Polenta with Chard and Mushrooms

On occasion, I have an incredible cooking day. I not only make a supper everyone loves, but I make lunch for myself too. The lunches are generally just for me. My kids are happy with peanut butter and jelly, fresh fruit, and fresh veggies for lunch so I tend to take that route. For me though, sometimes some cooked, veggie-based meal is called for.

Curtis has needed to travel a lot for work in the past 9 months. Granted, I have many friends whose husbands travel a lot more than mine, but for us, it's a lot. (Curtis never used to travel at all, so the approximate once a month trips seem like a lot). Usually, I take it all in stride, but sometimes I find myself exhausted and in need of some grown-up comfort food. When I found this recipe online, I knew I had found my middle of the day comfort (after the kids are in bed comfort food almost always comes in the form of chocolate pudding, mini nutella cupcakes, or cowboy cookie bars).

I loved this recipe. I love polenta. I love, love shitake mushrooms. Yes, this was pure love. I don't have bets on my kids eating this. M loves mushrooms, but she prefers hers uncooks. Plus, the addition of chard makes it a little questionable as well, not to mention the polenta, which doesn't like at all. J and little I would probably be even less impressed than M. But for me, it's the perfect middle of the day, I need some beauty and happiness in my life meal. This is my happy meal. I don't even need a toy.

I was tempted to leave out the lemon juice because I was too impatient to take the time to squeeze/zest one. I am so thankful I didn't. This dish NEEDS the lemon juice, don't make the mistake I almost did. The lemon juice is as crucial as the mushrooms.

This will supposedly serve 2. Hmm....I'm not commenting on how many it actually served. :)

Polenta with Chard and Mushrooms

adapted from Hail's Kitchen

4 - 6 oz chard, stems removed and coarsely chopped

8 oz mushrooms, combination of button, cremini, and/or shitakes

1/4 c onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 oz pancetta or bacon, diced (you could, hypothetically leave this out if you don't do pork)

1/4 c broth, either chicken or veggie

2 T dry white wine (optional)

1/2 T olive oil

1/2 T butter

1 T fresh thyme, chopped

1 lemon, juiced and zested

1/2 t salt or to taste

dash of pepper, or to taste

1/4 c polenta

1 c water

Bring 1 c water to a boil in a small saucepan.

While the water comes to boil, cook the pancetta in a large skillet over medium high heat until it is crispy. Remove and set aside. Saute the onions and garlic in the same skillet for 2 minutes. Add the olive oil, butter, and mushrooms. Stir well to combine and then cook for a couple of minutes without stirring. Then stir the mushrooms well again and allow to cook undisturbed a few more minutes, or until the mushrooms have released all their juices. Add the wine to the pan and cook until all the liquid is evaporated. Remove the mushroom mixture from the pan.

Once the water boils, add the polenta and cook, stirring frequently until the polenta is thickened (how thick you want it is up to you). Meanwhile, add the chard to the pan. Season with salt and pepper and cook until the chard is wilted. Once the chard has wilted, return the mushroom mixture to the pan, along with the broth. Allow the broth to reduce and the chard to soften. Taste and adjust salt and pepper seasonings as necessary. Remove from heat, stir in the lemon juice and zest and thyme. Serve immediately over hot polenta.

Chicken and Mushroom Fricasee

The recipe as it was published turned out way too runny for me. I am making adaptations and posting my version here. To see the recipe in it's original form, click here.

I made this for company. I have decided that I absolutely love shitake mushrooms. They are meaty and have wonderful flavor (especially in comparison to white button mushrooms). Everyone enjoyed this and it is definitely a make again, company dish.

I ended up making way too much. I created a second dish (all by myself--without a recipe!!) to use up the leftovers.

This serves 4 - 5.

Chicken and Mushroom Fricasee
adapted from Food and Wine

One 1/3 lb chicken, cut into 8 pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 T olive oil
1 lg onion, finely chopped
1/2 lb shitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1 T fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 c dry white wine
1 c chicken stock or broth
1/3 c sour cream
1/3 c plain nonfat Greek yogurt (this is thicker than regular yogurt, if you can't find it, regular will do)
1/2 c celery leaves, optional

Arrange the chicken pieces, skin side up on a cookie sheet and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast in preheated 425 degrees oven for 45 minutes until chicken is cooked and skin is crisp.

