Japanese nabe (hot pot), a dish where raw ingredients are cooked in a pot in front of the diner and eaten as each item cooks through, is the ultimate comfort meal on a cold winter night.
Nabe is warming, hearty and packed with vegetables and protein, which makes it healthy to boot. Most of all, it is really easy to prepare, even for the inexperienced cook. In most cases, all you need to do is some cutting and chopping before bringing everything to the table. The actual cooking itself becomes a fun group activity instead of a tedious chore.
Nabe cooking as we know it today got its start in the Edo Period (1603-1868), when hot pot meals were cooked on sunken open hearths called irori. However, this kind of cooking never really caught on in Edo and other urban centers (although some restaurants offered single-serving nabe) since open-hearth cooking was a fire hazard.