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1
Place the kombu and cold water in the donabe (clay pot). Set over medium heat. Bring slowly toward a simmer; remove the kombu just before the water reaches a full boil. Add the sake. The broth is ready when it is faintly fragrant and perfectly clear — not cloudy, not boiling hard.
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2
Add the daikon first, as it requires the longest cooking. Maintain a gentle simmer — the surface should tremble, not roll. Simmer until the daikon is just yielding when pressed with a chopstick, then add the napa cabbage, leeks, and firm tofu. The broth will begin to colour and deepen in aroma as these backbone vegetables release their character.
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3
This is where the dish lives or dies: the heat must be held at a gentle, steady simmer throughout the communal meal. A rolling boil will cloud the broth, toughen the proteins, and collapse the delicate ingredients. Adjust the burner continuously; the surface should show only lazy, intermittent bubbles.
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4
Lay the fish fillets or whole pieces gently across the simmering vegetables. Cover the pot briefly. The fish is done when the flesh turns opaque and yields without resistance at its thickest point — do not probe until that moment.
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5
Add the leafy greens and enoki mushrooms last, directly into the pot at the table. They require only moments in the broth: greens are ready when just wilted but still bright; enoki when softened but not collapsed.
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6
Once the principal ingredients have been eaten, proceed to the shime. Add the udon (or chosen noodles) to the now richly flavoured residual broth. Simmer until the noodles are tender and have absorbed the concentrated cooking medium — taste the broth directly at this point; it should be full, round, and deeply savoury, the sum of every ingredient that cooked within it.