Nabemono (Japanese hot pot)

Dear and lovely readers,

today I bring you a promised but delayed recipe for Nabemono.

It's easy to make, but you will need a few things:
- A big clay pot
- A tablestove
- Kombu seaweed
- Bonito flakes

The latter two can be found in most well supplied asian supermarkets.

the procedure goes as follows:

cut a piece of Kombu (around 5cm) and wash it off with cold tap water, then place it in the clay pot and let it soak until it floats to the surface. Add a pinch of Bonitoflakes to the pot and bring it to simmer.

now you have succesfully made Dashi (japanese fish stock)

all you need is to make a dipping sauce, in this case Ponzu sauce, and then add the ingredients.

Ponzu sauce:
4 tbsp Soy sauce
4 tbsp lemon juice (or if you are really lucky, Yuzu juice)
1 tbsp rice vinegar

for ingredients, you can use just about everything. but try with these:
- Tofu
- Freezedried tofu
- shirataki or udon noodles
- Bok Choy
- Carrots
- leeks
- crab
- chicken
- Beef
- salmon
- Naruto roll
- Gyoza
- various mushrooms

you serve it with a few ingredients to begin with, and a platter with raw ingredients. Each dinnerguest has their own bowl for eating out of, and their own dippingbowl with Ponzu. you take the things you wish to eat from the bowl, and as it cooks, add more ingredients of your liking to the broil.

this is a traditional winter dish, and a very favorable dish to serve with a group of friends.

Hugs,
Kira