Mala Dry Hot Pot – Mala Xiang Guo

In recent years, there has been a saying that hot pot has been dead for years and the dry hot pot is now living on earth. I do think that it is a little bit exaggerated but in need reflects facts about the new birth of another family member of hot pot family. Mala Xiang Guo (Mala Dry Hot Pot)is a super lovely dish hot pot-style dish that can be finished within 30 minutes.

What’s Mala Xiang Guo

Ma La Xiang Guo, which originated in Chongqing, is quite popular among Chinese young people. It is also known as dry hot pot because it contains no soup base compared with traditional Chinese mala hot pot. Usually, this dish is cooked with various vegetables, meat, and seafood, which are boiled together with a spicy and aromatic sauce. Following the recipe below, you can easily make your homemade Ma La Xiang Guo in your own kitchen.

What’s Ma La Xiang Guo also known as Ma La Gan Guo?

Ma La Xiang Guo(麻辣香锅) is a transliteration of the Chinese name of this dish as well as Ma La Gan Guo. And it is commonly translated as Ma La Hot Pot or Ma La Dry Pot in US and other countries. In Chinese characters, Ma(麻),La(辣) and Xiang(香) separately stand for three types of flavors numbering, spicy and fragrant. Even if you haven’t enjoyed this dish before, you can also get a general knowledge about its taste from the dish’s name.      

The options of vegetables, meat and seafood for this dish are not strict but quite wide. Actually, you can fulfill this dish with any kind of vegetables, meat, and seafood on hand or just as you like. Or if you are a vegetarian, you can cook the dish only with your favorite vegetables.

The magic of this dish comes from the sauce, a mixture of several seasonings. Most restaurants have their own secret sauces by adding some special seasonings or different proportions of the seasonings. Although the recipes of the sauces differ, the delicious flavors of Ma La Xiang Guo do not differ greatly.

When you come to a restaurant, you will see that the dish is served in a big bowl or plate. You can share the dish with your family members or friends because it is in a large serving. And usually, people enjoy Ma La Xiang Guo with a bowl of steamed rice and beer.

How Ma La Xiang Guo is ordered?

Affordable, easy to prepare, and good for social interaction, Ma La Xiang Guo has emerged as a popular choice for dining at work time with colleagues or at weekends with family members and friends.   

If you walk into a Ma La Xiang Guo restaurant, you will see that all the vegetables, meat and seafood are put in a cabinet in order. The vegetables have been cut into different shapes, and meat and seafood have been washed cleanly and processed properly. All the ingredients are fresh and ready to be cooked. You will get a basket to choose what you like. The price for vegetables, meat and seafood will be counted separately by weight. And you also have to choose the pot base as to the degree of spice. The options you can have are mild, medium, hot, extra hot and crazy hot. And then you can take a seat and wait for the dish to be served.

Sometimes you will only get a menu in a restaurant, and then you just have to tick the pot base you like, choose vegetables, meat and seafood on the menu and tell the waitress your favor of spice.

When the dish comes to you, you will find that what you have chosen is mixed in a bowl with a numbing and hot flavor.  

What you can cook in Ma La Xiang Guo

Ingredients of Ma La Xiang Guo are mainly composed of vegetables, meat and seafood.

Some of the vegetables which need longer cooker time like potatoes, lotus root, carrots, cauliflower and etc need to be blanched in boiling water first.

In addition, mushrooms, tofu, onion and other quickly fried vegetables can also be cooked directly with the seasonings.

For meat, you can choose beef, lamb, chicken, beef balls, pork belly, etc.. Seafood is also quite popular like shrimp, crab, fish fillet, and squid.  

💭Seasonings Breakdown

Hot pot seasonings (火锅底料)-The most important seasoning in all types of dry pots are hot pot base seasonings. You can choose the hot pot base from one of the most famous hot pot restaurant chains in China, Hai Di Lao. Or the hot pot base from the local brand in Chongqing Qiao Tou is also a good choice. 

Doubanjiang– Another important seasoning is Dou Ban Jiang, a kind of chili bean paste. Pixian Dou Ban Jiang is a favorite in Sichuan. This seasoning can help to make Ma La Xiang Guo get an attractive color and flavor.

Sichuan peppercorn – Sichuan peppercorn is another essential dry pot ingredient. Sichuan pepper has a citrusy but numbing flavor that adds an interesting dimension to dry pots.

Dry chili pepper– The dry chili pepper gives the dry pot a smoky, spicy flavor and aroma.

Aromatics- Garlic and ginger– Garlic and ginger enhance the flavors of the portion and give the dry pot a unique aroma.

🥘Instructions

Preparation

• Devine the shrimp.
• Blanch all of the potato and lotus roots in boiling water for 1 minute. Transfer out and drain completely.
• Blanch chicken wings in boiling water for 1 minute. Transfer out and drain completely.
• Prepare all the other side ingredients and seasonings accordingly.

Assemble the dry pot

Add oil to the wok and then fry the shrimp until it turns amber. Don’t overcook the shrimp. Transfer out.

Add extra oil and place 1 tablespoon of doubanjiang and hot pot seasonings. Fry over slow fire until the red oil turns out. Then add garlic and ginger. Fry over slow fire until aromatic.

Add all the onions and fry until aromatic.

Add all the blanched vegetables and blanched chicken wings. Fry for 1 or 2 minutes.

Return shrimp, and mix well. Add green onion sections.

Add toasted sesame seeds before serving.

What to serve with

Mala dry pot is a must-try dish for all mala lovers! But it is slightly salty and hot. So only mild soups like winter melon soup, lotus root soup, or plain staple food like steamed rice and some drinks are the best matches.

Can I reheat it

You can make a really large batch of mala Xiang Guo each time. And yes you can reheat it the next day. It can be even better after reheating, similar to curry dishes.

Can I skip the hot pot seasoning

Although hot pot seasoning is quite important for dry pot, this can also be cooked without hot pot seasonings because it might be quite hard to find. You need to double the amount of doubanjiang and add the following spices.

• 4 pieces of bay leaves
• 2 pieces of cassia
• 3 star anises
• 1 tbs fennel