Sauerkraut and Mutton in Casserole

1) Slice mutton across the grain into thin slices.

Plump dry bean-starch vermicelli in warm water, cutting it into suitable lengths.

Cut pickled cabbage across the fibers into shreds.

2) With mutton slices in a small pot, add salt, gourmet powder, cooking wine, pepper, minced scat-lion and ginger, and soya sauce. Note that the soya sauce should be added in four parts; each time it is added, the mutton slices must be stirred around hard so that the sauce is fully absorbed by the mutton. Also add sesame oil and mix well.

3) Boil water in a clay-pot or casserole. Put in pickled cabbage shreds. After boiling for 5 minutes, add vermicelli and then mutton slices. See to it that they are well scattered in the pot. Bring to a boil, sprinkle on parsley and serve. (Remember that the mutton slices should not be boiled for any great length of time or it will become tough to the bite.)

Notes:

(1) The Chinese sauerkraut is a pickled cabbage that the people in Beijing and neighboring provinces make for the winter by having Chinese cabbage hearts scalded with boiling water, salted and then fermented in a jar. The cabbage becomes slightly sour but remains crunchy.

Cooked with the sauerkraut by this recipe, the mutton will be tender, freshly delicious, and free from any unpleasant odor that it might have; the vermicelli tastes firm and smooth; and the soup, warm and slightly sour, gives a distinctively refreshing flavor, which will be further enhanced if a pinch of pepper is sprinkled on.

(2) Tender beef may be used instead of mutton.