and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes. The potatoes should be cooked through and nicely crisp.
5 Serve with lovely steamed greens or a fresh salad.
Vietnamese fish hotpot (ca kho)
A simple list of ingredients where you feel each one is absolutely necessary. Vietnamese flavours so authentic you’re easily in restaurant territory with May Hoang’s recipe.
Serves 4
2½ tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp red wine
3 tbsp fish sauce
1-2 chillies
1 tsp tamarind
2 lemongrass stalks
50g fresh ginger, julienned
750g mackerel, sliced into 5cm strips
Black pepper
1 Add the sugar to a casserole, then put it over a medium heat. Once caramelised, add the red wine, fish sauce, chillies, tamarind and lemongrass. Stir for 30 seconds.
2 Add half the ginger strips on top of the sauce, then add a layer of the fish on top of ginger, so it fills the pot, but there is some fish still remaining. Season with black pepper and top with the rest of the ginger. Arrange the remaining fish on top.
3 Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Turn the fish over and cook for a further 30 minutes.
4 Serve with jasmine rice and fresh coriander.
Kurdish lamb and quince hotpot
Quince, I feel, can do no wrong, especially in savoury settings. Fadime Tiskaya also cooks her lamb in pomegranate juices to tender, honeyed effect. The chilli adds just a background of heat. Again, one that challenged my veggie turn, and one that gets better with time.
Serves 4-6
4 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
A good pinch of saffron
4 red or green birdseye chillies
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp of crushed red chillies
850g lamb, cut into large cubes, fat removed
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 medium quinces, peeled, cored and quartered (or smaller pieces)
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp of tomato paste
2 tbsp grape molasses or runny honey
250g hot water
Pomegranate seeds and chopped parsley, to garnish
1 Preheat the oven to 170C/340F/gas mark 3½. Heat the olive oil in a heavy, shallow pan and add the onions. Sweat them on a low heat for 6 minutes until they are soft.
2 Add the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, saffron, fresh chillies, allspice and crushed dry chillies, then cook for another minute or so over a low heat. Add the lamb with the salt and black pepper and coat it with the onion mixture. Put the lid on, then transfer it to the oven for about 1 hour.
3 Meanwhile, prepare the quinces. Peel, core and quarter the fruit, then put them in some water with lemon juice to prevent browning. Leave them there for about 30 minutes or so, before adding them to the lamb (discard the water). Scatter them around the pan. Combine the pomegranate molasses, tomato paste and grape molasses. Mix into the hot water and pour over the lamb and quinces.
4 Return the dish to the oven with the lid on. Cook for another 40 minutes until they are soft and tender. Check the seasoning, then let it rest for 20 minutes before serving. Garnish with some parsley and pomegranate seeds.
