Wintermelon and Seafood Casserole

Soups and Congees

Wintermelon and Seafood Casserole
Ingredients:
1 five-pound winter melon
20 dried lotus seeds, soaked for one hour or until soft
3 Chinese black mushrooms, soaked, their stems discarded, and cut into slivers
1/4 cup Yunnan ham. Slivered
1 chicken liver, cut into thin strips and blanched one minute
2 cups chicken stock
1 Tablespoon thin soy sauce
2 Tablespoons Chinese rice wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup crab meat, cartilage removed, cut into pieces
6 shrimp, peels and veins discarded, each cut into two pieces, the long way
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Preparation:
1. Cut top off the melon, seed it, and put it into a serving bowl and steam it with the melon cover for twenty minutes.
2. Remove melon cover and add the lotus seeds and the black mushrooms and ½ cup boiling water and steam for twenty minutes not returning the melon top to the steamer.
3. Add ham, chicken livers, stock, soy sauce, rice wine, and salt and the melon top and steam another hour and fifteen minutes without the melon cover. 4. Add crab meat and shrimp and cover the melon with the melon cover and steam another twenty minutes. Add the sesame oil and bring the melon with its contents and its cover to the table, then serve contents and some melon flesh to each diner.

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