Instant-Boil Mutton (Beijing Hot Pot)

The dipping sauce is the centrepiece of this meal, so take your time with it. Spoon the sesame paste into a bowl — it may be thick and separated with oil floating on top; stir it back together first. Add the fermented tofu brine, soy sauce, black vinegar, and chilli oil. Now add hot water one tablespoon at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition, until the sauce reaches a pourable, creamy consistency — like a loose peanut butter sauce. It should coat the back of a spoon but flow freely off it. Taste: it should be nutty, salty, funky, and gently sour. Divide into individual dipping bowls at each place setting.

About 5 min

For the broth: add 2 litres of water to your hot pot vessel or a large pot set on the table over a portable burner. Add 4–5 thick slices of fresh ginger, 2 knotted green onion stalks, and optionally a small piece of dried kombu for extra depth. Bring to a vigorous rolling boil — it needs to stay at a constant boil throughout the entire meal. Season with just a pinch of salt; all the real flavour complexity comes from the dipping sauce, not the broth itself.

About 10 min

Arrange all the components beautifully on plates around the central pot: the paper-thin mutton slices fanned out on one plate (semi-frozen mutton is easiest to fan — it shouldn't be completely thawed when you start); the napa cabbage cut into 5 cm sections; the firm tofu sliced into 1 cm rectangles; and the glass noodles, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes then drained. This is a communal meal — position everything within easy reach of all diners.

About 5 min

To cook the mutton: pick up 2–3 slices at a time with chopsticks, lower them into the rolling boil, and swish them back and forth — this is the 'swish' that gives the dish its Chinese name, 涮 (shuàn). Count 10–15 seconds: the meat will go from bright red-pink to a uniform pale grey, at which point it is perfectly cooked through. Remove immediately and dip straight into your sesame sauce. The mutton should be silky and tender — even a few extra seconds in the broth can make it tough.

About 15 min

Between rounds of mutton, add the vegetables, tofu, and glass noodles to the broth: cabbage needs 2–3 minutes, tofu 3–4 minutes, noodles 4–5 minutes. The broth becomes increasingly rich and flavourful as the meal progresses. At the very end, ladle the enriched broth into small bowls — add a few drops of black vinegar and a pinch of fresh green onion — and drink it as a clean, deeply satisfying final course. This quiet bowl of broth at the end is the hidden reward.

About 10 min