While the chicken roasts, heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the onion and cook over medium heat until just softened, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, increase the heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are softened and golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, bay leaves, and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until wine evaporates, scraping up any browned bits. Add the stock and simmer until reduced, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat (if the sauce seems to dry, add a little extra chicken stock). Stir in the sour cream and yogurt. Discard the bay leaves. Add the chicken to the sauce, leaving the skin out of the sauce (to keep it crispy). Simmer until heated through. Stir in celery leaves if using. Serve.

Crockpot Coq au Vin

Bastille Day was on July 14th. I know all you Francophiles were aware of that, but for the rest of you, Bastille Day (France's Independence Day) has come and gone. You missed a perfectly good excuse to make French food.

I didn't miss Bastille Day. It almost snuck up on me, being so close to the return from our 3000 mile road trip, but I managed to celebrate it properly. Life's seemed a little crazy upon our turn thanks, in part to the addition of a puppy to our life, so I looked for a French recipe I could handle. I left Julia Child in the cabinet and turned to the internet instead.

There I found this: Coq au Vin. In a crockpot no less!! I decided that was my recipe for Bastille Day, along with the Fried Chile Peppers (which are supposedly a French recipe).

It turned out quite well and I will make it again. My kids weren't the best eaters that night, so I don't feel like I had a fair representation of their thoughts of it. They ate it but it didn't cause J to tell me "It's delicious!" or M to respond with "This has good flavor, Mommy." I served it over couscous (mostly because I realized very last minute that I had no starch for our meal).

Slow Cooker Coq au Vin
from the Knoxville (TN) Examiner (Newspaper)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 T butter
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 c (or less) water or chicken broth

6 T white wine

1 T flour

salt and pepper to taste

1 c tomatoes, diced

1 T fresh thyme (or 1 t. dried)

1 lb mushrooms, sliced

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and sear on each side until lightly browned, about 5 minutes per side. Remove chicken and set aside. Add garlic and onions to pan and cook until just softened. Add white wine to onions and garlic and stir to release chicken bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. In the slow cooker, whisk together water (or broth), flour, salt, and pepper until well blended. Stir onion and garlic mixture (with all the pan juices). Add tomatoes, thyme, and mushrooms and mix well. Lay the chicken breast (and any accumulated juices in dish) on top of the mixture. Cook on low for 3 -4 hours or high for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, until chicken is cooked through. To reduce the sauce before serving, remove the lid 20 minutes before serving.

Steak with Mushrooms

Somehow, the last cuts of beef to be eaten from our split quarter steer are the steaks. Curtis thinks this is a travesty and has decided that this year (the year starting in April/May when we get our fresh beef) the steaks will be eaten first.

The problem? I don't know how to make a good steak, especially not on a grill, so they get used for stir fry's or pan-cooked. When I scramble for meal ideas, I open up our little deep freeze and pull out a hunk of meat and cook it. The ground beef always goes first, followed closely by the flank steaks (fajitas!!), and roasts. Now, I am pulling out things like steaks and oxtails (more on the oxtail another time). I needed to find a recipe for steak that would hide the fact that I don't know how to make steak. This recipe was it. I used three small - medium t-bone steaks for this recipe.

Steak with Mushrooms
from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

2 - 3 steaks (depending on size)
1 T Dijon or coarse-grain brown mustard
2 T olive oil
8 oz mushrooms (cremini, shitake, portobello, or button), sliced
1/4 c dry red wine
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T snipped fresh thyme

Trim fat from steaks. Spread mustard evenly over both sides of steaks. Heat 1 T olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add steaks and reduce heat to medium. Cook to desired doneness, turning once. (Medium rare is 145 degrees and medium 160 degrees). Transfer steaks to serving platter and keep warm in a low oven.

Add 1 T oil to drippings in skillets. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes, or until they begin to release their juices. Stir in wine, Worcestershire sauce, and thyme. Simmer, uncovered, for 3 minutes. Spoon sauce over steaks (or put in bowl and let everyone sauce themselves) to serve.

