horhog with the duffer family

on monday my team and i had our weekly meeting in a special location. the duffer family has bought some land on the outskirts of ub, and they are in the process of building a house there. some friends of theirs are living a ger on the property right now and serving as the "manach" which basically means security guard. we went to the duffers' place and this lovely couple made "horhog" for us for dinner. horhog is kind of the equivalent of real mongolian barbeque.

the first step for making horhog is gathering several large river rocks and making sure they are clean. next put the rocks in a stove until they get really hot. this step can be a little dangerous because the rocks can explode if they get too hot. two of the rocks actually did this on monday. thankfully they were inside a sturdy metal stove when it happened and no one was nearby.

once the rocks are sufficiently hot, they go into a large metal jug and then comes the meat and maybe some vegetables. the jug is sealed tightly and the meat is cooked by the heat from the rocks and the pressure in the jug. i've been told that sometimes the pressure becomes so high that the lid on the jug can explode. thankfully this did NOT happen on monday. :)


i'm not sure just how long the meat needs to cook in the jug, but my guess is at least an hour or so. once it's done, the lid is carefully opened and the cook tastes some of the juices that have cooked out of the meat. on monday, the cook decided that is wasn't salty enough, so she added a big handful of salt to the jug and resealed it. then came a sort of tricky part. two guys had to grab the hot jug by the handles and try to shake it up and down to get the salt distributed through everything. once this was done, it was time for us to all drink some of the broth from the meat.

everyone got a small bowl of broth and drank it before we dove into the meat. horhog is definitely a hands on meal. mongolians say that before you actually eat the meat you should first take one of the hot rocks and toss it back and forth in your hands. this is said to be good for your kidneys. i find that it's just too hard on my hands, and i've never managed to actually do it without dropping the rock and just waiting for it to cool off. monday was no exception. :)

after attempting to toss the hot rock, it's time to eat the meat. monday's horhog was a bit unusual because it was a mixture of beef and mutton. i definitely prefer beef, and i was able to get several chunks of beef and no chunks of mutton. every time i eat horhog i sort of feel like a cavewoman. the meat is usually still on the bone or full of fatty chunks that i have to somehow separate from the parts that i want to eat. i end up sort of gnawing on it and ripping at it with my very greasy hands. it's not something i'd want to do for every meal, but it's fun every now and then. (although i still can't bring myself to eat those huge turkey legs they sell at fairs and amusement parks in the states. hehe)


i think horhog is the kind of meal that could potentially last a long time. people usually sit around and eat chunk after chunk of meat until an entire sheep has been consumed. unfortunately for me, i had to rush away on monday because i had to teach a class in the evening. it was fun to get away from the city for the afternoon and have a bit of a real countryside experience with my team.