Mille-Feuille Nabe
ミルフィーユ鍋·(mirufīyu-nabe)
Weekend Teppan & Hot Pots
Don’t let the fancy French name fool you. In Japan, this translates to 'a thousand leaves,' but it’s really the ultimate lazy-night, comfort-food secret born of a broke college student’s empty fridge. Western blogs will tell you to overcomplicate it with carrots, bok choy, and heavy chicken broths. Stop right there. Any Japanese grandmother will tell you the magic here is absolute restraint. Napa cabbage is ninety-five percent water. When tightly trapped in a pot with thinly sliced pork belly, they cook each other—the cabbage releases its sweet juices while the pork fat gently renders right into it. We use a low-water method, seasoned simply with sake and dashi, to coax a deeply savory, concentrated broth out of practically nothing. It’s remarkably cheap, it looks beautiful when it hits the table, and it tastes exactly like a cold winter night in Tokyo.
Before you start
Build the mille-feuille layers.
Lay one large cabbage leaf flat on a cutting board, arrange 2 to 3 slices of pork belly evenly over top, and cover with another cabbage leaf. Repeat until you have a stack of 4 leaves and 4 layers of pork, alternating the thick white stem ends with the thin green leafy ends so the stack remains level.
Cut the stacks into uniform sections.
Using a sharp knife, cut the layered stack crosswise into 2-inch wide sections. Repeat the stacking and cutting process until you've processed all the cabbage and pork.
Ingredients
- napa cabbage1 large
- pork belly1 1/2 lb
- water1 1/2 cup
- sake1/4 cup
- soy sauce1 tbsp
- Hondashi1 tbsp
- kosher salt1/2 tsp
- ponzu sauce1/2 cup
- scallion2 med
- yuzu kosho1 tbsp
- cooked white rice1 cup
Method
- 01
Pack the pot tightly.
Grab a wide, shallow pot or a 10-inch enameled Dutch oven. Stand the cut cabbage and pork sections up inside the pot, cut-side up, so the layers of pink meat and white cabbage are fully visible. Start at the outside edge and pack them tightly in a concentric circle, working toward the center.
- 02
Add the broth base.
Whisk together the water, sake, soy sauce, Hondashi, and salt, then pour it evenly over the cabbage and pork. It will look like entirely too little liquid, but trust the process. The cabbage will release a massive amount of its own water as it cooks.
- 03
Simmer gently using the low-water method.
Place the pot over medium-high heat until you hear it bubbling and see steam rising. Immediately cover the pot with a lid, drop the heat to medium-low, and let it gently steam for 15 to 20 minutes until the pork is cooked through and the cabbage is incredibly tender.
- 04
Serve directly from the pot.
Bring the cooking vessel straight to the dining table. Pull the tender layers out with chopsticks, dunk them in individual bowls of ponzu sauce, and hit them with sliced scallions and a dab of yuzu kosho.
- 05
Finish with the shime.
When the meat and cabbage are gone, return the pot of deeply concentrated, pork-infused broth to the stove. Bring it to a boil, dump in the cold white rice, and simmer until hot for the best part of the meal.
Notes
Don't overcomplicate the pot.
Adding extra vegetables like carrots or bok choy disrupts the architectural integrity of the thousand leaves and dilutes the pure synergy between the cabbage water and rendering pork fat.
Sourcing the right pork is critical.
Hit up the local Asian market for pre-packaged shabu-shabu pork belly. If you strike out, ask your local butcher to run a fresh pork shoulder across their deli slicer to get it paper-thin. Thick American bacon will absolutely not work.
The pot must be packed tight.
As the cabbage cooks and releases its water, it shrinks dramatically. If there is empty space in the pot, the beautiful layers will collapse into a messy soup.
From Cook Japanese in America.