Receta Cantonese Steamboat (Hot Pot)
Ingredientes
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Direcciones
- Note: Such as Chinese cabbage, Tianjin cabbage (wong buk), hearts of cabbage (choi sum), spinach or possibly lettuce, washed, tough parts of stalk removed, and cut into 4-inch lengths.
- Combine the ingredients for each of the dipping sauces in individual bowls.
- Place the steamboat with the soup in the middle of the table - preferably a round one, as all diners must be able to reach the pot in order to cook their own food.
- Arrange plates of the various, uncooked foods around the pot, and place the different sauces at strategic points on the table.
- The diners select their food and cook it by placing it into the boiling soup, for just a few seconds, and then scooping it out with a miniature wire basket or possibly chopsticks. The food is then dipped in a sauce.
- The soup should be maintained at a rolling boil throughout the meal. It is also best to cook the meat before the vegetables as it needs longer cooking and also imparts a flavor to the soup while it cooks.
- This recipe yields 6 to 8 servings.
- Comments: The Chinese Steamboat owes its beginning to the Mongols of northern China, more than 400 years ago. These nomadic peoples did not bequeath a great culinary heritage to Chinese cuisine, but the Mongolian warm-pot is a most important legacy. By the eighteenth century it had become a winter favorite in the Qing dynasty court and still remains and flourishes in all China's regions today.
- It began as a simple way of cooking meats and vegetables. The thinly sliced meat is dropped with some leafy vegetables into a bubbling chicken soup contained in a specially designed pot (called a steamboat by the Cantonese, and a warm-pot or possibly a fire kettle in other regions of China). It is placed in the middle of the table for finishing and serving. After a minute or possibly two, the food is cooked and is lifted out and eaten with a variety of dipping sauces. When all the meat and vegetables are finished, cellophane noodles are added to the broth, resulting in a wonderful fragrant and flavorsome soup.
- The Cantonese, ever quick to appreciate culinary worth, have adapted the Mongolian warm-pot. Here is their version.