Title: COOK UP AN ORIENTAL HOT POT
Categories: Appetizers, Beef, Chinese
Yield: 4 servings
1 lb Raw shrimp, peeled and
-deveined
2 Chicken breasts, skinned,
-boned, and sliced very
-thin, across grain
1/2 lb Beef sirloin sliced very
-thin, across grain
1/2 Head Chinese cabbage or 1
-lettuce heart, coarsely
-cubed
1 c Cubed egg plant or 1 5-ounce
-can (2/3 cup) water
-chestnuts,
Drained and thinly sliced
1 1/2 c Halved fresh mushrooms
4 c Small spinach leaves (stems
-removed)
14 oz Cans (5 1/4 cups) chicken
-broth
3 Chicken bouillon cubes
1 tb Monosodium glutamate
1/2 tb Grated gingerroot or 1/2
-teaspoon ground ginger
Midnight supper, perhaps for New Year's Eve or after
the show, can be exotic in a hurry. The foods are
sliced ahead, the sauces made, then all stowed in the
refrigerator. When guests are hungry, the hostess
simply heats the broth and sets out the makings.
Genghis Khan hot pot is another name for this Chinese
specialty. Or maybe you've seen it on restaurant menus
as volcano soup. We show an honest-to-goodness
Mongolian cooker with a charcoal chimney in the
center, but any chafing dish or electric skillet will
do as well.
What's cooking. Everything on the tray is raw, of
course--chunks of eggplant, crosscut strips of
sirloin, halved mushrooms, thin slices of chicken
breast, squares of Chinese cabbage, shucked shrimp.
Fresh spinach to simmer along with the other foods is
ready in the big red bowl. The broth is chicken
bouillon that boasts a faint overtone of ginger.
Individual bowls of fluffy rice are served at the same
time as Hot Pot.
The how-to. You pick out a few choice tidbits at a
time and drop them from chopsticks, bamboo tongs, or
fork into the lazily bubbling broth. In a few minutes,
fish them out to dip into zesty sauces on your plate,
like Peanut or Red Sauce, Chinese Mustard or Ginger
Soy.
Traditionalists poach eggs in the broth when it has
taken on subtle flavor from the foods that have
simmered in it. At the very last, the hostess may
ladle the broth as a soup. It's delicious! Dessert?
Skip it, or serve a fruit bowl and candied ginger with
coffee or tea.
Etiquette: Use one set of chopsticks for cooking and
fishing out morsels from Hot Pot, use a second set for
eating. If only one set is provided for each guest,
simply reverse your chopsticks (large ends down) when
you cook or help yourself to food.
Oriental Hot Pot
Chinese Mustard Ginger Soy Peanut Sauce Red Sauce Hot
cooked rice
Shortly before cooking time arrange the meats and
vegetables on large tray or platter; use a bowl for
spinach. Set out dunking sauces. Provide Bamboo tongs,
chopsticks or long-handled forks as cooking tools for
guests.
Heat chicken broth in electric skillet or chafing dish
(or use Mongolian cooker-- directions follow). Add
bouillon cubes to hot broth and stir to dissolve; add
monosodium glutamate and ginger. Heat to simmering.
For cooking have broth barely bubbling. Each Guest
picks up desired foods with chopsticks or whatever,
drops them into the bubbling broth. When his tidbits
are cooked, he lifts them out and dips into the sauces
on his plate. Serve with rice. Makes 4 servings.
To use Mongolian cooker, fill chimney of cooker with
charcoal and add charcoal starter. Pour cold chicken
broth into cooker. Cover cooker, then light charcoal.
When broth is hot, continue as above.