Beef Stew with Dried Mushrooms

We had a wonderful weekend with lots and lots of rain. We needed it so I didn't complain about how muddy and wet my kids stayed constantly all weekend long (ok, I only complained a little). With the rain came cooler weather and we were anxious to make beef stew. Our original plan was smoke the stew on the Big Green Egg. However, in our move back in January, we lost the cast iron dutch oven. Our beef stew was instead made on the stove top in a traditional manner. Maybe by the next time we get cool, beef stew weather we will have found the dutch oven.

This is an all afternoon type of recipe. The longer you cook it, the more tender the beef. I think Curtis cooked this for 3 - 4 hours and the beef just fell apart on your fork. It was wonderful. I am sure you could also do this in a crockpot. Our stew meat came already cut (part of our split quarter cow we bought in April), which took out a step. For the broth we used 2 c of beef broth (leftover from when we made beef zucchini enchiladas) and then added red wine part way through cooking because the stew looked dry.

We liked this recipe--all 4 of us. My only complaint that the version we made didn't seem stew like as much as it seemed liked a thick brothy stroganoff type thing. We served it over rice, but I think it would also be really good on top of some nice wide egg noodles. We'll make this again, either as a stroganoff or we may add some potatoes and carrots to make it more stew like.

Beef Stew with Dried Mushrooms
adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 - 2 1/2 lbs stew meat, trimmed of surface fat and cut into 1 - 1 1/2 inch pieces
salt and black pepper, to taste
2 lg (3 medium) onions, cut into eighths
2 c beef stock (or chicken or vegetable stock or water, wine, or a combination as needed)
1 bay leaf

Heat the stock until steaming. Soak the porcini mushrooms in the hot stock until soft, about 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a large soup pot/Dutch oven on medium high heat until hot. Add the meat to the skillet, a little at a time, and brown well on all sides, about 10 minutes total. (The meat browns best if it is not overcrowded. Brown in batches if necessary). Season with salt and pepper. Remove from pot, spoon off most of fat left in pan (if you are using grassfed beef, there may not be much fat left in the pan--if that's the case, don't take any out). Add the onions and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, remove the mushrooms from the stock and cut out any hard spots. Add the warmed stock, porcini mushrooms, and bay leaf to the pot. Cook until the meat is tender (At least one hour, longer makes more tender meat). If the stew looks dry (like ours did), add extra liquid. Serve hot over a starch like rice or noodles.

Pasta with Mushrooms

I got a new cookbook for my birthday a couple of days ago (no, I didn't just have a birthday--my birthday is in May---my brother is just slow with presents, in fact, that's how everyone in family rolls!). I was quite excited to dive into it because it was one of those cookbooks that doesn't just have recipes, but teaches you how to cook and why to do what you do. I quickly found a recipe for supper I thought everyone would eat, was light, was easy, and I had all the ingredients for (light has been a theme for me this week after my week long beef fest when my cousins were here).

Like I expected, everyone loved it. J didn't eat the mushrooms, but M and I thought it was great. Curtis didn't love it, but he did say it was "repeatable."

Pasta with Mushrooms
from How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

1/2 lb fresh mushrooms (shitake were recommended, I used plain ole white mushrooms), sliced or cut into chunks
3 T plus 1/2 T olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 T minced garlic
1/2 pound dried pasta (I thought a chunky pasta like farfalle would go well)
1/4 c pasta cooking water or other broth
1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped

Put 3 T of oil in medium skillet over medium heat. When hot, add mushrooms and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes or until mushrooms have released their juices and the juice has evaporated. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two. Set aside (turn off heat). Meanwhile, cook the pasta until al dente in a pot of boiling water. When it is almost finished add the 1/4 c pasta cooking water to the mushrooms and gently reheat. Drain the pasta and toss it with the mushrooms and parsley. Drizzle with the remaining 1/2 T olive oil and grate Parmesan cheese over top (optional).

Sicilian Stir Fry

I was craving some stir fry yesterday. The thought of a nice dark sesame beef and broccoli stir fry made me happy. However, it is over 100 degrees out (again and again and again) and no sight of fresh broccoli to be found anywhere. Thus I thought of the recipe for Sicilian Stir Fry--a recipe using lots of summer vegetables and not as heavy as a dark sesame sauce.

