Kinoko Nabe - Japanese Mushroom Hot Pot

Flowers are fleeting, cast iron is forever.
And so my love, my Valentine, bought for me this beautiful red shallow pot for Valentine's Day. (It does have a lid, 'cause I know that is something you want to know!)
Anyhoo.. the pot was perfect for making a Japanese Hot Pot, wherein the ingredients are artfully arranged in a delicious broth. This being my first hot pot, I went for a mixed mushroom style.
It is served at the table, often with noodles on the side that can be put into the remaining broth to sop up its goodness. For condiment I served it with sriracha. Yum!

Kinoko Nabe
Mushroom Hot Pot
adapted from Japanese Hot Pots
Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat

First you will have to make the dashi - stock

Dashi
8 cups water
2 6-inch pieces kombu
1½ oz dried, shaved bonito (about 3 packed cups)
Let kombu steep in the 8 cups of water in a pot for 30 minutes. Turn on heat, bring to a boil, remove kombu and add bonito. Stir and reduce heat when it returns to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes, skimming foam. Turn off heat and let steep 15 minutes. Strain without pressing on the bonito flakes. Discard bonito.

Mushroom Hot Pot
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 cups dashi
1 cup sake
½ cup mirin
½ cup soy sauce
½ pound napa cabbage, sliced (I subbed in some baby bok choy)
½ pound (approx.) firm tofu, cut into large squares
½ pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, sliced thick
½ pound oyster mushrooms, trimmed and pulled apart
3 ½ oz shimeji mushrooms trimmed and pulled apart (not sure what this is.. I used portobello, sliced)
7 oz enoki mushrooms, trimmed and pulled apart
½ pound spinach, stemmed

Directions
Prepare the broth by combining the dashi, sake, mirin, and soy sauce in a bowl; reserve.
Add the cabbage and tofu to a hot pot and pour in the broth. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes more.
Uncover the hot pot and add the shiitake mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms, piling them randomly on top of the other ingredients. Cover the pot and simmer for 5 minutes more. Uncover the pot, add the spinach, and simmer for 1 minute more.
Transfer the hot pot to the dining table.

Kinoko Nabe for Souper Sundays with Deb of Kahakai Kitchen