“Huge scorpion” and “walking mushroom” hot pot (Episode 1)

Recipe partially inspired by the Delicious in Dungeon live tasting event at Otakon 2024

Ingredients

Broth

• Two litres of kombu dashi (I used Just One Cookbook’s recipe)
• Enough lobster base for 2 litres of water (I used Better than Bouillon’s)

Hot pot ingredients

• 20oz of lobster (I used Bahamian lobster tails from a Costco)
• 300g shiitake mushrooms
• At least 150g of shimeji or seafood mushrooms
• 2 yams
• 300g bok choy
• 300g Shirataki noodles

Instructions

Prepping your ingredients

1. Wash your vegetables.
2. Remove the stems from the shiitake. Cut x-shaped indents in the tops.
3. Remove the base from the shimeji mushrooms and separate the stalks.
4. Cut off the bok choy root and pull apart the leaves.
5. Peel and cube the yams.
6. Open all the shirataki packets and drain the liquid.
7. If using Bahamian lobster tails, cut the tail into halves or thirds depending on how large the lobster tail is.

Making the broth + poaching the lobster

1. After steeping the kombu, bring the dashi to a boil on medium-low.
2. Stir in the lobster base once it’s boiling.
3. Add lobster tails and cook for 3-5 minutes in the broth.

Assembling your soup

1. Bring your soup to a boil on your hot pot burner
2. Add in your ingredients. If you like, you can arrange them as if the appear in the show.
3. Your lobster is safe when the shell is bright red. Remove this immediately, especially if you’re using Bahamian lobster.

You will obviously have more than enough to go around. That is normal.

Notes

• Lobster base substitute: boil shrimp shells into stock, or use either seafood or chicken stock as a substitute. However, this will change the flavour profile.
• You can use yam noodles if you can’t find shirataki noodles.
• We supplemented this hot pot with oyster mushrooms and kelpie meat (sliced beef).