How to Cook with Hot Pots like a Pro
When it comes to home cooked meals or Do-It-Yourself meals, hot pots are a nutritious and budget friendly meals to be considered. A hot pot is a meal prepared through boiling and simmering with oven pots or pressure cookers. The ingredients for a hot pot meal could be a mixture of vegetables, meat, fish and other flavourful ingredients with spices. Hot pots can also contain rice that absorbs the flavour of the ingredients tossed with it.
Hot pots come in various sizes: small ones are used for cooking single portions, while the big ones can cook hefty amounts that contain meat and vegetables. There are also hot pot peripherals that come with various accessories to add many ways in cooking hot pot based meals. Hot pots today can be cooked through the gas stove, electrical stove, steam cookers and specialty boiling pots.
For students or professionals who want to have access to home-cooked meals faster, cooking with hot pots allow you to prepare endless combinations of meat and vegetable dishes that are good for a well-balanced diet. Aside from the convenience of cooking, hot pots also offer a wide array of cooking methods such as steam cooking, boiling, braising and simmering. Hot pots definitely save space, costs and time for home-cooked meals.
So, if you’re interested in getting one and cook with hot pots, we’ve provided ways on how to cook like a professional.
Do your research
After gathering your recipes, find a hot pot meal you want to replicate and compare different recipes to have an understanding of the different ratios, cooking times and techniques the book authors used in making the dish.
Get hands-on
With all the presets available, you might get lost on which preset to be used on beans or meat. This will help you have an idea of how each function works as well as understand the outcome of each.
Aside from learning, dabbling with the functions of the hot pot appliance also help improve your creativity through experience. But, remember that there are definitely Do’s and Don’ts in cooking with a hot pot:
- Don’t use the lid when you’re on sauté or grill mode.
- Place at least a cup of water in the hot pot appliance before securing the lid.
- When in pressure cooking mode, cook the food first before adding milk or cheese because these dairy products tend to foam and scorch.
- The same should be done with the roux, which is the flour and fat cooked together to make thick sauces, and as for thickeners, add these when the soup and stew are already cooked.
- In cooking pork or beef roasts, cut large chunks into quarters or smaller pieces to help the hot pot cook the meat faster and better.
Understand serving ratios
Invest in food containers
Control the heat
Cooking using a hot pot can make life easier, especially when you’re in a hurry or live in a dorm. With its different presets and ability to cook food in a variety of ways, it has helped a lot of people become creative in their meal preparation with the least amount of effort and time spent.
As for cooking, it won’t look or feel like a chore when you are passionate when it comes to dishes, meal preparation and the culinary arts. Channel your passion and love for food into a career through MCIE’s Certificate IV Commercial Cooking in Melbourne and get work in the kitchen of famous restaurants someday.
For enquiries, contact MCIE today: Call: 1300 737 004 or Email: email info@mcie.edu.au or visit the Contact Us Page: https://www.mcie.edu.au/contact/