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Beef And Vegetables Cooked In Broth With Dipping Sauce
(Shabu Shabu)
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| What You Need: |
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1½ pounds boneless shell or sirloin steak, sliced 1/8 inch thick
2 pounds Chinese cabbage
2 tablespoons salt
12 to 14 young spinach leaves, stripped from their stems
8 carrots, scraped and cut lengthwise into strips ¼ inch wide by 2 inches long
8 scallions, including at least 3 inches of the green stems, cut lengthwise into narrow strips
2 cakes tofu (soybean curd), fresh, canned or instant, cut into 1-inch cubes
12 small white mushrooms
6 cups chicken broth, fresh or canned
A 4-inch square of kombu (dried kelp), cut with a heavy knife from a sheet of packaged kombu and washed under cold running water
DIPPING SAUCE
1 cup goma joyu dressing or ponzu (equal parts soy sauce and lemon or lime juice)
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| How To Cook: |
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1. Cut each slice of meat in half crosswise. Trim the base of the cabbage and separate the leaves. Discard the inner core. In a 1-quart saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil with 2 tablespoons of salt.
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2. Drop in the cabbage and boil for a minute, or until the leaves wilt and shrink. Then cover the pan and boil 1 minute longer. Drain in a colander and run cold water over the cabbage to cool it quickly.
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3. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan and drop in the spinach. Return to a boil, drain and cool under cold water. Bring another cup of water to a boil and add the carrot strips. Return to a boil, then drain and cool similarly.
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4. Arrange the cabbage leaves one on top of another in the center of a bamboo mat or heavy cloth napkin. Lay the spinach leaves in a neat row down the center of the top leaf.
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5. Starting with the wide side of the mat or napkin, use it to roll the cabbage into a tight cylinder. Unwrap and cut the roll into 1-inch-long sections.
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6. Arrange the beef, cabbage rolls, carrots, scallions, tofu arid mushrooms in concentric circles or rows on a large serving platter.
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7. Pour the chicken broth into the cooking pot (see Nabemono section) of your choice and add the square of kombu. Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat so that the stock simmers throughout the meal.
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8. Each guest selects a piece of food from the platter with chopsticks or a fork and swishes it about in the simmering broth until it is cooked to taste. It is this swishing that sounds to the Japanese like shabu shabu, hence the name of the dish.
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9. The cooking procedure is as follows: First cook the meat in the broth for 2 to 3 seconds, then add the vegetables. Simmer another minute and remove the food with chopsticks or a fork.
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10. When all the food has been cooked, the kombu is removed and the broth is ladled into bowls and drunk as soup.
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