This specialty of Hunan province consists of tender steamed meat balls served in a clear soup from an attractive container. Some restaurants use extra ingredients such as liver, tomato, and fragrant melon to create many related dishes which all have different names. In the home, pottery and porcelain teacups can be used to replace the bamboo vessels. Method is as follows:
1. Grind 4 oz. chicken meat together with 4 oz. pork fillet three times (or chop with cleaver). Add 0.5t. black pepper, 1.5t. salt, 1 T. wine, 1.5T. soy sauce, and place in a bowl.
2. Soak 0.5 oz. dried scallops for an hour and steam for another hour, then tear into fine shreds. Chop 6 water chestnuts. Add both to the mixture in item 1.
3. Add 1 cup of cold soup stock to the mixture in four parts, stirring evenly at each interval. Place the mixture in the bamboo cups, and steam over medium heat for two hours.
4. In serving, pour the soup from each bamboo cup into a rice bowl.
Note. Green fragrant melon or tomato can also be used instead of the bamboo cup, but the ingredients must be steamed in the rice bowl first for 40 minutes, then poured into the melon or tomato cups and then steamed for another 20 minutes to prevent crumbling.