Snow on the Mountain

Looking for a great party meal that is fun and easy? It's best in winter (as the name suggests) and would be a hit for a New Years gathering. It makes a simple potluck if each of your guests brings an item or two from the recipe.

Here are the ingredients we use for Snow on the Mountain, but I'll leave the amounts up to you, depending upon the size of your crowd. We substituted frozen green peas for the green onions. (We called them snow peas!)

Snow on the Mountain

White rice, cooked

Curry chicken

Shredded lettuce

Diced tomatoes

Chopped green onions

Chinese noodles

Black olives, sliced

Shredded cheddar cheese

Chunk pineapple, drained

Slivered almonds

Flaked coconut

Cook chicken (we boil a whole chicken and use part of the meat as well as the stock for the curry chicken); follow the recipe below for curry chicken. Make a big pot of white rice (sticky rice works best for this). Assemble ingredients, a bowl for each item, and line them up in the order listed above. To create your mountain, make a base of rice on your plate. Then, one by one, add the other ingredients until you have a lovely and tasty mountain. (The coconut is the snow.)

Curry Chicken for 16

large onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

4 quarts of chicken or vegetable broth

4 Tbs curry powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp thyme

12 whole cloves

4+ Tbs cornstarch

1 c cold water or broth

4 c chicken meat, cut it bite sized pieces

Fry the onions and garlic in oil. Add the broth and the seasonings. Bring to boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat then mix up the thickener by dissolving the cornstarch in cold water or broth. Add the thickener, stirring briskly, until mixture is smooth. (If you don't stir it rapidly enough you will end up with lumps of cornstarch.) Return to heat until it comes to a boil, and let it boil for one minute -- stirring the whole time. Add in the chicken just before you serve.

Photo by Joe Dyer