Serves: 5

Another type of do-it-yourself cooking, which comes out of Northern China and features lamb, is known as the Mongolian Grill. Unlike the firepot, this is a barbecue technique requiring a large open charcoal stove with a fine iron grating on top. (A good-sized hibachi with wire mesh covering can substitute.) For the fuel, pinewood-with the bark left on-is favored, with charcoal the second choice.

The Mongolian Grill technique is suitable indoors or out. It calls for each diner to be given a bowl of mixed seasonings (see Mongolian Grill Seasoning Mixture) in which he marinates a paper-thin slice or two of lamb for a minute or so. Then he tosses the lamb onto the grate (the fuel has now been fanned to blazing) and quickly flips the slice back and forth with long chopsticks until it's grilled to his taste. (Some like their lamb crisp, others less well done in either case, the meat, being paper-thin, cooks in a matter of seconds.) The lamb is then eaten with plain buns or biscuits the next slice is prepared in the same manner.

The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook. ©1994 by Gloria Bley Miller.

More Recipes from the Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook Cookbook:
*Firepot Cooking
*Mongolian Grill
Brazier-Grilled Lamb
Firepot Ingredients
Firepot Sauce
Firepot Stock
Mohammedan Firepot
Mongolian Grill Seasoning Mixture