Tomato hotpot

After what we (happily!) had for 2 days in a row (6 meals or more),  I know I need a cleansing treatment. And he needs it more.So I decided to make us something light with lots of fibers in it. Soup. I wanted soup.

I love garlic with all my taste buds and nose nerves. Really. Yet, peeling garlic isn`t my favorite part in cooking.

Now THIS is my joy! Sauteing them in hot oil.

So tonight is about tomato. Wash and chop`em. Lovely!
Drizzle honey and olive oil on them. No, this is a distraction. Wash and chop them, then go straightly to the pot.

 Then, saute them together with the garlic.

And mash them with your spatula until the juice is coming out and it starts looking like a gravy. I was so tempted to dip a biscuit or bread in it. Another distraction. But I didn`t. I`m a good girl, you know.

Next is shimeji mushroom. What a cutie! Remove the bottom first, please.

 Tear shimeji mushroom apart and throw into the tomato. Stir a while and pour in water. Don`t add water too much because there are still other ingredients coming in. After the water, throw in shiitake mushroom for extra flavor.
I kept promising my self that I would always soak my shiitake in water at least 30 mins before I use them. But that never happens. If you are a person with a strong willpower (unlike me), do soak them first. You`ll be rewarded with a much better soup. That`s what the mushroom packaging says.

Now the Crustaceans. Shrimp. Or prawns. I`ll be glad to hear that they are just the same thing.
Deshell (optional) and devein (always).

 Dump them in.
By the way, depend on how much water you poured in, the soup will be lighter and less red.

 One of my favorite non-leafy high fiber food. Konnyaku with hijiki seaweed. This has a strong smell that sometimes you need to blanch it in a hot water for a couple minutes. But mine was a ready-to-use one, so I just washed and skipped the blanching.

Dice it up and dump in to the soup. Look at the foam! I`m not happy.

Introducing (showing off) my new skimmer. Yay!
It`s a 100 yen (about 1 USD) skimmer. I have no idea why it took me so long to get this one.

Another fiber, white cabbage. Wash and cut up.

Start placing in the hard parts first.

Then, the thin and softer parts. If I were a princess, this would be my dress. Imagine how pretty I would be, twirling with my white cabbage.

The greenest part, last one. Add salt and pepper to taste. Believe me, no chili for me this time. Just this time. Maybe.

I feel cleansed already just by slurping it.

Ingredients:
Garlic
Tomato
Shimeji mushroom
Shiitake mushroom
Shrimp
Konnyaku
White cabbage
Salt pepper to taste