Like many stir-fry's, you can use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Add green beans or asparagus if you have want more green. Just have 5 - 6 c of raw vegetables to put in. I didn't have the celery or fennel and left that out. I can just imagine that ingredient would have made everything even more tasty. The combination of ingredients reminds me a little of caponata.

We all enjoyed it. Curtis and I ate all the veggies. J and M didn't eat the eggplant, onions, or peppers, but they did eat the tomatoes, squash, and mushrooms. It's pretty quick and easy summer meal. The most time intensive part was chopping the vegetables, the rest went quickly. I had all my ingredients in little bowls before hand so when I started cooking, I could be like a TV food show host---just dumping little bowls of food into the skillet. I think cooking is so much more fun that way!

Sicilian Stir-Fry
adapted from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics

1 T olive oil
1 c sliced onions
1/2 c celery or fennel, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 c sliced mushrooms
1 c sliced zucchini or summer squash
1/2 c sliced bell peppers
1 c diced eggplant
1/2 t fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 t salt
2 T dry red wine
1 c fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 T fresh basil, chopped
1 T capers
1/2 lb chunky pasta such as farfalle

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet on med-high heat. Add onions and cook 2 - 3 minutes. Add celery, garlic, and eggplant and stir-fry for 4 minutes (but do not brown). Add mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers, rosemary and salt and continue to stir-fry 2 -3 minutes. Stir in red wine, tomatoes, basil, and capers. Continue to stir fry another couple of minutes until every things hot and vegetables have released their juices. Serve over hot pasta and top with grated Parmesan if desired.

Beef Kebabs

The bell peppers are starting to accumulate in my fridge. My onion bowl in the pantry is getting fuller and fuller. My freezer is stuffed to the gills with meat. What in the world should I make for supper? Beef Kebabs! I used a sirloin steak (I know, I should have weighed it first to see how big it was. I am guessing between 1 - 2 lbs, it was rather large), mushrooms, bell peppers (green and purple), and onions. I thought about adding zucchini too, but I didn't think that would be something many of us would have enjoyed so I skipped it. We served these over rice with sides of baba ganoush and pita, and cucumber and tomato slices. Another nice easy summer meal that doesn't heat up the kitchen much on these 100+ degrees days that have become entirely too common this summer.

Beef Kebabs
adapted from Steven Raichlen's Barbeque Bible

1 -2 lbs sirloin steak or tenderloin, cut into 1" cubes
6 mushrooms, quartered
2 bell peppers, cut into chunks
1 medium or 2 small onions, cut into wedges

Marinade
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 c mixed fresh herbs: any combination of basil, parsley, rosemary, oregano
1 garlic clove, minced
coarse salt
black pepper

Drizzle olive oil over steak or tenderloin in a 9 x 13" pan. Toss with fresh herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper. Cover with foil and marinade in the refrigerator 1 - 2 hours. To prepare kebabs, alternate vegetables and beef. Cook on grill for 2 - 3 minutes per side (for a total of 10 - 12 minutes), until meat is cooked as desired and vegetables are tender.

Grilled Portabella Bulgur "Burgers"

This recipe looked wonderful when I found it on Epicurious. I love grilled portabellas and I was excited to find another use for zucchini and bell peppers.

To put it mildly, I absolutely destroyed the portabellas. I am going to blame it on being out of grilling practice. The mushrooms were charred, but very firm--not at all soft like they should have been. The filling was incredible--I ate leftovers for several meals. It was great. I'll probably try this recipe again because of how good the bulgur filling was. Next time I'll make sure I have the grill on very, very low heat (maybe even use indirect heat for a little part of the time...) and hopefully these will turn out better. Curtis also loved the filling and he could tolerate the mushrooms (which is more than I could do). J ate a little filling and M worked on part of a mushroom.

Grilled Portabella and Bulgar "Burgers"
from Gourmet

For tomato vinaigrette:
2 lg garlic clove
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
1/2 c parsley
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c red wine vinegar
1 T chopped fresh rosemary

For bulgar burgers
6 - 8 large portabella mushrooms, stems removed
1 sm onion, cut lengthwise into 1/2" wedges
2 med bell peppers, quartered lengthwise
1 med zucchini, halved lengthwise
1 1/2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 c boiling water
1 c bulgur
1/4 c pine nuts, toasted
2 1/2 oz arugula (4 c)
1 firm-ripe small avocado

To make vinaigrette, drop garlic into food processor with motor running, and finely chop. Add tomatoes, parsley, oil, vinegar, rosemary, 1/2 t salt, and 1/4 t pepper and pulse until tomatoes finely chopped, but not pureed.

