---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02

     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.

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