Name: “Snow” Hot Pot with Mountain Yam
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 4 oz/115 g fresh shitake mushrooms, stemmed; 1 naga negi or large leek, white and light green part only, trimmed and cut on the diagonal into ovals ¼ in/6 mm thick; 1 lb/455 g large sea scallops, small, tough connective tissue removed and halved horizontally; 1 tsp. kosher or fine sea salt; 1 tbsp. light soy sauce; ¼ cup/60 ml. mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine); 4 cups dashi (see Cook’s Note); 1 lb/455 g nagaimo or yamaimo; One 1-oz/30-g package mitsuba, leaves plucked and stems cut into 1-in/2.5-cm pieces; 8 oz/225 g napa cabbage, cut into 1-in/2.5-cm pieces; One 7-oz/200-g package enoki mushrooms, trimmed and pulled apart

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Roots

By Diane Morgan

Published 2012

About

The recipe for a “snow” hot pot in Japanese Hot Pots, by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, intrigued me. It called for mountain yam (nagaimo) in a way I had never used it: coarsely chopped and then liquefied in a blender. Here, I pour the blended yam over simmering dashi laced with scallops, napa cabbage, and shiitake and enoki mushrooms, creating a layer of “snow” on top. It’s an aesthetic touch that is at once poetic and unfamiliar to the Western palate. Look for the mitsuba<