To make the salad, toss the cleaned portabellas with a 1/2 c of the vinaigrette in a 13 x 9" baking dish and let stand, turning occasionally, 20 minutes. Toss onions, bell peppers, and zucchini with oil, 1/4 t salt, 1/8 t pepper. Oil grill rack, then grill vegetables, covered on a preheated gas grill to medium heat, until tender (6 - 8 minutes for peppers, 6 - 10 minutes for zucchini, 8 - 12 minutes for onion wedges, and 12 - 15 minutes for portabellas). Transfer the portabellas to a plate and the remaining vegetables to a bowl as they finish cooking. Cool slightly and then coarsely chop onions, peppers, and zucchini.

While vegetables cook, pour boiling water over bulgur with 1/2 t salt in a large bowl and let stand until water is absorbed and bulgur is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain in a sieve if any water remains. Add vegetables to bulgur with pine nuts and remaining vinaigrette and toss.

Put arugula on a platter. Top with an upside down portabella. Pack bulgur mixture into a cup measure and then unmold on top of portabella. Top with another portabella, right side up. serve with an avocado quarter.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

I adapted a recipe I found on epicurious for tonight's supper. I didn't use all of the broccoli---I am saving the rest to steam for lunch tomorrow to dip in my sesame mayonnaise. Mmm. We all enjoyed it. J ate mushrooms for the first time and even tried the broccoli, he liked it so well. A slice of grapefruit yogurt cake for dessert went perfectly to counter the saltiness of stir fry.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Marinade
1 lb flank steak (or other steak, I won't admit the expensive cut I used because that was all I had), thinly sliced
3 T water
1 T olive oil
1 T sesame oil
2 T soy sauce
2 t cornstarch

Sauce
6 T chicken broth
2 T soy sauce (I'll use less than this last time--it tasted too salty)
6 t cornstarch
1/4 c white wine
1 T fish sauce (or oyster sauce)
1 T + 1 t sesame oil
1/2 t sugar

Vegetables and such
1/2 - 1 lb broccoli, cut into florets
1/2 c chicken broth
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms

rice (cooked, start it cooking once beef is marinading in the fridge)

Combine marinade ingredients (except beef) in a large bowl. Add beef and stir to coat. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to dissolve cornstarch completely. You'll need to stir it well again right before adding to the stir fry. Heat 2 T oil in a large wok or heavy skillet over high heat. Add beef (discarding marinade) and stir fry until no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Transfer to platter (leaving juices in skillet). Add broccoli and stir fry 1 minutes. Add 1/2 c broth, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 1/2 minutes. Transfer broccoli to platter with beef (leaving juices in skillet). Add mushrooms and cook 2 minutes. Return beef and broccoli to skillet. Stir sauce, add to skillet, and stir until sauce thickens, a couple of minutes at the most. Serve immediately over cooked rice.

Homespun Pot Pie

This another wonderful winter meal. Curtis says it is one of his current favorites. On our good days, everyone likes this meal. It is chock full of veggies so it's fine by itself or with just a side salad. I made this for the in-laws so I added a side of roasted brussel sprouts and cauliflower.

There is a lot of flexibility in this recipe. The original recipe has no meat. I've made this meatless, with chicken, or this past time with leftover turkey I had frozen. Whatever root vegetables you have on hand you can add---just be sure to have 6 cups total of poultry and root vegetables. I almost always use sweet potatoes and white potatoes....the other 2 cups vary between poultry, kohlrabi, turnips, or parsnips. This can also be made ahead of time. Mix up the vegetables and save the biscuits to make until right before putting it in the oven.

