This year, the Burpee Kitchen Garden celebrates culinary traditions from around the world that are practiced here in Maine. Inspired by the experiences and heritage of local chefs, each garden plot highlights the ingredients, stories, and cultural connections that food brings to the table.
Hotpot tradition.
Hot pot is the ultimate communal meal. Across Asia, families and friends gather around a simmering pot of broth set over an open flame for a long, luxurious meal. The beauty of hot pot is that the ingredients are sliced, set out raw, and each person prepares it to their liking, a la carte style. With so many people around the table, the hot pot experience involves a lot of chatter, laughter, and a little chaos, as the ingredients that you thought you put into the pot may have been snatched by someone else by the time you remember them.
There are as many styles of hot pot as there are Asian cultures. Cantonese hot pot, the style of southern China and Hong Kong, starts with a flavorful chicken bone broth base, layered with herbs such as goji berries, scallions, and cilantro to create a mild, herbal stock that grows richer over the course of the meal as ingredients are added and simmered. Robust root vegetables such as daikon radish go into the soup first, followed by fibrous brassicas like Chinese broccoli, also known as gai lan. Finally, delicate ingredients like fresh spring pea shoots and thinly sliced meats and tofu round out the meal. At the very end, noodles are added and eaten with the finished soup.
Each diner adds and removes ingredients to their liking and even customizes their own dipping sauce, making hot pot perfect for people of all ages and food preferences. It’s a cozy, tradition-filled way to spend a weekend evening with loved ones.
Cantonese-Style Hot Pot Recipe
Ingredients
Broth
12 cups chicken broth
1.4 ounces fresh ginger, sliced into coins
4 scallions
small bunch cilantro (about 10 stalks)
1 tablespoon dried goji berries (optional)
2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
1.5 teaspoons salt
0.5 teaspoons white pepper
8 oz water to replenish broth as needed
Vegetables
12 oz Chinese broccoli (gai lan)
12 oz napa cabbage
12 oz daikon radish
12 oz baby bok choy
8 oz lotus root
5 oz pea shoots
Other ingredients (optional)
12 oz thinly sliced beef or pork
1/2 block of firm tofu, cubed
4-5 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 package fresh udon noodles
Dipping sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon chili oil (optional)
Steps
1. Setup: hot pot is eaten communally around a central burner. On a dining table, set a portable burner and large, lightweight pot.
2. Add the 12 cups of chicken stock, ginger, scallions, cilantro, goji berries (if using), rice wine, salt, and white pepper. Turn on the burner and bring the broth to a medium simmer.
3. Prepare the dipping sauce: each diner should combine the dipping sauce ingredients in a small bowl to their liking.
4. Prepare the vegetables in the following cuts:
Pea shoots: washed and wilted ends trimmed
Chinese broccoli: 3-inch pieces
Napa cabbage: 2-inch pieces
Daikon radish: peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
Lotus root: sliced thin into 1/4″ slices
Baby bok choy: sliced in half lengthwise and washed well between the leaves (bok choy collects a lot of dirt and grit between the leaves)
5. When the broth in the pot is at a simmer, first add the daikon radish and lotus root and cook for 8-10 minutes. Napa cabbage and baby bok choy should be cooked for 5-6 minutes, and Chinese broccoli for 2-3 minutes. Pea shoots should be dipped briefly in the hot broth and then eaten immediately.
6. Add other meats and vegetables as desired and cook 1-2 minutes. All ingredients can be added in stages as cooked ones are eaten. Add water as needed when broth level is low due to evaporation.
Dip cooked ingredients in sauce and eat!
Recipes carry more than flavors. They connect people to family traditions, cultural heritage, and the plants that make every meal possible. In the Burpee Kitchen Garden, these stories grow side by side.
Meet the chef.
Ger Liang Tysk is the founder and owner of Red Kettle Foods in Belfast, ME, makers of Red Kettle Kimchi and other Asian inspired ferments born from the soil and seas of Maine. As an Asian-American chef, Ger is passionate about working with local producers and locally grown ingredients to meld her Asian and American backgrounds together.
With grandparents who were refugees and parents who were immigrants, her family couldn’t always gather together, and even family reunions were fragmented.
Throughout her childhood and even now, hot pot is a comforting family tradition affirming the power of people coming together in the most powerful way: sharing conversation and connection over a delicious meal.
