The greenpan hotpot is not a hotpot the way I know it. Growing up Vietnamese, when I hear hotpot, i think of cooking at the table, throwing in meat and seafood and vegetable and slurping the tasty broth until I fall into a food coma. The greenpan hotpot won't let you do that. It is exactly what the name say it is, a pot, that keeps your food hot at the table, not boiling hot, but hot enough for you to enjoy throughout the meal.
The green part of it: the greenpan hotpot is nonstick, but uses a different techonology than the traditional non-stick cookware. If you are concerned with the PTFE (Teflon) coating, which, supposedly, releases toxic gas when overheated and is toxic to your body if consumed (for example when the layer peels off after long use), the greenpan assures you that their non-stick coating, Thermolon, will not peel or releases toxic fumes at high temperature. Not only that, the coating is mineral based, so more environmentally friendly than the plastic based Teflon coating. Lastly the greenpan hotpot has a double-layered lid, which helps trap moisture and heat to reduce cooking time, hence you save energy while cooking.
My experience with the pot: The pot does a good job keeping the food hot. I actually put the shrimp into the pot after taking it off the heat source and they cooked properly, albeit it took 2 minutes longer than then cooking them on the stove. Aesthetically, the pot looks pretty good with the red insulating bowl, which can also be used as a salad bowl. I also have a greenpan frying pan, and find that it heats up fast and evenly. Both the frying an and the pot clean up very easily. I did hear though, that the non-stick layer will peel with time, but have not experienced it since I just started using both items. I guess I will update this post occasionally with how the products are holding up.
Included in the set is the pot, a steamer/colander, a melamine insulating/serving bowl and a bamboo spoon and fork.
For testing I decided to make cajun shrimp boil. The recipe is basic, the thing you see on the cover of any box of cajun seasoning.
The amount of food can be adjusted according to what you like or not.
1 pound of shrimp
1/2 pound of hot, smoke sausage
2 medium size potatoes
2 ears of corn
1 small onion
2 small tomatoes
8 cloves of garlic
1 lemon
2 tbsp of Zatarain's crab boil seasoning
optional: 1 tbsp of cayenne pepper or 1 tbsp of sriracha sauce
salt and pepper
Add 4 cups of water to the pot and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes, onion and tomato into wedges, peel the corn and break them in half. Cut the sausage into slices. Add everything to the pot. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the juice and add the rest of the lemon as well. Add the Zatarain seasoning, and the pepper or hot sauce, roughly chop the garlic and add that as well. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Put the lid on and let cook for 5 - 8 minutes, or until potatoes are tender to your liking.
Take the pot off the stove and put it in the melamine bowl. Add the shrimp. Using a wooden spoon (included in the set) make sure the shrimps are submerged in the broth. Put the lid back on and bring it to the table. The shrimp will be perfectly cooked after 5 minutes, so you can use the time to set the table.
Use a slotted spoon (I wish it was included in the set) or a tong to fish out whatever you want. I dip my shrimp in a concoction of chili lime salt and a squeeze of lime juice. The broth was still pretty hot by the time we finished eating about an hour later.
If you eat a lot of soup and stews and would like to keep them hot throughout the meal, this is definitely a useful product.
