Shabu Shabu Sunday

I'm lucky enough to live very near Atari-Ya - a wonderful Japanese supermarket in Acton, which caters for the needs of the large local Japanese population. This means I have access to superbly fresh sashimi, marinaded fish, Japanese vegetables and a plethora of ingredients, most of which I still haven't been able to identify. The staff are lovely, and have been very helpful each time I've turned up with a list of unpronounceable ingredients to find for a new recipe.

We headed off to Atari-Ya last Sunday to buy ingredients for our evening meal.

I enjoy Shabu Shabu. It's a 'lazy' meal for me, in that all I need to do is chop a few veggies, fry some tofu and put things on plates. It's also, however, a lovely meal to linger over, and each person can cook the ingredients they most enjoy.

I started by frying some firm tofu (having pressed it for an hour or so between sheets of kitchen paper, weighted by a few tins). I sprinkled some Togarashi on the tofu before frying to give it a bit of a kick.

Next the meats were arranged on a plate - I bought beef and pork, both labelled as Shabu Shabu cuts. Cut beautifully thin, this would take real patience to reproduce at home!

To make the stock, Kombu seaweed needs to be steeped in water for a few hours

Next, the veg plate. Shimeji and Shiitake mushrooms, Japanese leek, Chinese leaf, Udon noodles and the fried tofu.

The two classic dipping sauces (Goma Shabu and Pon Shabu - the former is sesame and the latter a seasoned soy) My Marmite XO sneaked in to the back of the picture, in rather better focus than the two bottles!

We started with Sashimi, also bought from Atari-Ya. A small selection, just salmon and smoked salmon tataki. The green salad front right is Hijiki seaweed.

The pot was then put on its base and switched on - the noise when it heats is like a very loud kettle. As it comes to the boil, the Kombu is removed, and any scum scraped from the top of the stock (known as Kombu-Dashi). It's then time to start dipping!

Dipping sauces ready to go!