Homespun Pot Pie
Vegetables
1 T olive oil
2 c onions, coarsely chopped
2 -3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t salt
1 t dried thyme (1 T fresh)
1 t dried marjoram (optional)
4 - 5 c mushrooms, sliced
1 T dijon mustard
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
2 c potatoes, chopped
2 c kohlrabi, peeled and chopped or 2 c cooked chicken/turkey or other root vegetable
1/2 t black pepper
3 c chicken stock
3 T cornstarch, dissolved in 1/2 c cold water
1 c frozen peas
1 c frozen corn kernels (optional)
1 T soy sauce
1/2 t salt

Biscuits
2 c flour
1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
6 T melted butter
1 c plain yogurt
1 t chopped fresh dill, or more (optional)

Warm the oil in a soup pot. Add the onions and garlic. Cover and cook on medium heat for 10 - 12 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the salt, thyme, marjoram, mushrooms, and mustard. Cook until the mushrooms start to release their juices, about 5 minutes. Add the root vegetables, chicken and broth and bring to a boil. Simmer 15 - 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Stir the dissolved cornstarch into the vegetables, stirring constantly. Once liquid starts to thicken, add remaining vegetables and seasonings. Pour into greased 9 x 13" baking pan. Set aside.

In a bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix together butter and yogurt. Combine the wet and dry ingredients with as few strokes as possible to make a wet dough. Drop biscuit batter over vegetables. Sprinkle with dill. Bake in a preheated 400 degrees oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until biscuits are cooked through. Serve immediately.

Mizutaki

My grandparents lived in Japan for a year (or two?) working in a school there. One of the things we gained from that experience was the festive dish of Skiyaki. I found this recipe a year ago. It is similar to skiyaki in that it is a communal meal--a hot pot in the center of the table to cook the food in. However, the cooking sauce is water and seaweed based instead of soy sauce based which reduces the salt considerably! I also like how this recipe uses more ingredients that may be found in Japanese cuisine instead of our very, very Americanized version.

All the work of this meal takes place in cutting the food for eating and making the dipping sauce. When it's time to eat, new ingredients as the old ingredients get eaten right out of the pot! It's a fun, festive, healthy meal. This time of the year, a lot of the ingredients can be found at the farmer's market. We used our leftover vegetables the next evening (mushrooms and leeks) on top of a pizza. We sat the kids at the end of the table, farthest away from the hot pot to prevent them from burning themselves. They both loved it. M especially liked the shrimp.

Mizutaki
Dipping Sauce
1/2 c fresh lime juice
2/3 c tamari soy sauce
1 T sake (or mirin)
1/2 c daikon, finely grated
2 t ginger root, peeled and finely grated
1/2 c chopped scallions

Liquid for hot pot
3 c water
8 -inch piece of dried konbu

Ingredients for cooking in hot pot
2 medium bok choy, cuting 2 inch pieces
4 bunches scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 leeks, well rinsed, tender white parts cut into rings 1/4" wide
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/2 pound spinach, washed and stemmed (we omitted and just used more bok choy)
1 cake tofu, pressed and cut into 1/2" cubes (I may or may not use next time....)
1 pound scallops
1/2 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined

4 - 6 servings of cooked rice

Slice and prepare vegetables, putting each a separate bowl. Prepare tofu and seafood, putting each in separate bowl. Refrigerate until everything is ready to cook.

For the dipping sauce, combine the lime juice, soy sauce, and sake in a saucepan and heat on low heat. In each of four individual bowls (or however many people that are eating--this will comfortably feed 4 - 6 adults), put 1 T grated daikon, 1/4 t of grated ginger root, and 1 T chopped scallions. To each bowl add 3 T of soy sauce mixture. Some extra dipping suace and garnishes will be left to freshen each bowl during the meal.

In a large shallow pan on a hot plate (or I've found a large electric skillet works great!) in the center of the table, heat the water and konbu until it begins to boil. Let it boil slowly for 2 minutes. Remove the konbu. During the meal, heat more water in the microwave to boiling and add to the skillet as needed. (The electric skillet should be set to around 250 degrees).

Once everyone is seated, beging cooking, adding the scallops and shrimp first, then the leeks and tofu, then the bok choy and mushrooms, then the scallions, and finally, just when everything is ready to eat, add the spinach.

To eat, remove desired ingredients from hot pot, dip into dipping sauce and put on top of rice (in a small bowl for each guest). Keep adding and removing ingredients as long as everyone is still hungry.