The Hot Pot has that reputation of "let's just throw everything in" but there's so much more than that, always use great quality ingredients, or at least the best you can, I'm using mutton,
A, because I love mutton
and B, because I believe it will give you the best tasting hot pot,
I'd much rather use Winter lamb or great mutton for my hot pot, I'm also going to put Kidneys into my hot pot, they'll be perfectionists out there who'll be screaming out loud at reading this, but I love kidneys and I think they add a great flavour too
SHOPPING LIST
This will serve 4 people
About 1kg of middle neck mutton
4 kidneys cut into quarters and remove the White core
50g of butter
1 large onion roughly chopped
1kg of potatoes
A couple of bay leaves
50g of well seasoned flour
4 carrots, peeled and cut in half
4 anchovies (optional, but really worth adding)
Good splash of Worcestershire sauce
500ml of lamb stock
METHOD
Melt the butter in a pan and cook the onion till soft, but don't colour
Peel the potatoes and slice thinly
Mix the onions with half the sliced potatoes
Layer the potato and onions evenly in a large casserole dish
Place in the bay leaves
Season well with salt and pepper
Now dust your mutton with the seasoned flour
Gently brown in a pan and transfer to the casserole ( you may have to do this in batches)
Now flour the kidneys and brown these
Add the kidneys to the casserole evenly
You can now place in the carrots
Chop the anchovies ( if using) and scatter over
Season with salt and pepper and add a good splash of Worcestershire sauce
Bring the lamb stock to the simmer
Neatly arrange the remaining potatoes over the casserole
Season well
Pour in carefully the lamb stock
Cover with a lid, if no lid use 2 layers of foil
Place in a 200c heated oven for 25 minutes
After 25 minutes turn the oven down to 140c and cook for 90 minutes
After 90 minutes, remove the lid, now it can be eaten like this, but I like to put mine under a very hot grill so that the potatoes go nice and crisp
This doesn't really need anything else, but if you want to serve something, I'd go with some nicely braised red cabbage
Just put the casserole in the centre of the table and enjoy
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