this is how i do it

this is one of my favorite japanese comfort foods (exit beef, enter tooofu!) and i wanted it SO bad so i made it. it was makeshift, because i didn't have all the ingredients.. but... whatever. it's all good. i actually paid attention to measurement too, cuz i wanna start writing down all my recipes. they can't all be "some salt" "a lil of this, a lil of that" "handful.." yada yada. for some reason people don't know exactly what "a splash of" such and such is, so FINE i'll play by your rules. for now.

vegetarian sukiyaki (i got nothin on Suehiro's sukiyaki. gawd i could do the backstroke in that broth)

broth:
1/2 cup sake
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup (low sodium) soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar ("melted" in a 1/2 cup of hot water)

innards:
1 whole block of tofu, cubed
1/2 head of cabbage (it'll cook down A LOT)
1 whole onion, sliced about.. 1/4" to 1/2" thick
and then... whatever other vegetables you want
i like to use bamboo shoots and carrots and lots of green onion

last night i used zuchini and broccoli too, but it wasn't my favorite. it flavored the broth too much with its... vegetableness. ha. sometimes i like to put noodles in it too, the glassy jelly-ish kind. shoot, what are they called? Shirataki, that's the kind i like. or you could use somen. but don't put the somen in til later, they only take a few minutes to cook.

assuming you don't have a traditional sukiyaki pan/pot thing, you're gonna need a largeish fry pan with a lid. and something with walls. like this:

get the broth brewing; just throw everything (the liquids, not EVERYTHING) in the pot and get it hot. then when you got that goin, put all of your veggies and other fixins in the pot, grouped. it's not a soup, don't just throw everything and stir it up. keep like items grouped; that way when you serve yourself you can get however much of something you want.

anywhat, get everything in there and then lid it, let it cook until everything is soft and yummy. check it after like... i dunno... 20 minutes or so. it shouldn't take TOO long to cook. just, you know, adjust according to your liking, and such. hahaha.

you could serve it in the pan at the table, and you and your friends can self-serve and be social and stuff. or if you're just cooking for yourself, just serve it in a bowl and have a bowl of rice on the side to drip the broth into. mmm.

and then do backstrokes in the broth.